THE BALLARAT MURDERER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 125, 28 May 1891, Page 3

THE BALLARAT MURDERER.

M *W«*«# teamen* reived a tele gramthfi otitt dsr from Dnnedin a to W** A|two fa the butters " Lette to-xtorajr,» Wfcioh Win^luterptetDa, mean ■* V » ifi, had at tw< o olook •• taken a turn for the better," ' t * n ? Chnnicle oontraats th< 6har«ofc4tiatlosofSirH. Atkiasbn and Mi Ballaneffitt the following terms :— "Of thi last Government Sir Harry Atkinson wai the head. Of the present Mr Ballanoe is th< tail, When Sir Harry spoke, he spoke &s the Government. When Mr Ballanoe Breaks, h< speaks barely aa au individual, liable t< correction by Mesara Soddon or Mackenzie. 1

Tbj nwfim ttt J^ei 1 JohnitoD f . the perpetrator ofetta Jteckfog Wg«dr»'or w*toi ol tragedies, eaaoled at BaUarat, in December iMt «u to ban taken place jeiterday momIng, bat the prisoner obtained a respite at Jhe iMt uinate. The circumstance* which led on to the postponement of the execution were of a strange obaraoier. Johnston's oasehad bean f ally oonaidered by the Executive Oouqoil, and notwithstanding that strong pressure was brought to prevent the carrying bat of the oapital sentence, on the plea that the prisoner was insane when he murdered his wife and children, it was determined that his exeoation should take plaoe along with that of a oriminAl eonvioted of a •hooking outrage on a young girl, at ten o'clock yesterday morning, at the Ballarat gaol At midnight three medical men obtained admittanoe to the gaol, and as the result of an examination of the oondemned a»a, two of them pro&oauoed him to bo insane, aad prepared oetfcifioatea to that effect, A telegram waa immediately sent to the Gorernor in Melbourne, asking that the weoßtion ajight be stayed in oonsequenoe. Tfiis telegram reached the Governor at half. past two in the morning. He replied thut the law most take ite course, but at nine 0 olook, just an hour before the time fixed for the exeoation, his Exoellenoy received the following telegram from Mr I', D, Wanless, oif Ballarat s— •• The Rev. Mr Cairns has sent me your last telegram. Pardon my pointing out th&t insanity, duly certified by two medical men, is' now regarded In Britain as a bar to the carrying out of legal sentenoe, detention as a criminal lnnatio daring her Majesty's pleasure being the alternative. Weald, therefore, roßpeotloily urge your Exeellenoy to May" exeomion pending ooncnltation with the law officers, placing on them the teriiblo responsibility cow iavolveiHi- - Afwr «oii*al»6tion with lOtna of his advisers, hi« Excellenoy sent ttascagei to the Bherifl and Governor of the Ballarat Oao) to stay the exeouiion. The latter message did not reaeh the gaol until ten minutes before the execution, so that Johnston was almostjnatohed from nis doom. A special meeting jjf-tbe Executive Oounoil WRb held in the figfejqoon, at which it was decided to posipo.be the execution for a week pending an examination of Johnston by a Oledioal Board. Ihe general feeling is that Jobnston'a reprieve has been aeonred by a clever move on the part of hia sympathisers, and that if the Medioai 1 Board decide that he is sane, tne aanfcenoe will not now be carried out. • -.:,.," ."•• Johnston, who had slept soundly during the night, anfl^ate ft 1 ' hearty breakfast, did not show aayWrkedcbiflge on being iuformedof the^pdstortliemdat. In his final interview with hjA reEtions he always ex. pressed a great deiire to '.meet death, whioh he said only appealed to him like going to a foreign country. He also said that he knew that it meant being again united to his wife and ohild. Up to the present he has denied nil knowledge of the tragedy, but says that according to the evidence given at the trial his sentence waa juat, ' ; Last weak, when informed of the final decision of the s Executive, he. wrote to the Bherifl. making the following requests :— 41 {1} That my wife's love letters be enoloaed in my oafl^an,d. buriedl with me ; \2) That I he alhjwed W gjvft.my two Bisters .and aisters-ia-jaw,, •/look . of my hair ; ,(0) That aU my Q)kfaw W h*nded over to; my, sisters And brothers j (1) That no one be allowed to take anj.impreaqion of. my.feattues, as I do not want the wax works or anyone else to exhibit to the'sortow'ot my 1 friends hereAfter; (6), That on. the morning of my exeoatfoß whan! I leave for the scaffold lio aoMtMßlra asied, 1 die innpoent wi|h iny God aad ,^t;p«ao«,wjth him, , Wha»as io be done do OttlflUy, ! Jab, Jotiiißxok. God's iriUNttM?' .'r'.'VVn," ",-■ '■ WOn Friday, m wrote the f ojldwing . epitaph which ha. deiired to be , plaoed on . the tombstone over the gra,ves of bif wife and obildren: ol Mary Qpuney JohnitoQt ibtuuJjgYjja yniia' o( JUutbo Johuuton, bud theii oj^ildien, Mary, Saby/ Gordon,, and Pearl,' wftp im }*}■ If^arat ou }h« Bth Dooember, 1890/.V i , . . , ; , , , -_ ( . , „ [JohnstOA Jbt»s, since been

THREE CENTURIES have tolled by since Baooo eaid " Coffee oomfortetb the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion," Usa Obbasb'{ A. 1, Goreiß, Bold only in lib, and 21b tIOB, STANLEY SAYS: "After all there ii nothing beats a cup of goodOoflee." If you would sojny Booh, drink Crbasb's A. I Oofieb, Sold only in lib, aud 2ib, tiue.

