CHARGED WITH MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18180, 28 August 1922, Page 6

CHARGED WITH MURDER

FARM LABOURER'S DEATH - ASHBURTON SENSATIOtf SEQUEL TO QUARBISL. REFERENCES TO IRELAND [DI «tTscaAPH.—mass AssocuTi<n,.j CHSISTCHTJRCH, Samuel Holland, aged.3s years, a inem bar of a weU-known Ashburton faruiin* family, has been arrested at AshburX : on a charge of the murder of James Gill aged 62 years, a farm labourer, who.hJ been a well-known figure in the Ashbarton district for the past forty years.-'* It is alleged that at about one o'clock this morning a number of men were ing outside the Victoria Hall, Ashburten. where a. dance was in progress, fift* rode up on horseback, and in dismounting remarked that his horse was fond J music. It is alleged that Holland thai. " upon stepped out from the group and hit Gill, knocking him down. Gill picked ' himself up and asked who had struck him. Holland, it is said, stepped oat again and struck Gill a second tim* Gill fell to the ground in the midtfcV of the roadway and did not rise aaainL • Holland went away. "»•«. Some of the others of the party propned np Gill in the doorway, thinking would soon come round, and one ofVhem took his horse away to a stable. Half-an. hour afterwards this man returned and on examining Gill came to the conciusioa he was dead. He sent for the police and a{ doctor. The latter on arrival pn>. nounced life to be extinct. . It is' stated that earlier in the day Holland and some friends were' at ; this Chertsey Hotel when Gill rode-ira. While Holland's partv were at the bar Gill came in and called out: "Tares cheers for the man who killed Michael Collins." Holland, or one of his friends, retorted: "You are a De Valera, a?» yon?" Then there was a scuffle between Holland and' Gill, but they were separated Gill then left. . ~ Holland will appear in the Court i* I the morning on the charge of murder. ; : !