LATEST FROM WELLINGTON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 115, 18 July 1866, Page 2

LATEST FROM WELLINGTON.

The" Wellington Advertiser of the 13th instant, states, that Mr. Stafford obtained leave on Wednesdayevening to _ introduce a bill to amend the law relating -to Indictable Offences. ■ . The - obj ect of this . : measure, as stated by the hon. gentleman is that the murderers;.' at i pre'sentdn "Nelson- may be tried elsewhere. Under the existing law the boundaries of provinces have to be considered, and the offences committed .within them must also be tried within thera.. The. system is decidedly a bad one, and its evils are forcibly illustrated- in this horrible case, further particulars', of, which we publish to-day. Some of .the crimes committed by these men were in the -Province, of Nelson, , some in Canterbury, and some' in Otago, and there would have been a necessity for trying" 'them -in each province, whicli this, measure is intended, to obviate. It will also enable the G,o vernment to have them tried inany part of the colony, and is right in this that in judicial matters there should be no subdivisions of the country as now exist. It will be seen- bythe report of the proceedings^ theKbuseof Representatives that it is the inten-. tion of. Government to: take advantage of the' New Act, when passed,, to have the men removed to Wellington for trial.'. Of course, though the Act maybe said to have been prompted by this Maungatapu.case, it will hold good with all other cases, and be the law of the land for the future. Mr. Stafford said this question also involved the difficulty of the . different Judicial districts which at present existed, and which had induced the Government to introduce the bill which he had moved on a previous evening. There was a doubt even whether the jury of one province could try men for crimes committed in another; and in this instance the crimes had been committed in no less than three provinces. This was a matter of the greatest-doubt, and it had been thought tiuat some such bill as this should be introduced before auy action was taken, otherwise the men might have to be tried in three different places. A petition has been got up in Wellington againstthe removal of the prisoners from Nelson; and it is understood that the Government have not positively decided on the course they wili take, but that they are liable to be. influenced by the representations of the Nelson Crown Prosecutor, who has gone to Wellington for the purpose of conferring with the General Government upon the subject. In addition to this we are informed, on good authority, that a deputation of'Nelson members had an interview with the Colonial Secretary, and represented the views entertained by the public of Nelson, as expressed by the Superintendent, the Resident Magistrate, and the Search Committee. Mr. Stafford informed the deputation that the matter should bn carefully reconsidered, and gave them to understand the trial would be allowed to take place in Nelson.

We learn from the Hokitika Chronicle, of the 16th inst., that a petition is now iu course of signature by the inhabitants of Hokitika, embodying a request to Sir George Grey that the murderers — Burgess and his gang — shall be sent from Nelson to Westland, instead of Wellington, as the Government now propose. The reasons alleged, for this mode of action are principally the necessity that exists for setting au example aud warning to the disreputable characters known to infest the towns and golunelds of Westland, and who give our police au infinity of trouble in the detection of their nefarious malpractices; aud also, that the necessity may be done away with of drafting the most efficient members of the Westland police as witnesses against the murderers. A mass of rascality abounds iu Westland as a necessary consequence, arising primarily from the prosperity of the country as a gold field, attracting the scum of colonial scoundrelism hither ; and secondly from the mauy chances that exist for a criminal to pursue a lengthened career of crime in defiance of all attempt at detection. Westlaud, to the thief and the murderer, is as the favorite hunting ground to the Indian, rich in victims and full of secret hiding places. The temptations to crime are many, and the defective state of the present laws allow even kuown criminals of the blackest stamp to concoct their deeds of villany under the very eyes of a vigilant police service. To bring the murderers, whose names are uttered with bated breath, and whose deeds are spoken of with shuddering horror, --back into our very midst, at first mention seems a repulsive idea, aud many, doubtless, when asked to sign the petition will say,' let them' he tried and ' condemned where they now are, rather than ruu the slightest risk of their escape during re-

one, but if the Government deem it expedient tochauge the place of trial, then we concur in the prayer of the petition, and hold that Westlaud is the proper place to bring the murderers to. The following appears in the Grey River Argus of the Hth : — From certain information in possession of the police it is more than suspected that the " other storekeeper" mentioned by Sullivan as having been murdered in the Grey district was no other than Mr. Watts, who kept the iron store on the Arnold Track, not for from Greymouth. It wiii be remembered that the deceased was found dead, face downwards, in a creek near the liouse, having only a few inches of water iu it. No money was found on his person, but a ring, with his initials, was left on his finger — -just the system adopted by Burgess and Kelly's gang to divert suspicion. At the time of his death Mr. Watts was believed by those with whom he was in the habit of dealing, to have about £30 011 him. If we remember aright, no post mortem examination was made prior to the inquest. — The same journal also says : — The river has again given up another relic of mortality under circumstances strongly suggestive of past crime. On Wednesday last Mr. Henry Mitchell, a storekeeper at the Arnold Junction, found the body of a man floating in the water at the junction of the Grey and Arnold Rivers. The body had evidently been in the water a long time ; it wanted the head, and both lesrs were broken. There was nothing whatever by which it could be recognised. Information was at once given to the police at the Twelve Mile; and the Warden and some constables came down, viewed the body, and caused it to be buried. The circumstances of the legs being broken, appears incompatible with the idea that death had occurred from simple drowning, and points either to previous accident or murderous violence. The Gothenburg left Hokitika for Melbourne, on Saturday last. Fine weather favored her during the trip. The W. C. Times of the 14th, reports that some further arrests were made yesterday, of parties suspected of complicity iu the stealing of arms from the Police Camp, and the other and more serious crimes which have followed, A mounted constable, who arrived in Hokitika, on the 13th, reports that he had been told by an innkeeper at the Arahura, that the body of a man had been secu washed up by the surf on the beach, but that the efforts made to recover it were fruitless, the waters carrying it back again to the sea. It apparently drifted to the north. The Gothenburg which sailed from Hokitika for Melbourne on Saturday, took with her 16,358 ozs. 1 dwt. of gold; 2750 ozs. of which were from the Grey, aud the remainder from here ; 4000 ozs. being from the Bank of New South Wales, 3000 ozs. from the Union Bank, 6596 ozs. 1 dwt. from the Bank of New Zealand, and the remaining 12 ozs. were takeu by one of the passengers. The following telegrams from Greymouth to Hokitika, were published on the 14th inst. Mr. Watts the storekeeper has been found dead, with his face downAvards in a water hole, about four miles from Greymouth, on the Arnold track. He is believed to be the ether victim spoken of by Sullivan. The body of a mau, minus his head, aud with both leg bones broken, has been found at the Arnold junction. Information has been forwarded to Hokitika, that Mr. Donkin the Engineer of the Dunedin Waterworks has been arrested and brought up at the Resident Magistrate's Court, on a serious charge of embezzlement. From the Grey River Argus of Saturday last, we extract the following: — The amount of revenue received at the Custom House yesterday on gold cleared for export was £343 155., representing' 2,750 ounces. The revenue received on goods cleared for home consumption yesterday was £110 10s. 9d., and to-day it wfls°£l3B 19s. 2d. A correspondent writing to the Daily Southern Cross from Ngarnawabia, June 29, states :— ln my last I mentioned the fact of some of the Waikato natives having become disaffected. I am now in a position to state moval. This opinion is, we think, the general

