THE KYEBURN TRAGEDY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 14

THE KYEBURN TRAGEDY.

With the innocent blood of the Dewars yet crying aloud for vengeance, we find ourselves face to face with the cruel murder of a helpless woman at the Kyeburn, and again unable to meet the loud cry of offended justice, the result of the coroner's inquiry throwing only a faint light on the perpetrators of this deed. The whole police force of the districts adjacent are, we believe, being stimulated to their utmost energies, and there must be neither slackening nor failing in the hot hue-and-cry until the wretched villain, be he yellow or white, is caught, and tried (of course he must have fair play), and finally disposed of. In the horror and disgust of the moment we feel inclined to suggest, by way of a little relief, a perusal of "Alice through the Looking-glass" to the judge, the jury, the counsel, and the executioner. In that enchanting day-dream the guilty prisoner is first hanged, then tried, and finally commits the crime ; and even this slightly hasty procedure, omitting the denouement, would seem at the first blush justifiable in the case of Mrs Young's murderer or murderers. But we have no desire that the law should take any but its ordinary course : let Chinese and Europeans alike come under its strict impartiality, but the authors of this murder must be found. The subtle difference between the most unmistakable moral guilt, and the insufficiency of " legal evidence to convict," may afford the keenest delight to forensic minds, but the distinction is one which most people will consider does not or ought not to exist. At present the case looks very much as if it were going to end like the Dewar case, and that another tiger is to be let loose on the community, this time without even the second chain whioh fortunately happened to be attached to the leg of the gentleman who is responsible for the above definition of a murderer. The dark mysteries in the history of crime that have never been unveiled are familiar to all; but it is a terrible thought that two such murders as those in Cumberland street and Kyeburn, discovered in all their new and ghastly horror, within a few hours of their perpetration, can take place unavenged in a country like this, where the means of escape or of concealment in the dens of large cities are impossible. The consequences of a second failure of justice, if once considered, will be lamentable. The criminal who robs your house, the discharged servant who has a grudge against you, will no longer be satisfied to stop at an assault; he will murder you, as the Burest, most workmanlike, and —safest plan. He knows you will eventually bring him to justice if he only assaults you, but he has good grounds for believing that if he gives you your quietus there will never be forthcoming from other sources " sufficient legal evidence" to convict him. We hope it is clear that we are not arguing at all in favour of the ethics of Judge Lynch, but we are arguing that the safety of the community requires a degree of vigilance and acumen to be exercised by the police and the detectives that has not been conspicuous in a former case.