NEW CALEDONIAN MURDERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1909, Page 2

NEW CALEDONIAN MURDERS.

A REIGN OF CRIME. "THE RED BAND OF THE NORTH." Particulars of the New Caledonian murders, briefly reported by cable, are to hand by Australian papers. A cablegram from Noumea, dated 14th April, says: — A series of terrible crimes was revealed at the sessions just ended. The perpetrators will be henceforth known a-s the "Red Band of the North." One of the leaders of this band, a liberated Arab convict, Zermani, was summarily shot by a gendarme. Of the other five, Grimigui, a free man, son of an' ex-convict, was sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude ; Poisin, a free woman, to 5 years ; Meunier, a liberated convict, 'to 10 years ; Santacroce, a liberated convict, to 20 years' imprisonment, and Arrighi, a liberated convict, was condemned to death, the execution to take place on the public square of Noumea. The scene of their crimes was Pouembout and Kone, an agricultural district of the north-west, which has lately come into prominence through its exportation of nickel ore. The industry has attracted to Hie district an unusual number of miners and workers engaged in the shipping operations. The evidence at the trial disclosed the fact that there were three known victims. The first murder was instigated by tlie store-keeper, Grimigui, under the following circumstances :— A ticket-of-leave man named Vincent was a creditor of Grimigui for 8200 francs (£328), for which an arrangement had been made for the payment of 1000 francs per month (£4O), which at due date Grimigui failed to pay. An arrangement had been made with the gang to do away with Vincent, and steal his paper securities. The gang for this crime was to be paid 1500 francs (£6O). All this was explained by the woman, Voisin, who participated in a dinner at which the murder was planned to take place. She was paid 500 francs (£2O) as the first instalment of the price of her complicity. Vincent was shot during the burning of his house, which wa3 constructed of grass. A month afterwards a second man, named Frahschiski, was disposed of in exactly the same manner, and two days following a third man, an escaped convict, named Rostoucher, was shot whilst on the road. This man was known to lived carefully, and was supposed to have, saved a small sum of money. The gang, however, found on him only cheques, , which he had got at the mine, and which could not bo negotiated with safety. The condemned man, Arrighi, a Corsican, had originally been transported to New Caledonia for life for the murder of his brother-in-law, and, as in many cases of this kind, he expiated his crime by 12 years' hard labour. Santacroce, who received 20 years' imprisonment for his participation in the crimes of the Red Band of the North, kent a small barber's shop," but this appears to have been only a cloak to his misdeeds, as he harboured and fed the Arab, Zermani, the chief assassin of the gang. It was proved that Santacroce was the instigator of all the crimes. He was tried for receiving stolen property. Originally he had been ( transported to this colony for 20 years for a murder committed in France. Grimigui, who was sentenced to 20 years' hard labour, is the son of an ex-convict, but seems 10 have borne a generally good character, and in his 1 district was fairly well respected, but his books showed thai he was unable to pay the debt contracted with his unfortunate victim, Vincent.

In eight years the valuation of Timaru has just doubled. In 1901 the valuation was £48,000, and this year it is £96,000. A correspondent writes to the Manawatu Evening Star : — "Coming up from Foxton this morning by train at the first stopping place a, dozen young Maori boys got in on their way to school at Oroua Bridge. No sooner were they in than down went every window in the carriage and out went a dozen heads. Yet they were well behaved, and soon broke into song. I don't think I ever heard 'The Old Folks at Home' more sweetly rendered ; nor do I think the same number of pakeha boys taken haphazard could have come near them. But I was rather _ astonished when they alighted at the Bridge to see about half of them settle in the middle of the frosty road, and taking silver and copper coins from their pockets begin to gamble like any • two-up school in the Dominion. I think it was 'pitch-and-toss' they played, but to see the cool way they pocketed one another's cash : their honoured parents could not have done it better. Whatever other bumps may be mibsing, the bump of imitation must predominate in the native race. How true it is : Train up a child in the way you want him to go, and you may rely on it he won't be for off the mark in the end. And so sure as we sow dock seed in our garden plots it is useless to expect a crop of Christmas lilies from it/ Give Phosphol to your delicate child. It ones tho system and enriches the blood. — Advt. Phosphol Emulsion is palatable, easily difjoatod, and an infallible remedy for 1 lung troubles. — Advfa.