EXECUTION OF HAMIORA PERA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1103, 23 November 1869, Page 3

EXECUTION OF HAMIORA PERA.

(From the " Indejendent," Nov. 1&), The convict Hamiora Pera, convicted of high treasqn on the 28th Septemiber last, was executed at the Gaol at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th inst. It will be remettxber;ed there were four other prisoners condemned to death for the same crime, one .oQiflum, Wi Ta? mararo, brother to Haplpjar committed suicide in gaol a short time since. The prisoner is the third man who has been hung at Wellington under the Etecutiori of Criminals Act 1858, which. abolished^ public executions ; the first one being the unfortunate Color-Sergeant Collins, of the . 65th Eegtment, convicted of the murder of Lieut. Alexander of the same regiment, and hung on the 30th of Jan., 1862 ; the second, the Maori Whaka Mau, executed on the 23rd March last, for the murder of the pedlar Kornerop. Hamiora was sentenced to death on the 11th October, but it was not until the -Bth instant* a week before his death, that he knew for certain that he was to die, and that his companions in guilt, rebels who had been convicted of the same crime for which he alone was doomed to suffer, were to experience the more protracted misery of penal servitude for life. He received the notice of his approaching death with calmness, and it was not until the morning before the execution that he gave any outward sign that he realised his terrible position. He had asked permission to see his friends and former companions, that he might take a final farewell, and the request had been humanely granted. The interview was a very painful one, and when the tangi was over, and the prisoner was once more alone, he became terribly distressed. He evidently fully recognised his position ; he knew that he had looked for the last time on those from whom only he had any right to expect sympathy ; every incident was reminding him how rapidly his term of life was decreasing, and it was not until his spiritual adviser, the Eev. Mr. Stock, who, together with the Yen. Archdeacon Hadfield, had constantly visited the prisoner, had been with him some time that he became more composed. Mr. Stock visited him frequently during the day, and left at 11 o'clock at. night, having promised to call again the next morning.. On this, his last night on earth, the unhappy man ate his supper as usual, and fell into a sound sleep soon after Mr. Stock had left, and from which he did not awake until 5 o'clock the next morning, when he dressed, and soon after had breakfast. The Eev. Mr. Stock arrived early, and remained to the last. At three minutes precisely to the half-hour, the Sheriff made the usual and formal demand for the body of the prisoner for execution in compliance with the sentence, and on the door of the debtors' room being opened by the official whose duty it was to convey the order, the convict could be heard engaged in earnest prayer with the Eev. Mr. Stock. His responses were accompanied "with a peculiar moaning, arid by convulsive sobbing. The message having been delivered, the door was closed. Outside the room the Sheriff, and a small group of anxious spectators, were waiting, and close to the door, with a rope in his hand, stood the executioner, who was not disguised as on former occasions. At halfpast eight o'clock exactly the door of the condemned man's room was opened, and the Eev. Mr. Stock came outside closely followed by the prisoner, who was rapidly and skilfully pinioned by the executioner, and the cap, which was to conceal his face from the spectators during his mortal agonies, was turned up and adjusted on his head. On leaving the debtors' room (he had been removed to this apartment the day previous), the prisoner, quite a young man, and with nothing in his general appearance worthy of special remark, was = sobbing bitterly, and was evidently suffering from intense mental agony ; he looked anxiously around, yet stood firm and erect while he was being pinioned, repeating, as well as his trembling voice would allow, the prayers that were being offered on his behalf. The preliminary preparations were soon completed, and the mournful procession moved off, headed by the Eev. Mr. Stock, reading the funeral service in the Maori tongue ; the prisoner followed, and the Sheriff, the gaol officials, and several spectators brought up the rear. The condemned man walked firmly, and in a few seconds had passed through the iron gates iv the corridor, and turning to the left, and descending a few steps, had entered the corridor in which he was to die. The cap was then pulled over his face, and he was guided towards the steps which led to the platform. In the meantime the spectators (some 20 in number), including those officials whose duty it was to attend the execution, had taken their places behind a bar placed across the corridor at' about twenty feet from the platform. At the foot of the steps the prisoner halted a moment, but being led up, is quickly placed in the centre of the platform under the noose, which was immediately fixed round his neck. From the time the prisoner left his room, until the rope was adjusted, he continued praying in a low moaning tone, interrupted frequently by violent sobbing, but immediately the ropo was round his neck the moaning ceased, and the finnl words of the service were^ repeated in a remarkably clear and firm voice. . The executioner descended the steps, and in a moment afterwards the clergyman gently waved his hand, but it was > not until ho had repeated the sign that it was understood, when the drop fell with a crash. The body of the unfortunate- wretch rose a little with the recoil of the clastic rope ; turned gently to the right and left once or twice, and then ceased to swing. Immediately after the drop the shoulders were slowly drawn up, and the head fell towards tlie right side. The convulsive twitchings of the upper part of the body, which \fere very slight, lusted about two minutes, and then tho body remained perfectly stationary. The usual cerlificnte was then signed by Dr. Johnson, the medical officer of the gaol, certifying that tho deceased had been duly hung by the neck until he was dead. A declaration to the same effect was also signed by the Sheriff, the Warden of the Gaol, a turnkey, and several of the spectators. At half-past nine a.m. an inquest was held in the corridor of the gaol, before the Coroner. The jury viewed the body, which had been placed in a coffin under the drop. There was not the slightest distortion of the features— they were quite a proof that in dying he had suffered no physical pain ; indeed, the dead man looked almost as if he wero asleep. After the Sheriff and Warden had given their evidence, the jury returned a verdict to tho effect that Hamiora Pera had died by hanging in due course of law. The whole of the arrangements for the execution were excellent, for winch great credit is due to Mr. Bead, the Warden of the Gaol. From the time the criminal left tho debtors' room, until he was hangiijg, a corpse from the beam, only six minutes hud elapsed. A great imprqvomeni; had been made in the drop, which, instead of "boi rig worked by a screw as before, was set : free'.-the very moment tho signal, was given, by a- clev.er piece of nmchanism adapted by. a-builderin town. ; " Tlie body was buried within thepre- ' cints of tho gaol in the evening.