LATEST AUCKLAND NEWS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1573, 3 August 1882, Page 3

LATEST AUCKLAND NEWS. [BY TELEGRAPH. — OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Auckland, Last Night. Presbyterian Minister for Waikato. At a meeting of the Presbytery to-day, the Church Extention Committee reported that Mr Neville had been appointed to the charge of Waikato West, and it was resolved to recommend the committee to pay Mr Neville's first month's salary. The Epsom Murderer. There were several applications for the position of hangman at the forthcoming execution, but the duty will be performed by a prisoner now in Mount Eden who acted in a similar capacity for Hiroki. Winiata stills persists in denying his guilt, and charging the crime upon the half-caste, though his statements about the latter are very contradictory. There appears to be no foundation whatever for the statement circulated that the relatives of the condemned man and the Kingites regard the sentence as "kolmro." Information derived from various sources tends to the conclusion that they believe Winiata guilty, and that his punishment is deserved. The prisoner has received two letters during the present week from his brothers in Waikato. They urge him in these epistles to be courageous under his trials, and desiring him "Be thou strong." No mention is made of any objection to the course of the law, nor of their intention to be revenged upon the Europeans, and the inference is that they also believe their brother guilty. An influential chief writing to a friend in Auckland, states his conviction that Wiuiata committed the crime, and must therefore bear the punishment.