Funning a Muck.

Evening Star, Issue 7430, 27 January 1888, Page 4

Funning a Muck.

The following particulars bearing upon the murder at Suva, reported by telegram from Auckland on the 21st inst,, are from the ‘ Suva Times ’;— A horrible murder was committed in Suva by a Polynesian servant in the house of a Mrs Clark. The man had stayed away from his duties from Monday till Wednesday morning, for which he was reprimanded by Mrs Clark’s nurse, and told to at once return to his usual work and scrub the verandah floor. This seems to have angered him, and he followed the nurse, Mrs M'Fad-gen—-who had been attending Mrs Clark daring her confinement, which had taken place eleven days previous—into the kitchen, and, while she was in the act of stooping over the stove, dealt her a severe blow on the back of the head with a large trade knife. Fortunately the blow fell on the knot of hair at the back of her head, and but a slight gash was made. The nurse immediately seized the man, or “ boy ” as all servants are called in the Pacific, and held his bauds till in struggling she fainted. He then, leaving her for dead, rushed through the house, and meeting Mrs Clark’s son, aged two years, struck him on the back of the nock, almost severing the head from the body. The poor little fellow expired soon after, and the Polynesian hurried away from the house and has not since been heard of. It is thought the murderer must have been drinking during the holidays, and was suffering from the after-effects when he committed the deed.