AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume III, Issue 292, 7 October 1863, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

THE EXECUTION OF HARPER. [From the Daily Southern Cross, September 23.] At a quarter past six o'clock yesterday morning, Richard Harper, butcher, aged thirty-three years, suffered the extreme penalty of the law at the Mount Eden Stockade. The crime for which he suffered was that of murdering his wife, Jane Alice Harper, on the 16th of June last, in Edward-street, and as there may possibly be many of our readers unacquainted with the details of the tragedy, we avail ourselves of this opportunity of recapitulating the leading facts. For some time previous to the 16th of June, Harper carried on business as a butcher in Queen-street, and his wife Jane Alice Harper lived separate from him. She had borne two children to him, the eldest being now about eighteen months, and the youngest an infant, He had frequently visited her, and on the Sunday previous to her death he was with her some time at her lodgings.. Before he came away they appeared to have quarrelled, and Mrs. Harper ran away from him into a neighbor's house, and there stated that he had exhi-

bitcd a knife to her, and th; On the following Tuesday June, he again called at the ] a wish to tho landlady, Mr wife. Mra. Harper endeavc self from his view, but ultiiu; to him at the back door, an her hat and cloak and p; with him. They remained together for about ten mil stabbed her witu a butcher' and back, and death must I stantaneous. Harper aft< carry the body of tho dccc J ment, and he was then tal the police. His trial on Supreme Court took place c on being found gnilty and he was at once conveyed Stockade. During the gre day his time was employed works, and in writing a lonj At intervals he appeared soi at other times suffering uti pression. The Rev. T. Ha the evening, staying until a engaged with him in praye culprit appeared very penii Hamer left, he (Harper) rer he had wittten for his fi request to Mr. Hamer tc Mr. Hamer having taken h went to sleep about one o'cl four o'clock. Shortly afte: at his request, he was su broad and butter, of wliii leg-irons were afterwards Rev. J. F. Lloyd, of St P about live o'clock, aud was by the Rev. Mr. Carr, of sion. The culprit entered with the reverend gcntlemc ance was truly penitent, assisted by Mr. Oarr, then sacrament, and the last mo earthly existence having hangman was ushered into gaolors, and Harper subm pinioned behind his bad cell was situate at the no palisading. It was boardec thus rendeiing it impossibl in the yard on the Kyber Eden, to sec the scaffold, civilians, and half, a dozen ] and the gaolers, comprise* the prisoners were confini many were enabled to see thereto through the gral morning was one of theme could be imagined, from th that prevailed, and in epite nature of the eyecution, a of persons gathered on the overlooking the stockade, a watching for the processio: passage leading to the eel minutes past six o'clock i jj'lynn, came out of the doomed man, the Rev. M his left hand, and the R right; then followed Mr. the executioner. The pro slow step, and the Rev. aloud the burial service im the scaffold were reached, his cell the doomed man c; ground, and with head bei half the distance to the s versed. He then raised upwards and appeared to 1 moved, but he did not utte habited in a black surl clothes similar to those hi prehended on the charge oJ at the foot of the steps lea< fervently shook the hai Lloyd and the Rev. Mr. Ct ing the hand of Mr. Lit pocket book containing letl betwetn him and his un Flynn was the first to as< followed by Harper, Mr. i man The Rev. Mr. Lloy a moment's hesitation, also and Harper was then plac< The hangman was in the a when the unhappy man ap seized with a slight faintin fallen had he not been cat the arms of the executioi only momentary, and he n was again placed on the drawn over his face, the i bolt being withdrawn, ; accomplished his work, a paid the penalty for his < about six feet, and death n taneous. The instant befc drawn he exclaimed, "Oh "Lord have mercy on nr his last words. The be hang an hour, and was ' placed in the coffin und< Philson, provincial surgeoi and pronounced life to 1 several conversations Harp and turnkeys of the stocka he had "no right" to die i penal servitude for life- w ciently severe puniflhmen Flynn received a letter for a messenger by the Owen ported to be written by Mi Fetter-lane, London. Hai had been married in Londc letter, in 1857. That he 1 had intended to return t met with his unfortunate w stated, knew he was a man stated, that when his late in Sydney, on her way hoi his wife Rachel to come ou but on the return' of the t write again to his wife in not to come. The letter i the Owen Glen dower was 1 She upbraided him with her and again getting mar send by return of'mail £1 his child, the sum to be con the child was put out to ni supporting, and if he did her money, she "would tak forced to do bo. She could not as good a right to have the wife he was then Xv Harper.) The letter concl ing prophetic words:—" 0 I say. Your sins will com and when you are little a 1 running a long career, and sec you again, but you n will meet with your desert admitted to Mr. Flynn, on been married in Adelaide, that this wife and a child i both dead. He was marri Harper, the writer of the a he had one child; and on rietl Jane Alice, who bore This was the first execut place at the Mount Eden the gaol has been erected a ago, at the lower gao*, Vi prisoner named KeSy suffe: man by throwing a billet c executioner in the present ii in the stockade, who was" cl and a reduction of his sent duties of Jack Ketch. Ht guised in person—having t coat on, hie face and head cra]>e, and a slouched hat d tracing his steps from the i cution, and crossing the ya entering the gaoler's room, himself of his disguise, he recognised from some pecul

