INQUEST ON THE BODY OF GEEMAN I CHARLIE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 28, 5 March 1868, Page 8

INQUEST ON THE BODY OF GEEMAN I CHARLIE.

Minutes of an Inquest held before me, Gkaeam Lobt) Gkeenwood, on the body of Charles (known as Smith or Martin), a German, at Tarndale, in the Province of Nelson, New Zealand, on the Second day of February, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. The following persons, having answered to their names, elected Adolph Wiesenhavern as their Foreman :— Adolph Wiesenhavern (Foreman), George Guillet, Charles Matthews, George Leighton, Geovgo Goble, Matthew Green, John Slow, James Eushton, Eichard Kemp, David Thow. After being duly sworn, they viewed the body, on which two wounds were | visible — one at the back, eloso below the shoulderblade, and close to the arm as it would hang naturally from the shoulder, and on the right sido ; the other on the left side, in front, just below the rib?, about two and a-half inches from the central line clown the body. Charles Sparrow, being sworn, said : I am a bricklayer and brickmaker. Last Wednesday, about ja' quarter to five, p.m., the 29th December, ISG7, a stranger to me rode up to the win- | dow of this room, and stopped about four j lor five minutes at most, on horseback. I I was working at the brickyard at the time, with a man known as Charlie the German, about a quarter of a mile off; he camo to me at tho brickyard. I was putting off a barrow of bricks into the hacks. He said, " Good evening." I said, " Good evening, sir." He said, "Is there anybody at the station ?" I said, "No, sir, thoy are all down at (he woolshed, except us two." He had a gun on his left shoulder, when speaking to me, and while speaking, moved it, and placed it across tho left arm, just above the wrist.- I was about twenty-five or thirty yards off my mate at this time. He said, " Charlie, I have a letter for you," speaking to my mate, and immediately I heard the report of his gun. He then rode away past me as hard as his horse could carry him. He came within two yards of me. I looked up at him, and he at me, as he passed, but neither spoke. I then went up a slight rise, about ten yards off, to see which way he went. I saw him galloping hard towards the Clarence. I then went to Charlie, aud asked him what wa3 the matter; and he replied, " That man has shot me." I then usked his name, and he said, " Ivy Augavde." I said, " Is that the man you had a fuss with a fow weeks ago?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Tako me home to the house, if you can." Ho dropped after I began to talk to him. I asked him if he could walk to the house. Ho said, "No." I carried him about half way to the house. He said, "Put me down, I cannot go any further j I have such a pain." Ho said, "I am goiug to din ; turn me over on to my face." I said " Charlie, I will go to the Accommodation-house, and see if I can get help to carry you." He said " Yes do, and make haste back as quick as you can." I met Mr. Edward Hope about half a mile from tho house, at the end of the lake. I told him what had happened ; he then roile hard to the Accommoda-tion-house. Mr. Shrimpton "was there, and camo over with the keeper of the house, George Goble. I told Mr. Hope I thought he would be dead before we got thero ; we went back as fast as we could, and found him dead. Mr. Hope helped with others to carry him to the house close by. By a Juror : I found him in the same position as when I left him. When Augardo got to the house we heard him cooey, and Charlie answered him. Charlie said, " I don't know who it is j it is perhaps some travellers, or some one from the station ; ho has a horse, let him come over here." While standing, before he fell, Charlie said he could not see roe. Henry Watson, from Mr. Carter's, was hero two days before, and stayed two or three hours talking to Charlie. Ido not know what passed between them. I have heard some talk about a letter being opened, about which there was some dispute, but Charlie never said anything to me about it. I identify the body in the next room as that of Charlie, the German. From the time Augarde spoke to me, to the time I heard the shot fired, T kept on with my work without looking up. I did not see him in the act of firing. Whilst carrying Chavlie, he said nothing about the cause of his being shot ; he only talked about some land near Melbourne. Charles Sparrow, recalled, said : I have seen a body lying near the Alma, it is the body of the man whom I believe fired ; Mr. Goble and Mr. Shrimpton were with me. Mr. Goble believed it to be the body of Ivanhoe Augarde. I had been told by Kemp that Ivy Augarde was dead, and went on Thursday morning to see the body, and remained there by the body till lato in the evening. Percy Augavde, being sworn, said : I came here from Nelson, Friday, the 2-i-th January last, and saw my brother Ivanhoe next day, and stopped with him that night, and the next Monday night, and I then, on tho Tuesday, went with him to Mr. Carter's station, where we stopped Tuesday night. He wrote some seven letters that night ; one to Thomas Cavtev, one to James Carter, one to George Gee, one to Miss Gee, one to Moffnt, and two to myself. I saw the two letters to myself on Wednesday, about three in the afternoon, and read both of them [letters produced and read*'], no said nothing to me of what he intended to do to Chavlie the German, but mentioned tho quarrel, and asked me what he should do. I said he ought to horsewhip him. Tho next day Mr. Shrimpton told me my brother was dead, and I started soon after to where he was lying dead. By a Juror : I told no one on Wednesday of what the letters of my brother contained. I told no one till I had heard of his death. I had no motive for concealing the contents. I camo to the Clarence because my brother wrote for mo to come. I did not suppose he meant to destroy himself. My brother did not ask me any questions about who were at Tarndale. I do not know, and had not heard the contents of a letter to Miss Gee. I found my brother shot near the Alma. Watson and Murphy * The following letters were produced. One of the two to Percy Augarde appeared to bo a draft of that given below :—: — "Clarence Station, Jan. 28. " Mr. Percy Attgabde, "My dear Brother— l bid you good-bye. We shall never meet, again in this world. lam very sorry to leave you, but it must be. I leave you all I have in the world ; all is yours. You can get my mare when she comes from the Wairau Valley. You must go to Mr. G. Gee, Wairau Valley, and he will give you the deeds of my land in Eenwiuktown, and you must ask Miss Gee for a packet of letters that I gave her to take care of for me. She hus got the deed of my land in the Wairau Valley. I have five months' wages due from Mr. Thomas Carter. You must pay any debts that I have j the people will send their bills in when

