THE ALLEGED MURDER OF "RED BILL."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4748, 3 February 1877, Page 2

THE ALLEGED MURDER OF "RED BILL."

The man James Roger alien Eoger An;. strong, who asserts that he mnrdered Wii liam Mather, otherwise lied Bill, at t>. Thames in IS6S, was brought up f ß j Wangarei on Thursday, in charge of Specialconstable Hammond. Yesterday moraitj he appeared before the Bench at the Polic Court, and was remanded to the Thames Sub-Inspector Pardy, in applying f or tfc, remand, said that the police had nnj, inquiries, and found that the prisoner iai been living at the Thames in ISGS, and hj{ been acquaiuted with Eed Bill.

It may not be out of place at the present time if we re-publish the substance oE on Thames correspondent's account of the finding of the body, which appeared in our issue of April 8, IS6S: At 5.30 o'clock on the morning of April 7, the body was found in a Tvaterhole or abaadoned shaft on the Karakr. Creek by a maa engaged in looking for some horses. The correspondent, after saying that the deceased's nationality was unknown, mentions that he had been shown a. letter addressed by Mather to a woman for -whom he hal entertained more than ordinary affection, a= he subscribed himself her "affectionate lover." The handwriting, orthography, and grammatical construction of the letter wa all good. Our correspondent goes on to state that Mather's age was about thirtytwo or thirty-three years, that Vu was the second death of the kind, (another person having some time before lost his life a little higher up the creek), and*Ebncludes by urging on the notice of the authorities the necessity that existed for the water-holes either being filled in or fenced round, An inquest on the body was held on the afternoon of the day on which it was found, Mr, Allan Baillie, acting ai coroner, Mr. J. E. Macdonald as foreman of the jury, and the inquiry was conducted in the commercial room of C'aptaiu Butt'a hotel, Pollen-street, Shortland. Henry Hendry gave evidence as to seeing the body in the water-hole, and acquainting a miner (William Sutton) with the circumstance. This latter person amongst other thinit stated :—" The shaft in. which the body was found is about 16 feet deep, and the waterreached to within four feetof thesurface. The body was found in the water. I could only sea the back of the deceased; the head and lower limbs were under water. The shaft was not "timbered. There was nothing floating on the water bat the body o£ deceased. There was no hat. Deceased was one of Tom Long's party which jumped Mclsaacs, and resided at Tapu Creek."— Elizabeth Hughes deposed : I saw the deceased last Sunday night week, about half-past S or £ I have known him for four years. It was on the Karaka Flat that I last saw him, just behind Mrs. Martin's, the last wooden cot--tage this side. It was on the road. He said he was going up to Tcokcy's Flat to one of his mates. The shaft where the body was found is a long way this side, but it is on the way to Tookey's Flat. The deceased wi sober when I left him. He did not go to the Willoughby Hotel after that. He was alone. Dr. Clarence Hooper \va3 the medical gentleman who was examined. The principal part of his evidence was : "I found the body in a highly decomposed state. The only marks I noticed were that the right eye was extremely swolleD and closed, as if it had received a violent blow during life; an abrasion of the skin under the right arm, and an effusion of blood. These appearances might have been produced by blows in falling down the shaft. The general appearance of the body is that of a drowned man. It has evidently been in the water seven or eight days at least" Sergeant Lipsey having given evidence, the jury returned an open'verdict, viz., "That the deceased was found drowned in a shaft on the Karaka Flat, but how he came there, there was no evidence to show." It wouid appear from the above that there is some ground for suspecting that he did meet with foul play.