OTAGO.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1415, 20 June 1865, Page 5

OTAGO.

We have our files to the loth inst. We take the following from the Daily Times:— THE MUBDER OF THE GERMAN. THE SU3I3IIKG-UP OF THE JUDGE.

Prom the great number of witnesses examined, and from the minuteness of many of the circumstances of which they had gpoken, it was very difficult compendiously to present a view of the whole evidence; but he should attempt to do so before reading any portion of the evidence itself. He would assume, for the present, jury would be of opinion that what lawyers called the corpus delicti was proved — that it was shown that the man George Kreuzer had been murdered; and that the question for the jury was whether the prisoner was guilty of' that murder. The evidence might be conveniently divided under five heads : —l. That the prisoner was one of the last persons in the company of the deceased. 2. The property alleged to have been found, and no doubt found, in and near the house of the prisoner. 3. The blood-stained garments, and especially the moleskin trousers and the slippers. 4.—The woollen fibres found on the end of the stick; for he took it for granted that the jury would believe that the stick produced was the instrument with which this foul and barbarous murder was committed. 5. The mode in which the blows were struck, as to be inferred from the position of the body on the pathway. As to the first head, the foundation was bad in this ■way: the prisoner lived with Anderson ; and she was seen with a man whom it was sought to prove was the deceased, at some time after eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. On this point, there was the evidence of Mrs. Gandell, Mrs. Hard and Mrs. Smith ; and there was also the evidence of Mr. Morton and police officers, as to the statements of the prisoner and Anderson, respecting a foreigner having been in the house during the night.—[His Honor briefly recapitulated the evidence of the witness in each instance, throughout his summing up.] Mr. Wilson had commented with some plausibility upon the strangeness of a detective officer like Eowley, not making earlier than lie did, his statement as to the prisoner's saying that " German Charley was the man who was at the house; and the jury must consider, against the fact, the explanation that it was well understood that at the first examination no more evidence was to be given than would justify a remand, still, it did seem strange to him that so important a statement should have been overlooked. If the jury believed all the witnesses on this point, including Kovvley, they must believe that " German Charley" had been to the house with Ander- j 6 °n) at a late hour, and that the j prisoner saw him there. As to the j second point. Mr. Wilson had asked why any one should carry such valueless things as the bag 'and the spoon from the scene ot the murder to the house; and it did seem marvellous that such a thing should "five been done. But there were the facts l ) e(;eaK ed had two bags wben he left the Taieri; that only one was found in the *wag ; and that the one found iu the yard of J h°use corresponded with the missing one. Vhy bury the bag, when it could have been so easily burned? had been very properly asked by Mr. Wilson. Jiut it fortunately happened that the wretched beings who were prompted to commit murder did seem, ProJitentially, it might be said, often to overook the most obvious precautious for hiding eir crimes. Many a murderer had been so con\icted. The examination of the privy • lit the ground near it was made at night, 11 it must have been very difficult, at least, or any one to see traces of soil having been th* Ul . ' SU( "' l il puddle as that in which ,' ae( ' s vveri> s:, idto have been discovered. .ii i u ! ". o,t i° doubt as to the circumstanceg di--f.? r ! , t ' !e was naid to have been tbV i fcl ~7* 01 ' it not impossible that , v ,l k' have been a thing which S uo un pi'operly thrown aside and