were at the tent on Monday afternoon when I got there with my brother. Wutson said he had been to Tarndale ; as far as I know they only spoke on business. He (my brother) spoke to me of the fight with German Charlie — said he would not fight. English fashion ; that he (Charlie) wanted to fight " rough and tumble ;" that the fight was stopped by somo man. My father gave me a pound when I left home. My brother never said anything about continuing the quarrel with German Charlie. He said when we first met, "It is well you came in timo or I should have engaged some one else." 1 saw my brother last alive between ten and eleven, a.m., on Wednesday. The letters my brother wrote were all closed and directed. He did not give me the letters, only left them in his box, and gave me no directions about them. When I went to his box I went for a shirt, he having allowed me to put my things in the box. All the letters were inside on the top of the shirt. The other letters aro in the box still. I was boring posts on Wednesday, and went to change my shirt because I sometimes do so at any time of day. I changed my shirt. I took nothing more than I have stated from my brother's box. I thought from his letters that he meant to do something with himself, but did not think he would kill himself. I made the remark at the brickyard, " Here is where Ivy stood." I had been told by Charles Sparrow. I was in bed when my brother wrote tho letters, and was asleep. I awoke when he camo to bed, and he appeared as usual. The only difference I noticed was that my brother was more gloomy than ho used to bo. I had not been with my brother before I came up, for about two years. I know my brother's writing. While coming here on Thursday, with Mr. Stow, I said I supposed my brother meant to drown himself from his letter. Charles Mathews, being sworn, said : I am a shearer, I was sheaving at Jeffrey's, and the deceased came to me and asked me to read a letter. I did so, this letter was among papers that he took from his pocket, and I opened it and saw that it was an account between him and Mr. Carter. He then took it from me and gave mo another, and Slid this is for Kate. I did not know from whom it camo till I had read part ol it. I did not quite finish it, but saw that it came from Ivanhoe Augavde. After I returned it lie said, " This will spite Ivy." The letter was directed to Miss Gee. I heard that it was shown all over the place ; Miss Gee told me so. The jury, aftev viewing tho body, returned the following verdict: — "That tho deceased, Charlie the German, died from tho effect of a gun-shot wound, the bullet entering the back of his body below the right shoulder, and coming out below the heart in front of the body, inflicted wilfully and deliberately by Ivanhoe Augarde."