MYSTERY MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 129, 3 June 1935, Page 8

MYSTERY MURDER.

CHINESE TERRIFIED. PJ.S.W. POLICE BAFFLED. TRAGEDY ON DARK EVENING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 28. Last Friday evening, after dusk, a Chinese market gardener was murdered near Camden under circumstances that have been engaging the attention of a large force of detectives and police ; officials ever since. It seems that some 13 Chinese are partners in a market garden of 45 acres, situated not far from Camden (about 40 miles south-west of Sydney) and about a mile from the main road. Ko Mingh, the victim of the murder, joined the others about three weeks ago, and they seem to have lived comfortably and amicably enough in the usual tumble-down shacks with which such allotments are studded. On this eventful night nine of the men were engaged in loading vegetables on to a lorry for the Sydney market, with a European helping . them; three others were at Camden, and one was in the cookhouse preparing their dinner. After dark word came that the meal was ready, and the workers then moved off toward the shack, in their usual single file; Ko Mingh was leading, a little ahead, but hidden from the others by the shadows, when suddenly they heard him cry out in pain. Hurrying forward they caught sight of him lying on the ground, with a man who, they assert, was a- European, standing over him. As soon as Ko Ming's assailant saw the others approaching, he turned upon them brandishing a hatchet or chopper in his hand. Several of them fled into the darkness, and hid among the rows of vegetables, while three or four ran back to Moss, the European employee. "White man killee Ko Mingh" was their cry, and at first Mos-s thought that they were joking. But arming themselves with sticks they led him back to Ko Mingh, and Moss examined the victim.

Rain of Ferocious Blows. The man's left hand was almost severed, and his skull was split in several places by the ferocious blows rained upon him. Terrified by this horrible tragedy, the Chinese scattered in various directions, calling for help. Some of them told a European living close at hand, and he was able to ring up the police. But more than two hours elapsed before the officers of the law could arrive, and by that time the murderer had made good his escape. Very great difficulty has been experienced by the investigators because the Chinese gardeners understand very little English. They maintain that the assailant was a white man, but the police believe that he is a Chinaman — a theory which seems to be supported by the use of the chopper, which is a t favourite weapon with Cantonese | "hatchet men." But all attempts to' secure clues, or even to extract a cohe- > rent account of the tragedy from the Chinese, have so far failed. By daybreak on Saturday 30 detectives and uniformed men drawn from Parramatta, Liverpool and Camden had begun an intensive search for the murderer. They examined and sounded all, the waterlioles, and "combed" the banks of the Xepean and the adjacent scrub. From the hurried glimpse that the Chinese caught, the mysterious assailant seems to have been clad only in singlet and trousers, wearing sandshoes, but the Chinese were so far paralysed with terror that their evidence was hardly convincing. All through Friday night they cowered in their hut, while the police kept guard round a fire in the open. The panic extended to the Europeans in and about Camden, most of whom slept behind carefully-barred doors.

Englishman Also Terrified. Moss, the Englishman who wa3 at work with the Chinese when the tragedy happened, seems almost as perturbed as they are. He had intended to take up market gardening, and for that purpose he had secured employment with- the Orientals, whose industry and horticultural skill he admires greatly. But he was so unnerved by the sudden perpetration of this sanguinary crime that he cannot sleep by himself. He has been on guard with the police outside the hut, and as soon as the investigation is over he means to leave the district. By Sunday not loss than 00 men were engaged in the search, but though they spent a miserable day and night under soaking rain, mostly in the wet bush, nothing was achieved. The Chinese apparently think that the murderer has a grudge against all their race, and they have implored the police to stay and guard them. "He come back, kill us," is their appeal. The white people in the vicinity incline to the view that the "wanted" man, whether white or yellow, is a maniac—a suggestion which naturally has not conduced to the general peace of mind. The police still believe that the murderer is Chinese, and they have been trying to find out if any quarrels, over pakapoo or any similar cause of dispute, have occurred locally of late. It seems that even in this little community there are two or three factions—small "tongs," in fact—and the persistent feuds that often divide Chinese septs and clans may have broken out here. But no hypothesis yet suggested has so far led the police to any tangible result, and though the detectives are still scouring the Camden district the C.1.8. evidently feels that investigation here has led them to a dead end, and it has just been announced that the search for the murderer is now being extended "to other States."