! trampled under foot. So, as to the spoon, | Mr. Wilson had fairly said that many such spoonß might, no doubt, be found in many privies in Dunedin. He considered that the purse had been fully idtntified by Helling and Charlotte Clarke, as the property of the , deceased. But there was this difficulty— that there was no witness who saw the purse • in Charley's possession on the 29th March. It was found in the house of a prostitute who lived with the prisoner ; and the jury must consider the suggestions that it was dropped, or stolen, either on this night or on a previous visit of the deceased to that house. The mere possesion of the purse would not, alone, be enough for the conviction ot' the {)risoner. Although the purse was, strangely, eft uticared for by the police in the house, for some time, he had no doubt that "Weale did find it there when the place was first searched on the day after the murder. Mr. Fisher positively corroborated Weale on that point. As to the blood on the clothes. In each instance, Dr. Hocketi was positive that the blood he found was not of any fish or bird, but was that of some mammal; and the witness explained why he could not be more positive. The moleskin trousers, on which there were four stains, were not positively identified by anybody as belonging to the prisoner. The man was in the habit of selling fish, and stains of fish-blood might easily get upon his clothes; but Dr. Hocken was positive that these stains were not of fish-blood. The slip- i pers were found adhering, through the { presence of tenacious clay; Farrell believed that they could not have been dropped into the place ; therefore, the prosecution suggested that they were put into the house by the prisoner, who had the key ; and Mr. Wilson asked the jury to believe that they were left when the prisoner and Anderson quitted the house. There was no proof that Ford wore the slippers on the 29th March, or within a few days of that date ; and Farrell had stated his belief that if the slippers had been worn from Alva street to Stafford street, after the murder, the blood stains on them would not have remained so clear as they were when the slippers were found —that the blood would have been effaced by clay or mud. He (the Judge) did not attach any weight to the differences of the witnesses as to when the prisoner and Anderson quitted the corner house, in which the slippers were found. In fact, the key of that house did not appear to have been given up by the prisoner or Anderson, prior to their arrest. The prosecution had put forward, as a suspicious circumstance, the fact that the prisoner wore women's boots when apprehended; but Mrs. Hickman saw him wearing such boots on the 9th March, or some time before the murder. Mr. Wilson had regretted that the ground in the neighbourhood where the body was found was not inspected more closely than it appears to have been. He joined in that regret. On an occasion of this kind, the inspection of ground should not be left to any subordinate member of the police force, however respectable or intelligent he might be—and no doubt there were many such even in the lower grades of the force. Such an occasion was one for the most anxious scrutiny of the ground in the neighbourhood. Footprints were a most important means of identification ; and if there had been such a scrutiny in this case as he had indicated, the prisoner might not have been in jeopardy, or there might have been convincing proofs of his guilt. The police said that the ground in the neighbourhood of the body was quite hard : the path was left after cutting away clay, and some strata of clay here were very hard indeed. Dr. Alexander found the ground soft when he went up during the forenoon ; but that might be accounted for by rain or heavy mist, which seemed to have fallen at the time when Weale was going up. Of course, the prosecution suggested that the slippers were put into the house for concealment ; but if so, it was very odd that so insufficient a mode was adopted —that they were not cleaned, or that an attempt had not been made to clean them. So far as he had gone in his review of the evidence, he could not say that that evidence would, in itself, justify a conviction. Not that he by any means said the evidence was worthless: for, in conjunction with other evidence, it might come to make a conviction perfectly justifiable and right. Was that other evidence supplied under the fourth head, as to the minute woollen fibres found on the forked end of the stick ? On such a point, the evidence of the handling of the stick after it was found was most important: for its forked end might carry away a portion of woollen fibre from the clothes of those who were merely inspecting it, or so small a quantity might be gathered without any one handling the stick at all. Dr. Hocken had stated that be compared fibres he took from the stick, with others taken from a scarf which it had been shown the prisoner had worn around his waist. It was an exceedingly probable suggestion, that if a man wielded the stick with both his hands, the forked end would carry off portions of any woollen fabric which he might be wearing as a belt. He (the Judge) did not allow the jury to use the microscope which was placed on the table, nor did he use it himself,because the microscope was a scientific instrument, and he thought that evidence on such a point should be given by persons skilled in its use. Scientific evidence was most valuable when brought to bear upon this class of cases. One of the great advantages of advanced science, waa the vastly greater facilities it afforded for detecting guilt in cases of murder : it would be absurd for any man nowadays to decry modern science, seeing that the facts it disclosed were the most important and the bestverified parts of our knowledge. In England, men of world-wide reputation could be, and were, brought into Court in such cases. We might have such men here ; at all events, he would never use slighting expressions concerning the talent we might have amongHt us. We might, for anything he knew to the contrary, have first-class scientific men here; but it was not in the nature of things that many men should be so well able to establish their reputation as could be done in the mother country, where any such man knew that there was a vast scientific public watching his evidence, and that that public had already given him the stamp of their approval as a man of competent skill and knowledge. He did not for a moment disbelieve Dr. Hocken, nor would he ask the jury to do so : but Dr. H°. c £ e " could not come into Court with an established reputation as a microscopical observer ; and, therefore, the jury must use some extr< caution in receiving his testimony, (the judge) could not say lew than that. He said 'it with no intention of disrcspcct to Hocken; although if it were "how disrespect to him or to anybody .el e he should not scruple to show it in a capital ca .

