MURDERS IS WESTERN QUEENSLAND.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4263, 28 March 1879, Page 3

MURDERS IS WESTERN QUEENSLAND.

OhOH THH ■■BBIBBa-fB COT-BTEE," irAßorrS.] Life in the far bush is always recognised as having its special dangers and its oertain privations, but murders of a wholesale character by blacks have been comparatively rare. When we remember the numbers of native blacks, their stealthy -ways of life, and almost entire absence of any moral restraint, we wonder, with the limited police protection afforded, tbat suoh cases as ths terrible occurrence reported iv the following letter from Will's Creek are not moro frequent. Concerning this sad affair, a correspondent, signing himself " One of the Unfortunate" writes :— " Will's Creak, January 29th, 1879.—0ur quiet life out hers has been upset by the brutal murder of four white men on one of the neighboring stations by the aborigines. About two months ago Mr B. Molvo arrived here in charge of some cattle owned by Mr W. Beckett, of the Balonne, and established a station on Suleiman Creek (a tributary of the Wills), at a waterhole named Woonamo. He had with him two men, one bey and one black boy. Their names were James Kelly, Harry Butler, and Tommy Holmes. The adjoining station having oocasion to send up to Mr Molvo's, the messenger returned and reported that he had seen the bodies in the waterhole, upon which information was at once tent to the police, but unluckily the sub-inspeotor was absent on duty in an opposite, direction. Some of the neighbours rode up to the scene, and found the four bodies in the waterhole, and everything portable removed from the camp. They, after burying the remains, followed the blacks, but could recover very little of the property, as the country ia very mountainous, affording a secure retreat for the natives. From what information that could be got from some of the gin», the way the outrage was accomplished was this. Mr Molvo and the men were engaged either at meals or bathing, and the blacks, at a signal from Mr Molvo's own black boy, who, it appears, was the prime mover, rushed up between the men and the camp, thus outting them off from their Ifireanns, and then killed them with tomahawks and nulla-nullas, and threw the bodies into the waterhole. As this happened about the 11th of this month,and was not discovered till the 22nd, in which interval there had been heavy rain, it was impossible to find out anythiag by tracks or marks on the bodies, as tbey (the bodies) were in the last stage of decomposition. Since thiß the blacks attacked Mr Sheaffe's station, on this creek, but the men, being on the alert, frustrated the attempt. This has thrown a gloom over us all, as Mr Molvo waa well liked by all j his neighbours."

A Boyal decree has been published in Spain authorising the Minister of the oolonies to accept the proposal relative to the laying a submarine cable between Manilla and Hong Kong. All the guns recently captured from tbe Afghans are of Cabul manufacture, and are rifled, firing very acourrtely gp to 2500 yards. A telegraphio cable has been laid between Antibes and Corsica.