that many have burnt their whares and gone off. Dozens of known rebels almost daily visit the militia settlements. A sovereign a pound has been offered for gunpowder,, and 1 5s. a box for caps. Some time ago the native women frequented the stores to buy up eylet-holes and lucifer9. Perhaps only a semi-savage could conceive the idea of an eylet-hole and the combustible end of a match as a substitute for a percussion cap. Is not the Government acting in a impolitic manner to reduce almost every staff in Waikato at the present juncture? Raglan is a high road, though a difficult one, to the delta of Waikato, and that place may yet require a stronger force. The D S. Cross states : — On Monday evening, the 25th June, a luminous appearance was seen towards the eastward, at half-past six, in Middle Waikato. It continued above the horizon for about forty minutes. Many on the frontier settlements believed it to be a native signal, as it is thought that rebels are in that direction. Others esteemed it to be the precursor of a storm, since which time there have been heavy gales, with terrific thunderstorms iu Waikato. At Kihikihi the phenomenon presented the appearance of a red meteor, but to Mr. De Thioerry, who was travelling with some natives on the west coast, it appeared a bright amber color. The natives became frightened, and many believed it to be the harbinger of some disastrous event. The Maoris are not singular in their dread of unusual appearances in the heavens. Many of the untutored iu astronomy, in the old world, look upon comets and meteors as forerunners of war, pestilence, and famine. Amongst other hints for the welfare of Southland, the Daily News says: — MrStewart suggests the formation of a mailing company, which he says would at once open a market (now closed to agriculturists) for the production of good barley — at once a boou and an inducement to the farmer to produce it — thereby causing a greater extent of land to be brought under cultivation, adding considerably to the resources of the colony, &c. The Hawke's Bay correspondent of the D. S. Cross says : — Our Turauga natives appear regularly cowed. They are ready to entertain any suggestion made them by Mr. M'Lean. Such being the case, the sooner Turanga is settled, the better. I should be sorry to see their interests entirely ignored, and am persuaded bis Honor would be the last man in New Zealand to lend himself to auy measures by which the natives should be oppressed, further than the just retribution they have brought on themselves by their extreme folly, fostered, I am grieved to say, by some of our countrymen, who have written them again and again on the King and Hau-hau movements, possibly the same writer who is now requesting the Waikatos to wait "till the tide falls." The Taranaki Herald, in an article headed, '* Are the troops to stay ?" makes the following statement : — It is said, on good authority, that the Premier has consented to an arrangement by which, three regiments are to be retained in the colony, the latter paying the stipulated head-money of £40 each man, or say in round numbers (aud to be within mark) £100,000 a-year to the Home Government; the only condition asked for by our Government being that the troops should be allowed to garrison out-posts, instead of be'ng massed in the chief towns. Ii; is with great satisfaction we (Herald) learn that, when the Rangatira left Wanganui, Major M-Donnellhad arrived at that place from Y-Zellington, having received instructions from the General Government to raise a force composed of military settlers and the Native Contingent, for the purpose of marching against the Ngatiruanui, and punishing them for their recent outrages. Stirring news may, therefore, soon be looked for. We understand Major M-Donnell will be left, entirely unfettered in his military operations. Upwards of 1,400 signatures have been received by Mr. Buller to the Manawatu Deed of Cession, aud it is expected that most of the remaining signatures will be obtained. The members of the tribes are so widely scattered that to obtain some 1,800 signatures is au undertaking of no ordinary difficulty.

Poverty would appear to be on the increase in Taranaki." The News has a leading article on the prevailing distress, and the following local paragraph : — "ln the present dull times wheu so many working men are going about idle, we hope that employers of labor will take notice of an advertisement which appears in this day's issue, desiring them to leave their names with Sergeant Dunn, who is furnished Avith a list of the names of those who are unable to procure work. It is impossible for the Government, in its present circumstances, to snpply work to all who ask for ifc, eveu, at a cheap rate ; and we hope therefore that those who scruple justly at the present dearness of labor will find themselves suited hy making application to the quarter we have mentioned." From Wanganui papers we learn thafc ' about '2so of the Upper Wanganui Hau-haus, headed by Topine, have givon in their allegiance.