EXECUTION OF WOODGATE.

Evening Post, Volume XV, Issue 24, 30 January 1877, Page 2

EXECUTION OF WOODGATE.

The Marlborough Express of the 27th inst. gives the following details of the execution of Woodgate. It says : — We shall not say how or by what means a person was discovered who was willing to take the place vacated by one who undoubtedly undertook to do the duty. Suffice it to say that the police or somebody did discover such a person, and that in the early morning the Sheriff, accompanied by the Inspector of Police, drove through again to Picton. There they called on the Rev. Mr. Rolandson, who went to the gaol and informed the condemned prisoner of the imminence of his fate at about 4 a.m., and remained with him to the last. At about 6.20 a.m., a procession was formed from the condemned cell, where the prisoner had already been pinioned, to the scaffold. The minister came first, reading the service for the dead, Woodgate came next, followed by the hangman, gaoler, wardens, &c. The other persons present were the Sheriff, Mr. Allen, R.M., Dr. Tripe, Mr. Caute, gaoler, the wardens, and the police. The moment the minister ceased speaking, he turned to Woodgate, and appeared to say something, as it might be, " Now is your time if you want to speak." Woodgate then turned round and addressed the gaol officials, giving them his thanks for their kindness to him during his stay in gaol, adding " and I thank you, gentlemen, for using your utmost endeavours to get my life spared by trying to get a reprieve. 1 thank you all very much indeed-, and I die in peace with all men. I have nothing more to say." He seemed a little affected as he spoke, but he ascended the scaffold with a firm step. Now comes the most disgusting feature of the whole business. The hangman, while adjusting the cap said to the prisoner, " Good bye, old fellow, I wish you a pleasant journey. You're only going a few days before us, perhaps I might follow you to-morrow, or next day myself." He then adjusted the rope, and again said, " Well, how do you feel ; is it comfortable, or is it too tight?" Woodgate replied, "No." He was still looking upwards. The hangman again said, " Well, good-bye. I wish you a pleasant journey," at the same moment kicking the bolt with his foot, and the d«op fell, Woodgate dying without a struggle, his legs below the knee and his hands just twitching twice at an interval of a few seconds. The hangman then faced round, and addressing the spectators, said, "Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied ?" There was no reply, and he again asked, " Are you satisfied that I have done my duty." Dr. Tripe said there was no doubt that no man could have done it more efficiently, as the neck was quite dislocated. He further added that Woodgate felt no pain beyond a momentary one. The fall was about five feet. The drop fell at 6.30 exactly, and the body was lefc hanging for an hour. Just when they were about taking it down, Detective Farrell, of Wellington, came on the scene, with a note to the sheriff, iutroduciug a man who had arrived by the Hineinoa from Wellington, who was willing to undertake the duty. The Sheriffj however, informed the gentleman that his services were not required, and we believe declined to have anything to say to him. An inquest was afterwards held on the body, and a verdict returned to the effect that the sentence had been duly carried out. On Wednesday, duriug au interview with the Rev. Mr. Koualdsun and one of the warders, the prisoner said that he was not at all guilty of the murder, but of everything else attributed

to him he was guilty, and deserved the punishment accorded to him. At 7.15 a.m. the Hinemoa" arrived from Wellington, being manned with Armed Constabulary, and bringing Detective Farrell and the man before aliwded to. These escorted the Detective and his travelling companion to tlie gaol and back again. There was considerable speculation in Picton as to who the man was who performed the loathsome duty, and it was confidently asserted that he had come from Nelson, but we have reason to believe that he was aswagsman, who came into- Blenheim on Wednesday from the southward, and offered his services, "which were accepted as befot* recorded , He stated that he had been in the nary as a seaman, and boasted of having served as an artillery -man at the time of the Indian Mutiny, when he " slung them up in dozen*." Soon after 10 a.m., the gaoler let him out at the back of the gdo?, and' he succeeded by making his way quietly and quite unobserved along tlie lino in getting down to the Hineinoa at the wharf, which steamed away at once as soou as he came on aboard, and before the Pictonianswere aware of the circumstance.