SUPPOSED MURDER.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8379, 3 June 1889, Page 3

SUPPOSED MURDER.

(BY TELEGRAPH.] Si Wellington, Saturday. S A death, so far surrounded by mys- S terious circumstances, occurred at Upper g Kahvarra last night. Mr Thomas Haw- s kins, a well-known settler who lived in the district named, left town at 4 o'clock <? last night, and was found about 8 o'clock lying dead on the branch road which s leads to his farm. The body was lying at 8 fall length, aud bore marks of violence on S the neck, and his vest was considerably s torn. Nothing is known how- deceased £ ' came by his death, but it is supposed that c i he either fell or was thrown from his trap, and that the horse kicked and the wheel K passed over his body. Dr. Cahill, who E examined the body, says death resulted £ from hemorrhage of the jugular vein, but £ he declines to express an opinion how the s , wounds were caused until he makes a ( ; > post mortem examination this morning. Two wonnds were found on the neck. Mr Hawkins was a man much respected in - town. Sunday. A post mortem examination of the body of Mr Thomas. Hawkins was commenced yesterday and is still going on, bat the authorities are very reticent as to what has been discovered. To all appearances, however, a most determined ana at the same time cowardly murder ■ . has been committed. From inquiries that have been made on the spot, and from the nature of the wounds so far as has ' ; -been ascertained, it is evident that the poor fellow was fired at twice, and that his life was finally extinguished by blows • of a knife. Portions of his vest and coat, t ; ' _ as by the discharge of c gun, " /.', were;, found on the road, some distance ■ i Sioin. the .body, and stones marked with '- ■ blood-' lay ■ about in various places. . Along with the fragments, of cloth there-were the remains of Mr Hawkins - packet knife, broken np and twisted as though considerable force had been used. "■'.''. '. „ There was a great deal of blood where the ;•',-.'/" .body lay, but little anywhere else. In a ; >-s- :• "■ sully, about 25 yards from the scene tlicre 'was. found a stone weighing perhaps a ponnd and • a halt, jagged and partly -= covered with blood. There were no signs i-V: 'of; the body having been 'dragged from * where the patches of . cloth and the knife „ . . lay to, the spot where it was found. These discoveries dispose of the possibility of Mr Hawkins^having been killed by a simple fall from a trap, and besides itia known that he always used to walk up this paifc of . the roadj which is very steep and narrow, and dominated by banks on either side. When it was found that besides the wonnqs, in,. the;. throat there was a . . charge of "shot-in. 1 the shoulder ' the >j , P 0 " 0 * ...»>. °nee, regarded it as a ; ...--.;,caw- of. murder,;, and began to. look ■ifiV.'.S'.forfarther.clues.v The theory which an Efs:-*E" ! -W?K?ft??>^^S locality seems to favor 8^ 3888 " 1 w «ted.fpr his victim f^s}o9 fllWf "imposition fiew be would &~i-&feii *''%&.;■'■ ;?•;£%/**.'• >£?%/' Y:?!ii<"' _•;'"•■ ■■■'!■" '

be very close to anyone toiling up the steep, and as soon as Mr Hawkins came near the nssassin fired one barrel oi a shot gun, but little more than cut away the portions of clothing found on the road. Mr Hawkins, instinctively suspecting, perhaps, with whom he had to deal, turned and ran down the road lor his life, but a second shot better aimed struck him in the shoulder, and brought him „,?" n ' ie f° l '° he had gone many yards, 11ns wound was nob necessarily fatal, but the murderer, determined to leave nothing to chance, must have then gone up to the prostrate man and finished, his work with a .knife or other sharp_ weapon. Mr Hawkins was lying on his face, and from the position of the hands would seem to have put up his arms to ward off the blow of the knife. This is the opinion the police have formed of the circumstances of the tragedy, and on it they a.re working. Dr. Cahill has given it as hiSopinion that no blood would spurt up from wounds so made by a direct downward force, and that consequently the murderer may have gone away without a Bpot on him. Having come to the conclusion that it was a case of deliberate

murder the police turned their attentiou to the assassin. From' the facts that the dead man's watch was not taken, and that if he bad any money on him it was not a

large sum, thecanse of the crime is at present believed to be vengeance rather than robbery. Amongst Mr Hawkins' neigh--1 bors there is an Italian who has been heard— so it is alleged— to utter threats against him in consequence of some litigation in which they were engaged, The Italian's house was searched, and a bonehandled dagger with a double-edged blade about six inches in length, found. A shot flask was also found. The dagger, however, bore no signs of blood, and the shot in the flask were not of the same size as those in the body. No clothes were discovered at all blood-stained, and none that had been recently washed. The demeanor both of the man ayd his wife was calm, and not that of cnilty people. Inspector Thomson and the detectives

were busy all yesterday and to-day prosecuting their search, but up to ihe present it is not known whether they have found anything more conclusive. It may be mentioned that this is the first murder which has occcured in Wellington since a hank manager named Miller killed his father and mother on Wellington-terrace and then committed suicide some nine years ago. LATEX. Dr. Cahill finished the post mortem late this afternoon, bit declined to give any information till after the inquest, which is fixed for 9 o'clock to-morrow morning. In the search at the Italian's house a double-barrelled shot gun was found, and a double set of tracks leading from his house to the road where the crime was committed were discovered. ,