OPOTIKI.

Marlborough Press, Volume VIII, Issue 31, 31 July 1867, Page 4

OPOTIKI.

TWO FATAL ACCIDENTS. FINDING OF TIIE BODIES OF MOORE AND beggs. MUTILATION OF BODIES OF WHITE AND THE NR AW A. ATTACK.ON THE SURVEYORS AT Oil IW A. (Front the Auckland News.) Oi'oTna, June 93. The evidence of the native who found the dead bodies of the murdered men, Mr White and the Arawa native, may he condensed into tiie following brief statement : Yesterday, lie and his nephew were on their way to litis settlement. The nephew, whose horse was jaded, was lagging a considerable way behind. When he reached tHo Waiotahi, a small river about four miles from this place, lie saw the footprimss of a number of natives in the uunl, and not knowing whether the tracks were those of friendly natives or of Ilati-baus,he took oil: ids hat and waved it to his nephew to hasten up. When lie came up, they crossed the river, and then he looked up the river and saw a party of armed natives. They saw him, too, and fired, but without effect, as they were at too great a distance from him. ITe came along the beach as fast as he could towards the camp, and saw on Lite beach, below high-water mark, two headless bodies lying on the sand, the feet pointed to the shore. He could not identify them at the time, hut came on and reported the circumstance to Major St. John as soon as lie came into the camp. As soon as they could be got; together, about 20 of the cavalry, under Captain Gwynneth, and about 50 of the militia, under Major St.John, crossed tiie Waioeka, and hastened to tiie scene of the slaughter. Might overtook the party before they reached the place. They remained under arms on the beach all night, and at the first glimpse of dawn Captain Gwynneth took a party of his men and proceeded along the beach towards the Oiiiwa. They found that tiie horses on which Mr Bennett White and the mailman rode were both dead, having been shot. The party then returned. On their way back they saw an owl perched on some drift-wood, and, searching amongst it, they found a head, which they knew at once to he that of Air White. The crown of the head and back part of the skull were fearfully gashed liy the tomahawks of the ruthless savages. There was a bullet wound on the corner of the left eye, which must have caused instant death ; and, from the placid appearance of the countenance in death, [ think it may he inferred that the bullet wound was the cause of death, and that tiie butchery was perpetrated on the body when it was no longer susceptible of pain. The head was placed in a coffin, and intened this evening at ,3 o’clock. July 1. The body of Mr White, being recovered, is being interred, the grave having been opened in order ! to deposit the mangled body in the same eoilin ; which a tew days before had been interred, containing only the head. Tiie corpse presented so ghastly a spectacle that tiie few spectators who went to look tit it turned away shuddering, ami

sick at the stomach. From the armpits down to the hips, on either side, the flesh had been cut away ; the calves of the logs, and fleshy parts of the thighs, were denuded in the same manner ; the body was ripped open, and disembowelled ; and all the posterior parts of belli bodies were cut away in the same manner. The day after the murder of Mr White and his companion, Mr Henderson and his party of surveyors, who were at work on the Oliiwa, were fired on by the same party. Some friendly natives had just time to warn them of the approach of the Hau-haua, and they ran for their lives. Mr Henderson endeavored to save his instrument, and carried it as far as lie could, but was finally compelled to throw it away in order to save his life.

Major St. John and the officers and men of the expedition, numbering about 50, returned from the gorges of the Waioeka, where they have been endeavoring for the last three days to find some traces of the enemy. Doth officers and men endured great hardships during their stay in the bush, short as it was. One poor fellow named Walsh, belonging to the Ist- Waikato Regiment-, was drowned in attempting to cross one of the reaches of the Waioeka by means of a rope. He lost, bis footing, struggled for a while to retain bis hold of the rope, but was carried away by the violence of the flood despite all the exertions of his comrades to save him.

July 2. . The first news I heard this morning was, that there was a man burned to death during the night. I went immediately to the spot indicated, and there saw the burned corpse of a man named William Dunn, of the Ist Waikato Regiment. The coroner’s jury, after viewing the body, and being satisfied of its identity, returned the following verdict: —“ That William Dunn came by his death accidentally, by being burned while in a state of intoxication.” July 3. News came into camp this morning that the remains of Moore and Deggs had been found by a Maori. A party of twenty-five men, under Ensign Lawson, was despatched to Waioeka, to bring what was left of the murdered men, which turned out to he only the bare skeletons, all the flesh having been weeks ago devoured by Maori dogs and birds of prey. The remains of Moore and Deggs have just been laid in their graves.