A CORRECTION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12636, 25 October 1905, Page 7

A CORRECTION.

To the Editor.

S:r, —The paragraph in this morning's " Chronicle," taking from the Wellington "Evening Post," id interesting, but that paper makes a great mistake in stating that James Collins, who was executed in the Terrace Prison on 20th January, 1862, was a colour-sergeant of the 70th Regiment. Collins was a colour-sergeant of the 65th Regiment—• the "Tigers," as tlhey were also called. I was here in Wanganui, clerk in the

Customs and P.O. Departments, at the time when the tragic event took place, 14th November, lttb'l, and have a distinct recollection of-hearing a rifle shot in 'the distance, which turned out to be the fatal shot that deprived Ensign William Alexander of his life. It would take up tuo much of your valuable space jto narrate all the o.roumstances which •led to the terrible crime referred to, suffice it to say (that Collins at the time was in disgrace witlh his colonel and the other officers of the detachment —Grenadier and light companies of the 65th Regiment—for irregularities and dis-

crepancies in his company's pay-sheets and for inebriety, etc., for which he was severely rebuked and lectured by Ensign Alexander, the adjutant of the garrison, on the day that the tragedy ocourred. Stung by the reproaches and reproofs of his superior officer (they had grown up and been comrades together lin the regiment during previous years ■of Service), Collins, as scon as the pai rado was disimissed inside the old Rutj land 'Stockade, went, up to a ooma-ade, asked him for his rifle, whicih he there iand then deliberately loaded, then ' marched up to the open, door of tho j orderly-room, where Ensign Alexander ! was 'sitting at bis table writing out orders, etc. Collins (raised tho deadly weapon to his shoulder, and saying, " Alexander, you are a dead man," shot his officer through the heart. Others, :of course, rushed into the room. Collins gave himself up, handing the still smoking rifle back to the man he got it from, iand exclaiming, " Thank God, I have , rid the regiment and the army of a , tyrant," was marched off to the guard- ' room aiid placed in irons. He was ■■ afterwards handed oven.1 to the civil ' power, commiitted for trial at the Supreme Court, Wellington; confessed, convicted, and later on was hanged inside the Terrace Prison walls, as stated iby the "Post." I knew both Alexander 'and Collins personally, the former intimately, and two finer looking, handsomer "soldiers of the Queen'j I suppose never went on parade in New Zealand; at any rate, not in Wanganui, where both were* stationed for several years.—lam, etc., JAS. GARLAND WOON. Campbell Street, October 24, 1905. Note. —The military authorities about : the time above referred to made a great ! mistake in retaining Ensign Alexander !dn the same regiment—the 65th —in ; which he had served with Collins, after getting his Ensign's commission. He | should (have been transferred to another regiment. The 70th Regiment, I may , here mention, was not in New Zealand ;at the time of the sad tragedy; they ! came to the colony from India in 1862 'or 1863.