THE Mount Ida Chronicle AND St. Bathans Weekly News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1880. THE KYEBURN MURDER.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 571, 21 August 1880, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle AND St. Bathans Weekly News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1880. THE KYEBURN MURDER.

Mxstebx has shroudedthe murder at Kyeburn since the morning ou which its committal was made known. The efforts of the police to discover the perpetrators have been unavailing ; and, indeed, after the first day or two' nothing else was expected. The murderers were sufficiently well acquainted with the details of their horrible work to refrain from takinc away any trifle from the house, afte'r they failed to find the money which they believed was in it, and which was doubtless the object of their assault. Only one ray of light is shed over the matter. . Mrs Young, when dying, distinctly said that the perpetrators were " Chinamen." As she gave the same answer when twice questioned,.Jt is to be presumed that she was conscious at the time. Her last words ring in our ears ; and, whenever we think of the horrible affair, her words,, and their purport, crowd upon our imagination.

For death gives life's last words a power to live, And, like the stone-cut epitaph, remain After the vanquished voice, and speak to men. la addition to the dying words of the mui'dered woman we have certain evidence, which tends to confirm our belief* that the perpetrators were Chinamen. The manner of the murder is not European. The descendants of the Western Nations of the Great Continent, unfortunately, have committed las great crimes as this, but their ordinary manner of murder is not the same. Sudden dispatch, with a knife, stick, or pistol, is their style, and it would only be in the greatest emergency that the process evidently used at the Kyeburn would be employed. Everything points to the perpetrators being Chinese. The tracing of a murder is generally a perplexing and sometimes imDpssibte thing, but in this instance the difficulties are very greatly increased by the fact that all communication with the suspected Chinese has to be effected through the medium of an interpreter. The embarrassment is also much increased by the fact that none of the Chinese will give the slightest assistance to further the ends of justice. When a capital crime is committed by a European, every respectable member of the community does what he can to assist in capturing and punishing the criminal. But the Chinese in this district do exactly the reverse. Every possible obstacle is thrown m the way of the police. They cannot see that until this matter is cleared up an unpleasant imputation rests upon the whole ')f the race, and that it is to the interest of every man among them to do what he can to help the officers of the law. If the nonimplicated Chinese would assist as heartily as Europeans would in similar circumstances there is but little doubt that the existing mystery would be quickly cleared up. The intricacy of the affair was reported to the Government, we presume, and the offering of a good reward was suggested, with a free pardon to an accomplice. The Government, in response, has offered a free pardon, as suggested, but the reward is only £IOO. For all practical purposes it would have been as well if no reward had been offered. We imagine nothing but a very great- temptation would induce a man to give up information which would make him a traitor to his confederates, and would show, by his own confession, that he himself was as bad as they, in assisting, or quietly standing by, while they performed such a foul deed. No one will say that the reward offered is

likelj to tempt even a Chinaman, notwithstanding that a pound is worth doublt. as much to him as it is to a European. We regret very much that we must blame the Government for their action in this matter. They do not seem to have recognised the magnitude of the crime. Their action is an insult and an outrage on the feelings of the residents of the district. It is not an uncommon thing for double the amount now offered to be allowed in the case of the burning of a stack. v\ e hope the matter will be again represented to them, for it is of the very utmost importance that the perpetrators should be convicted, and we can hardly hope that the police will be able to gather sufficient circumstantial evidence to do it. It is important, in more than an ordinary degree, that this matter should I be unravelled. If it is not, it will have a very bad effect upon the Chinese mind. We know that the morals and principles of this race are very different from ours, and that it is only for fear of consequences that many of our laws are respected by them. Ever since the Chinese came to the Colonies they have been credited with the committal of innumerable small peches, but fear has restrained them from great offences. It is well known that the ordinary Chinaman entertains an almost superstitious dread of a policeman and a court. He seems to have an undefinable dread of the law, which is greatly owing, no doubt, to his having only a very hazy notion of what our laws are. He has found by experience that it is a risky thing to go into a man's farmyard and walk off with a duck ; that it is not safe to rob a miner's tailrace; that hitting a man on the head with a shovel, even though under provocation, cannot be allowed; and that it is much the safest to be the owner of a ri»ht before engaging in mining. But t crime that has been committed at the Kyeburn quite surpasses anything that has ever happened here before, and there as y.. j t appears to be a fair chance of the perpetrators getting off scatheless. The impression that will be conveyed if this should be the case, will be that it is only with minor offences that the law can deal, and that, to be safe, it is only necessary to commit' a great crime. Now this is an impression that should not go unchecked, not only in the interests of the colony at large, but especially in the interests of the country districts, where opportunities too frequently exist for cowardly and murderous attacks to be made on people living in isolated places. Considerable disquiet prevails in this district, and will continue to do so until the mystery is cleared up. "We hope that the Government will recognise what is their duty, and do what lies in their power to bringthe murderers to justice. We think that, so far, they have not done so. [After going to press ouThursdaj evening one of the prisoners made a statement, which will, it is hoped, lead to a conviction. Vide, "latest news."—Ed. MLC]

The report of the Railway Commission ig pregnant with contradictions of every conceivable character. Engineers and surveyors of high reputation in the profession, the shining lights in their own departments in the great Civil Service of New Zealand, honorable members of both houses of Parliament, and the leading and influential citizens who composed the numerous deputations which interviewed the distinguished gentlemen of the Commission, contradicted each other in their evidence in the heartiest' manner possible as to the necessity for this or that line of railway, and the fertility of the land in this or that district. So much so is this the case that, to the unprejudiced reader, it must be a work of great difficulty to arrive at a definite and satisfactory conclusion. Others again have given evidence very wide of the mark, andsomejfar short of* it. Some have sinned wilfully, others have erred unintentionally. Some have given their opinions based from personal observations, while others have assumed a knowledge they never possessed. IV the latter class evidently belongs Mr George Fache, who at Clyde, and before the Commission, made the following remarkable statement, after observing that the Dunstan Valley would be aa productive as any spot in the whole of the British possessions—"l " am well acquainted with the Manio- " toto Plains, and with the capabilities " of the country. The'plains are twenty " miles long, and from two to four " miles wide." Like the noted Kailway Commission Mr Fache must have passed over the Plains in the dark, or in that happy state of mind a>.in to the feelings of Tarn o'Chanter, "o'er a' " the ills o' life victorious."