MrG&rifeMortdn.a farmer 'at Waimate, WM nearly^goro. to %ath last Wednesday morning .% a young.feull, Ho was in the act of tuning' fine el the farm gates, when the animal attacking him towed him about And gored him I 'in a fearfal mariner, An J employee, seeing 'the aooideht, 1 ran to the usutanoa of Air Morten, 'and had great difficulty in getting the, animal away, ; Idr, Morton atpresentfiß in a critical condition,' and fears are entertained < &*> ¥f reoovery. Tk&Otaoo Daily Tithe* of a'reoeht date Bays:— At the meeting of the Education Board yesterday protestr were received on various ground! against' the elections of tight Mhool 'oonimittetß throughout the diatriot. In two oasee— those of Lovell's Fiat and Beaoliff— the eleotionswere deolared to be noil and void; and. in two others the decision of the Board Was deferred pending the receipt of farther information. In the remaining' inbtanoet the elections were up held, Complaintd were, made of undue interferen,oe in the election* by teachers in two districts," and the Board diredted that an explanation Bhotald be required from them of their wtioh. "It was reported that in 15 diitriota no election' had taken place. K/The Marton Mtreury has no objeotion to ftMiniater of Industry, if the coat of the governing maonine be not increased ; but it think* that there will be a difficulty in finding the man at the price, "It must be done gratis, as there oanrot be more than five pail -Ministers, Who is the able man in the Government ranks who is willing to devote bis services to the country free, gratis, and' all' for nothing— the barren honour of being a.real, live Honourable ox« oepted? He musV be a shrewd business man, untainted with faddism. Such men are hard to find on either side of the present House.?;.; „, „ , ; In the course of a chat with an Auckland Herald representative, Captain D, H. M'Kenthe well-known shipmaster, who has recently returned to. the colony from a couple of trips with the brigantine Stanley to Durban, gave some interesting particulars regarding affairs In Natal. The place is a fairly busy one, but it ie sot a poor man's country ; the only branoh of labour whiok at present is in demand is that of good meohanics—plumbers, carpenters, • engineers, and the like. Labourers are not needed, Bimply because of the Kaffirs performing at low wages all the heavy unskilled work required. ■ Theße Native*, who are all 'Strong limbed fellows, work f harder, and European navvies cannot oompete with them in the olimate. General business-- what, may be termed shopkeeplng— is fairly remunerative, but in all the towns there are few opportunities for new star ten now. Farming' ie carried on with saooess, and there are good openings for master fanners wiihjSpjae capital, but a poor nhneHdr 1 agricultural labourer in rather out of his element there. The gal" Unt skipper jqomes baok, like all, Auoklanders; who travel, the.- .deep impression that New Zealand « is, after all, the best of the colonies, African or Australasian. A Sjdney oontemporary ol the Ist inst, publlaheii , the following telegram from i(s Waga W»ga . ooKedpondent J~An exireaely daogerona onibreak of .diphtheria has ooonrred to tha residents o* Alfredtown, abont ten miles distant from Wagga. In a family named 1 Adams five ohildren died at one time. The parents of (be ohildren were so ill that they were adsble to assist the others. An old woman named WHgbt, aged 72, living at Kyimbi Greek, a fev miles away, volunteered to nur6e,A4amp, oontraoted the disease, and oaoswbtod &«l4»dAy > morning. One o! seven •unrivQis or tha AdimS family U in a very precarious cobdilion. : The whole were ie- • moveof'td i.tenl near the house where they have Been oonflaed for Borne time, Ono of the girls who reoorered waa recently an inmate' of the hospital, spffering from p»rftlysi<, It is proposed to destroy Adams's housei whiob Is of little value, the roof being constructed ol bark, tho walls of slabs, and so btdlyßat»pgitherthftk between the most of them the wind easily penetrates. A newly-married woman, the bride of a fortnight, aamed Prisoill* Petriob, oom» mitted sujoide in Sydney. a few days ago because, poor boul, she oouldn't cook. If all other. wives similarly situated were to follow her, aad example there would be a terrible number of gaps in this year s census paperß, ,. The danger ie not imminent, however, , Oaptajn Ah Glnn, of the logger Keystone, one W'tna oldest aud most popular and rsipflOted beohe-de-mer fishers and traders tn Mew Guinea, was murdered by natives on the western side, of Hormanby Island about a monta ago, Captain Ah Ginn had com* menoed fishing,, and four o! bis men were ashore patting op a station, wbile two others were on bo'arathe logger; There were also a number of natives on board, one of whom stabbed the oaptain in the breast with a spear/ wliioh^e .shortened in' his hand for the paifpoie.' One»dooi?nt sUVes that the oaptain drew bis Bworcj fend ran' the native through the head aV'he was -swimming away frow the. vessel. ! Another aocount gtatetl that Ah ; Ginn shot 86teral of the a natives : in the water they having' -jumped , overboard imme diately afiei: the attaok. The oaptain, who waa mortally wounded, died two days after* wards. His men buried his body on Duohess Island, jkpdJ. then- brought the vessel into Samarat and reported the murder to the Oov^nmfnt^bMf de < m J> r ,,^»«Ptor, who fUitwwe^pptand loung. (he; tioay, whioh deofpj^t^i, v l *^^ &Wi n tr i been : jtoHider ; w«>; pl^or, M Captain Ah