THE SUPPOSED MURDER OF MR. DOBSON.

West Coast Times, Issue 236, 25 June 1866, Page 2

THE SUPPOSED MURDER OF MR. DOBSON.

Tho following article, which will be read with some interest, we abridge

from tho " Otago Daily Times," tho portions omitted being extracts from our own papers :—: — We have published, in a telegram aud in other ways, that Mr George Dobson — who was connected with the Survey Department of Canterbury, and was tho son of the Chief Surveyor of that Province— had started one evening to go a fow miles on the Grey Diggings, and hail not afterwards been heard of Search parties were sent out, but they searched uselessly ; and a general fear had come to be entertained at the date of the last papers from Greymouth, that Dobson had been mistaken for a gold buyer, and had been murdered by some of the desperate men known to be in the district. We regret to say that there is now reason for supposing that that belief was correct; for last evening, a telegram was received from Canterbury, by the Commissioner of Police, stating that •* Warrants have been issued by the bench at Greymouth, for tho arrests of the persons described below, charged with having murdered George Dobson, on tho 29th ult." The persons named are three" daring scoundrels well known in Otago, being no others than Richard Burgess alias Hill, Thomas Kelly alias Hannon, and John Joseph Sullivan, who, in the early days of Gabriel's Gully, stuok up some men near Wetherstone's, and afterwards fired upon tho police. The men aro thus described in the telegram : — Burgess : 36 years of ago, sft 4£in high, fresh complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes ; has a gunshot wound on tho back. — Kelly : 39 years of age, sft sJfin high, sallow complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, face wrinkled ; marked with a mermaid and sailor on the right arm, and a cross on the breast — Sullivan: 40 years of age, sft 9in high, fair oomplexion, stout build, short brown hair, inclined to grey, long face, square forehead, blue eyes, firm mouth, small fair whiskers, no moustache, broad shoulders ; has the appearance of an " old hand " The three men were captured here*, by Sergeant Bracken (now of Hokitika), and Sorgt. Trimble. The officers traced them to a tent at the outskirts of Wethorstone's; but they boltod as the officers ncared the tent, and Burgess (or Hill) and Kelly (or Hannon) escaped, Trimble had previously noticed a very lonely tont four or five miles from Wetherstone's and he mado up his mind to search it. Ho and Bracken got to the tent just before daylight. Bracken got off his horse, undid tho tent, crept in, revolver in hand, and found the two men asleep. They awoke to find themselves completely covered by Bracken's revolver; and they believed in the earnestness of Bracken's threat, that tho first that stirred would certainly die on the instant, and that tho ohances were strongly in favor of the fate of the second being similar. Meanwhile, Trimble had cropt in behind tho villains, and taken from under their.

heads two revolvers and two guns. Then, their capture was easy, Burgess and Kelly were found guilty df showing with iiitent to kill, aha also of stealing a gun; and they were sentenced to penal servitude for three years and a half. They were discharged from prison on the 11th September last. Early in 1863, Burgess one or twice oaused great danger } in 1 , tlie Dudedin gaol. Once, he contrived to communicate with the notorious Garrett and others, so as to concert a breaking out ; and he contrived to break through a thick stone wall and to enter the adjoining coll. On another occasion, he and Garrett each barricaded the door of his cell, and set the officers at defiance until the doors had been battered down. Those dpors, and those in the goal, then opened inwards— a stupid arrangement, which was speedily altered. Burgess was flogged ; and .he ; bore his punishment with seeming indifference. It may be said Here, that Garretf; who for a long while absolutely would do no wdrlt of any kind, has for some time worked regularly and hard. Sullivan was found not guilty; and as soon as he was at liberty he sailed for Sydney. The telegram received last evening was the first intimation to the police here that he had returned to New Zealand ; and now, unfortunately, ho and his mates are charged with murder. All three of the men have undergone long periods of penal servitude in Victoria ; and Burgess's wound^iri the back was received while he and several others were attempting to escape from the hulk in Hobson's Bay. Burgess was formerly a mate, of the notorious Capt. Melville ; and he has the reputation pf being one of the most cool and rfaring criminals in the Australian Colonies. It may be added that, after the arrest of the three villain's here in, Otrtgo; it was ascertained that theY Had been 1 some time waiting for a favorable opportunity of sticking up a gold-buyer who was in the habit of passing from Wetherstone's to Waipori.