He did not doubt Dr. Hocken's skill or competency ; but Dr. Hocken did not come into Court with the same stamp of a European scientific reputation. Dr. Hocken said that the fibres taken from the end of the stick corresponded with other fibres from the scarf. His (the Judge's) eyes were pretty good, and he could see a general correspondence ; and some of the jurors might nave better sight than he had. But there might be other fabrics than the scarf which would yield corresponding fibres. Dr. Hocken said that there was a precise correspondence. If that was so, and if the jury were satisfied, beyond the power of doubt, that the fibres taken from the stick came from the prisoner's scarf, then that fact, added to the other evidence, would aftord very pregnant evidence of guilt. Were the jury satisfied as to the identification of that small thread on the glass shade ? The prisoner's life might, without figure of speech, bo said to hang upon that little fibre! As to the nature of the blows struck. It was clear from the evidence that the unfortunate deceased was struck down by a left-handed blow. There was no evidence proving that the prisoner was a left-handed man ; but the jury would recollect how, casually, Mrs. Hickman stated that the prisoner used a needle in a lefthanded way. It must be added that many right-handed men could and would strike a left-handed blow with such a weapon, and that there were ambidexterous men. He would not encumber the jury by reading the whole of the evidence; for he thought that doing so would tend to make them lose their grasp of the case as a whole, rather than to enlighten them. His Honor read various portions of the evidence; and added others at the request of the Crown Prosecutor and of Mr. Wilson. His Honor also said that he did not see that the case for the Crown was embarrassed by the want of a plausible motive for the murder. It,was to be remembered that here, any man in the garb of a miner might be worth robbing; and that there were always men sufficiently wicked to act upon the saying, " Dead men tell no tales." It was remarkable that the police, with all their efforts, had been unable to trace the deceased's monkey-jacket; and it was to be remarked that the prisoner, when arrested shortly after the murder, had no money in his possession. There was no point of law upon which a single word need be said; and now, without encumbering the jury by commenting on details which it was peculiarly the duty of the jury to consider, he would leave them to their duty of saying whether,upon the whole evidence,the prisoner was guilty or not guilty of the great crime with which he was charged.

The Jury retired at twenty minutes past eight o'clock, and were absent exactly an hour. They then returned into court with a verdict of " Not Guilty."

The Judge: Prisoner William Ford, you may go. The Crown Prosecutor: I think he should be detained, your Honor. There is sufficient in the evidence to warrant me in preferring an indictment against him for stealing the property of the deceased. This course has been adopted in an English case. The Judge: Ido not say that you may not have sufficient evidence to establish such a charge, but 1 cannot detain him now. Tou may go, William Ford. Ford left the dock and the court.

The Grown Prosecutor: Since the jury has acquitted the Prisoner Ford, I think the evidence will hardly sustain a case against the prisoner Anderson. The Judge: The case against her is. not stronger than against Ford. The work of murder was evidently the work of a male hand, and the case against Anderson is consequently weaker. I think you will exercise a wise discretion in not preferring any evidence against her. Ellen Anderson was brought up from gaol, and, as a matter of form, the jury were sworn, and the indictment against her was read over.

The Crown Prosecutor declined to offer any evidence, and the Jury, under the direction of the Judge, found a verdict of " Not Guilty." The prisoner was discharged.

The Union Jack Beef— By the permission of the Government we, Daily Times, are enabled to publish the following report by Mr. Coates, Mining Surveyor" Goldfields Department, Dunedin, Bth June, 1865. Sir,—l have the honor to inform you that, pursuant to your instructions, I visited the Union Jack Beef, and now furnish you, for the information of the Government, with the following report descriptive thereof. The reef is situated in a small lateral branch on the east side of Mullocky Gully, some thirty chains north of the main track to Hindoo via Fraser's Gully, and about ten miles north-west of Dunedin. Upon being directed to the reef by the, prospectors, I found it to occupy a position upon a precipitous range slope, which here forms the southern boundary of the gully, and above the trough of which the quartz out-crop stood at an elevation of about eighty feet. Not being satisfied that the quartz so presented to me was a portion of the vein stone in situ, I proceeded to make a survey of the country in its vicinity, and discovered two other out-crops, which enabled me with tolerable accuracy to ascertain its course or direction. These outcrops I found to be, one upon the crown of the range or spur in which the first outcrop appeared; and the other, also occupying a similar situation upon another spur leading to Mullocky Gully, some half-a-tnile further south. The line connecting those points bears nearly iu the Magnetic Meridian, and showed in several places superficial indications ot the presence of the reef at slight depths below the surface. The outcrop, first examined, and now within the claim of the prospectors, presented the appearance of a transverse section of portion of the reef, composed of five distinct ban"®* all of which commenced in the " cap, and after describing a sharp curve towards the east, descend from view with a regular dip to the eastward, of about seventy-five degrees; such circumstances would indicate this a portion of a "blow" of the reef. Commencing upon tho eastern, or " hanging wall," the bands in their order of succession are as follows:' Is • Casing of bluish agglomerate, about eight inches thick, and composed of portions ot mica slate, quartz, ferruginous clay, and silicate of lime. 2nd. Bubble band ten inches, composed of loose angular fragments of quartz, occasional interstices, between which are filled with a red ferruginous clay. 3rd. The most compact band of the reet, composed of quartz discoloured by oxide ot iron, traversed by green streaks, which o not appear to follow any particular direction ; this band is two feet six inches in thickness. 4th. Band of quartz much broken by cleavage