iiia fellow prisoners, who had beeu watching the proceedings, as far as possible, through the mtinsa of their respective cells. His appearance the signal of a perfect Babel of yells, hooting, curses, and the most terrible threats of vengeance-

Civilized Warfare.—An Englishman, resident in Missouri for more than a year of the earlier part of the war, has sent to the Mmtreal Commercial Advertiser a communication in which he writes as follows:—"I know that in that part of the State particularly which borders on Kansas the Federal troops have enacted deeds will challenge comparison with the utmost atrocities inflicted by the Russian hordes in Poland or Circassia. Indeed, it would be doing an injustice to the Cossacks to compare them with the Union troops, for the latter have for many months found no organised resistance from the people of Missouri, who, destitute of arms and ammunition, and without any refuge in that open praire country, are an easy prey to their oppressors. I have seen ladies with their little children living in sheds and outhouses, or driven from their burning homes by sqauds of cursing, drunkiug soldiers, while their natural protectors were shot at their own doors, or hurried off to some distant prison. Many women, also, were arrested and confined for months, with every circumstance of insult and brutality. Even children were carried off as hostages. The troops burnt houses, fences, and crops, and turned the unfortunate families into the desolate prairie with nothing but the clothes they had on. Cattle and horses not carried off were shot The commissary waggons were loaded with spoils ; even the privates appropriated giga and carnages. Officers decorated their horses with silk dresses and shawls. On one occasion a force stationed in town was ordered away. They had three prisoners, one of them a soldier of Price's command, and the other two farmers. Being indisposed to burden themselves with these poor fellows, they were murdered in cold blood. They were conffned in the court-house. The guard called them to the window of their room, aud on their appearance a volley was fired, killing on instantly and crippling the other two, who were then dragged half a mile into the woods and shot. A young lad named Tyrley was about the same time butchered, the reason assigned being that he had some brothers in the Southern army, and that he talked too much. He was living at the time with his sister, and, though refusing to take the oath of allegiance, had reported himself to the officer commanding the garrison, surrendered all his weapons, and obtained permission to remain at home, to take care of his sister and some little children. One day, withont any warning, the house was surrounded by soldiers. His sister, throwning her arms around him to save him, nearly shared his fate, as it was only by breaking from her and rushing on the very bayonets of the assassins that the brave boy saved her life, as they were on the point of firing. I describe this particularly, as it occurred in town and in open day, and to a person well-known to mc, but it is only one of the hundreds of tragedies, prompted by some devilish malignity, which took place almost daily. Ih the counties of the north and west of us, once the richest and most populous in the State, scenes still more terrible were enacted by the jayhawkers, headed by Montgomery, and other Kansas ruffians. Whole districts were depopulated ; men, and even women, were innrdered, and the country converted into a desolate waste. Missouri is to-day at the mercy of a remorseless gang of military ruffians. Men without education or principles hold every office. She is without laws, without schools, without churches. Northern men alone are permitted to buy and sell, and in some instances the commanding officers have the monopoly of trade and traffic with St. Louis. Informers abound, whose business it is to accuse people of speaking treason, in order that their property might be confiscated into the hands of some great Uuion Abolitionist. Papers of immunity are sold by the Yankee officers, and passes are given, for various distances, bo that the country resembles Germany in the Middle Ages, when the freehooting barons levied black-mail on travellers through their miserably narrow dominions. Missouri is subdved, and * order roigns, , but the genuine Missourians— they who founded its cities and first settled its immense prairies—are but more and more estranged from the North."