THE PAPAKAIO MURDER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12852, 10 July 1907, Page 2

THE PAPAKAIO MURDER.

* AN" OFFICIAL REPORT. (special to "thb tress.' , ) WELLINGTON, July 9. Police Commissioner iMnnio. in his annual report to the Minister for Justic©, makes tho following remarks regarding the Papakaio murder ease:— Thie atrocious crime, which resulted in the arrest and! conviction of a noteu criminal, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, and declared an habitual criminal under tho new Act, for burglary, was ono of thoso exceptionally difficult cases to investigate with any degree of satisfaction, as no evidence of guilt woe obtainable, and tho circumstantial evidence forthcoming bed to bo carefully obtained and linked together in order to make the chain of evidence strong enough upon which to secure a conviction. Owing to tho importance of tho case-, I devoted considerable time to supervising the investigations, which were carried out by the officers concerned with untiring energy, assisted materially by the inhabitants of Papakaio. Although the accused was acquitted on the capital charge, owing principally to certain witnesses deviating from their original statements to the poli.e. and partly to the circulation ci inW rumours bearing on tho ca<-,e tho in vertigaHons, which had not been ro la*ed since the committal of the coldblooded murder, were still continued, in the hope of the evidence, bein-r strengthened and the charge proved Success attended the continued efforts, and on the stolen bicycle being accidentally found, accused waa ro-nrrestei and convicted as above. Tho subsequent diamiewil of the prisoners appeal for a new trial on the ground that tho verdict was against tlif weight of evidence, wae highly eatis factory from a public point of view as the clear and exhaustive manner in which the evidence wae summarised by the Judges on the occasion must have dispelled any doubt existing as to the guilt of the prisoner.