Auckland Echoes.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4243, 7 August 1882, Page 2

Auckland Echoes.

(fbom oub semi-occasional cobbesponDENT.) So the convicted murderer Winiata is to meet his doom on Friday next. I have had a conversation with one of, the clergymen in attendance on the criminal, and he informs me that Winiata still firmly protests his innocence, and sticks to the cock-and bull stories about, the murder being committed by a half-caste, and about the blood on his clothes being that of a flatfish be bad speared on the evening before the murder The first of these stories is very improbable, but there is proof that the second is absolutely incorrect. On the night before the murder Winiata attended Mr E. D... Davis' ventriloqoial entertainment^ re* turning home at midnight, and lying down in bed with his Sunday clothes on, so that he could not possibly have been at the Manakau on piscatorial pursuits. •

A notable instance of a murderer assert' ing bis innocence till the last moment was supplied by the case of Dyer, hanged some seven years ago for the murder of his mistress at Pakiri, by pouring kerosene on the unfortunate woman and then applying a light. When the Judge pronounced the. sentence of death, the prisoner said, pointing to one of the witnesses—"l will die an innocent man —that man has sworn my life away." He maintained his innocence till ha reached the scaffold, and when the executioner was pinioning him, he whispered into the ear of Bishop Cowie, "I did it." On© notable feature of this diabolical case was that the unfortunate woman (who, by the way, was the neice as well as the mistress of her murderer) endeavored, while in the throes of death, to exonerate the guilty wretch. She said, "He did it by accident," and then fell back a corpse. Such is the constancy and love of woman! f

The fact that the notorious swindler Harj>?»has escaped the consequences of ,• his inisdeeVJs^.^ another proof of the - necessity for assimilating the criminal and bankrupt cy laws of the several cdlonias of the Australasian Group. Without onlarging on the point raised, I tfiU "simply | remark that the Statute Book of South 1 Australia appears a fearful and'wonderful composition. ' A man sells some- propertythat does not belong to him, bolts with the money, and is caught with the coin in his possession. He has^raviously gone bankrupt in the place nY which he .is captured, and his creditors there are per* mitted to seize the money and take a s liare of it with the persons from whom it was actually stolen. TJa^^fM^a system, the effect of which is atikftg described, should a thief pilfer half-i|sfsJfen watches, one of which is subsequently recdvered, all the persons whose "tickers" were stolen are allowed to participate in the solitary watch rescued from the purloiner. Such is the deduction I draw from the decision of the Adelaide Supreme Court, and if it is law, it is not justice, or even common sense. The following partuv^js of Harjes' career, elicited at his exaMHF* tion at Adelaide, may be of interest:—He came from Germany to £outh Australia in 1874 with £50 in his pockets, and after school teaching for a couple of years commenced basiness. He imported cigars from Germany, and in this fine '• let in " a relative for a goodly sum. In 1880 he left Adelaide suddenly, leaving as keepsakes liabilities amounting to £1486. When he landed in Auckland^, with his wife he had but £6, and for some time lived on the sale of his wife's jewellery. He then obtained employment at J£ummer and Go.'s, and when that firm went insolvent, he bought the book debts, representing £2000, and a portion of the stock, for £405. Of course he declined to answer any questions that might tend to criminate himself, but it is evident from the facts that have been elicited that his swag amounted to over £3OCO. It is surmised that his faithful spouse has got the money in her keeping, and no doubt with her dear Simon Peter, she is "cutting a dash " at the expense of the uasophis* ticated New Zealanders.

The following is the recommendation given lately by a lady to her departing servant:—" The bearer has been in my house a yeer—minus eleven months. During this time she has shown herself diligent—at the house door: frugal—in work : mindiul—of herself: prompt—in excuses : friendly—towards men: faithful —to her lovers -.and honest—when every* thing had vanished."