and jointing, rendering the whole loose and rubbly, about one foot thick. sth and last: Blue agglomerate casing on " foot wall," in all respects similar to the hanging wall" casing first described; thus giving for the whole transverse width of the veiu between its main walls, five feet eight inches. The main rock formation traversed by this reef is a grey mica slate, occasionally schistose, and more thau ordinarily regular in its laminre ; the whole, east and west of the reef, obeying a general dip of übout nine degrees eastward.

The American Beef at Brack's Digoings. —The following is Mr. Mining Surveyor Coatea's report of the result of his examination of this reef:— It being my intention to enter on a systematic analysis of the different auriferous quartz reefs known to exist in this district, for the amount of gold contained, Ido myself the honour to furnish you with the following particulars, derived from the examination of the stone of the American reef, at Black's diggings. As you will remember, in my former report on this reef, I described the lode as presenting the appearance of having been reflssured—the stone next the hanging wall, or true reef, for the depth of excavation, twelve feet, being compact, while that next the footwall is much jointed, and presents a fissile structure. For the purpose of testing, I obtained fifty pounds of each description of stone. The method which I adopted to ascertain the amount of gold contained is as follows:—Having reduced the stone to fragments, the largest of which would pass through a ring two inches in diameter, I burnt or roasted it, in a perpetual kiln or furnace, the fuel used being the more compact coal of the Clyde workings, which I found to effect in this manner most perfect calcination. After the removal of the stone from the furnace, and whilst yet hot, I caused the heap to be sprinkled with water, which had the effect of reducing the greater part of the mass to particles, varying in size from that of dice to that of the grains of fine sand. This treatment assisted materially the process of pounding. I'he quartz in that state was then further reduced in an iron mortar to a fine powder. I then took ten pounds of the powder, which I reduced by the ordinary process of panning in water to about one pound, and in this bulk particles of fine gold were distinctly visible. This quantity I then subjected to the process of amalgamation, which, I believe, from the fact of my having previously retorted the quicksilver to free it from impurities, as well as my being unable to discover a trace of gold in the quartz which remained after the removal of the amalgam, to have been perfectly successful. From the extreme fineness of the greater part of the gold as observed in the pan, I considered it necessary, in order to secure the entire quantity of gold contained in the mercury, to have recourse to the retort, by which means I completely removed the fluid mercury by volatilization over a alow fire ; the residue being a button of metal weighing fourteen grains. This metal presented all the appearances of metallic lead, being easily cut with a knife,; the > part so cut presenting at first a bright metallic lusture, which quickly oxidized, becoming dull. I next liberated the gold by immersion in strong nitric acid, which became of a milky white colour. The gold, when removed from the white precipitate, still remained mixed with a fine black powder, which, however,formed so small a portion of the mass as not, in my opinion, to seriously affect the weight of the compound, which in this form amounted to six grains. Not considering it safe to decide by this test, I subjected four other samples of equal weight with the first ten pounds, to the same process, from which T obtained, after the volatilization i of the mercury, nearly similar weights of metal. Not being satisfied as to the nature or quantity of the metals produced in my first analysis, I determined to subject one of the masses of metal so obtained, to an assay by smelting, which I performed in a cupel made of finely pulverised bone-ashes. Having placed the metal in a cavity made for its reception in the cupel, I covered both cavity and metal with a dome-shaped piece of well-tempered clay, which I perforated with a small hole for the escape of gases. I then placed the cupel so covered in a blacksmith's fire, and isubjected it to a white heat. This process completely baked the clay to an intense hardness, and when broken showed in the cupel a small button of apparently fine gold, weighing five grains, around which was a deposit of a silver coloured metal. "From the foregoing, I conclude that the white precipitate obtained in the acid is due to the presence of zinc,- arid it may be imagined from the cupel, that the black powder referred to was highly oxidised silver. As the present pressing nature of ray duties would not afford me sufficient time to ascertain, beyond gold, the metals actually contained in this reef, I hope that this analysis will be considered sufficiently complete. From the foregoing tests, lam of the opinion that the fair average yield of the American reef, as far as it has been excavated, is about two and a half ounces to the ton. Mining Survey Office, Clyde, 23rd May, 1865.—Daily Times, June 14.