WELLINGTON.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 487, 6 April 1869, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

THE EXECUTION OF WHAKA MAU. (FBOM OTJB OWN COBBESrONDENT.) March 29. The principal event of the last few days in Wellington has been the ex=ecution of the Maori, Whaka Mau, on Tuesday last, for the murder of Korncrop at Ohau on the 23rd of last November. The morning was lovely, and it seemed desecrated by such an act. The sun was shining brilliantly, the air was soft and still, and the contrast between all outside the gaol and the gloomy darkness which prevailed inside was painful. On presenting at the gate of the gaol my sheriff's order I was admitted, and the turnkey, asking me in a subdued voice to follow him, led me along one corridor into another running at right angles to the first. At the end of the second one was erected the fatal platform, with its hideous beam and rope, occupying the entire width of the corridor. There were few people present, only one or two besides the sheriff, some police, and the officers of the prison. The condemned man had been, a short time previously, removed from his own cell to the debtors' room, where the Ven. Archdeacon Hadfield, who had attended him since his incarceration, was talking earnestly to him. At exactly half-past eight o'clock the gaoler knocked at the door, and the turnkey who was inside with the prisoner brought him out. The Sheriff then gave the gaoler the writ for the execution, and the executioner (who was attired in the prison dress and had a hideous white cap, with two holes in front for his eyes, over his head) came forward and pinioned the prisoner's arms, and tied about his head a white cloth, to be drawn over his face on the scaffold. The Rev. A. Stock, the chaplain to the gaol, who was present in full canonicals, commenced reading in a solemn voice the Church of England service for the burial of the dead, and the fearful procession moved on towards the scaffold. I was close to the prisoner, and as we turned down the corridor which brought the platform full in view, I narrowly watched his face for any signs of emotion. But there was none to see. He walked as steadily and firmly as possible, and seemed the least concerned of those present. Quickly and firmly he mounted the steps down which he was never to walk, and took his stand underthehorridmortal coil. The executioner then tied his feet together, drew down the cloth over his face, adjusted the noose, and descended from the platform. Everything was silent. Scarcely a breath was heard, save the solemn voice of the chaplain reading the service. Suddenly he made a sign, the executioner turned a screw, the platform fell with a crash that almost drowned the twang of the rope and the dull thud as the body heavily fell; and, after a few convulsive jerks, Whaka Mau had paid the fearful penalty of his crime. At a few minutes past ten o'clock the coroner held an inquest over the body, when the jury decided that the deceased was hanged in due course of law. The body was then put into a shell which was filled up with quicklime, and in the evening it was buried in a yard within the precincts of the gaol beside the grave of the only other man who has been hanged in Wellington—Sergeant Collins, who was executed for shooting, at Wanrranui, Lieutenant Alexauder of the 65th regiment. The executioner was a man who came down from Auckland and applied for the work—effering to do it for £lO. Curiously enough there were many applicants for this horrid office; one old man eighty years of age having walked in forty miles, the day previously,inhopes of " getting the job ;" and as I left the gaol, after all was over, I saw him standing near and looking thorough disappointed. And now to pass on to a pleasanter subject. The Ruahine arrived here yesterday from Sydney, and, brought despatches to the Governor definitely stating that the Duke would arrive in Wellington on the 6th of the present month, and that he would not this time spend more than three weeks in New Zealand. " This time " seems to indicate that we may expect another visit before very long. The Provincial Council is in session, but nothing has yet been done beyond refusing to vote £2OO for the reception of the Duke, on the score of poverty. I see you have copied the paragraph which has gone the rounds of the papers here respecting quartz reefs in the Wainui-o-mata, only a few miles from here. From time to time the papers have indulged here in sensational paragraphs respecting gold found at Terawiti, Manawatu, Wainui, and, in fact, all over the province. No one doubts the fact of the bare color being found, but so also can it be found nearly all over New Zealand. Its being in payable quantities is altogether another matter. As reegards this last sensation about the quartz reef, not one particle of gold has ever been seen, and Mr Skey, whose name in connection with the matter has been pretty freely used, has never said that any certain quantity of gold to the ton would be yielded. In fact he has no means of ascertaining the richness or the reverse of the quartz, and all that has been said has been mere guess work, on no foundation whatever.

The Assembly, by a recent Gazette, is still further prorogued till tbe 15th May. It is generally known that it will not meet till June.