IS IT MURDER?

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10544, 22 March 1920, Page 4

IS IT MURDER?

THE AUCKLAND MYSTERY STR ANGE HAPPENINGS: ACCUSED AS' STOWAWAY. * In Saturday’s . “Times” appeared a brief telegraphic account of a- second Auckland sensation, in which interest ins developments occurring in connection with the discovery in the harbour of an Australian trooper named Markwick. Sim were detailed. Further particulars now to hand show that the discovery that a £IOU note was miss Lag gave the police a clue. The interment of the body was stopped; a postmortem held; wnen it was ascertained that the marks on the body and other indications were -not inconsistent with the theory that there had been foul playSTORY AT INQUEST. At the inquest proceedings, ed at the morgue, by Mr J. E. Wilson, S.M.; Oscar Paul Fairburn, aged 32 (charged with the theft of the £IOO note), a fellow passenger of the deceased, was the first witness called. He stated that he was a wool-dresser, at present residing at the People's Palace. He was a passenger by the Ulimaroa on March Bth, and Sim came over with him. He had not known the deceased prior to that. They stayed together at the People’s Palace from March Bth to 11th,. Sim leaving on the latter date. Ho had seen the body at the morgue, but it was too far-decom-posed for him to identify it. He could detect a faint resemblance to the man Bim. He had seen the clothes taken from the body, and they were similar to those worn by Sim. The watch, pouch, and Australian returned soldier’s badge, (produced) he had seen in the possession of the deceased. Sim drank a good deal of liquor on the ship. He'told witness that he had -abrother on a farm somewhere about Brisbane, and that he was a single man. “I do not know what money he had,” continued the witness, and he added that deceased seemed to him not to be well-balanced mentally. Sim wanted witness to go out in a car with him on the 11th, when ho was leaving the People’s Palace, hut he refused. DBCEASEID’S PECULIAR CONDUCT. The next witness, Joseph Benjamin Hildreth, manager , of the People’s Palace, deposed that on the Bth Sim booked .at. the Palace. He, was very eccentric, and owing to bis behaviour, witness told' him on the 11th to gel other Todgings. Witness had also seen the body; and had been unable to identify it owing to decomposition. Witness gave evidence as to the similarity of the clothing and the build of the, body, and identified the badges. On the morning of the Bth, when Sim booked the room, he tendered a Commonwealth banknote for £IOO, but witness' could not change it, and the man said he would wait. Next day find again on the 11th he tendered the note, and witness advised him to go to thtrßank of New Zealand to-change it. He refused to do so. Subsequently, the deceased was in-the Palace act- ; ing in a very strange manner, and ordering' people about. Witness persuaded him to go out, but he returned twenty minutes later with a taxi. .He then tendered witness an old Bank of Siew South Wales £1 note in payment of his board, but did not say whether or not he changed the £IOO note. Later in the evening he returned and demanded lodgings, but was refused. EARLY CALL IN TAXI. . On the morning of the 12th, about 3 o’clock, he again came back and renewed his' request,, but witness again declined to give him lodgings. Describing the taxi, witness said it was a light-coloured one, driven by a young man. When Sim paid his bill witness saw only the £1 no£S. Deceased had. a lighticoloured soldiers’ kit-bag and a suit-case which appeared new. The pouch produced was like the one in which he, had the £IOO note. Mr Wilson then adjourned the inquest. STOWAWAY WITH £750. After the inquest proceedings there w-as a - curious development. At tho Police Court sitting the previous day it transpired that a stowaway found on the Makura was in possession of a bank draft for £750, and when the police went to the bank to make inquiries regarding Sim’s £IOO note, it was discovered thxvt a £IOO note of the same .bank issue had been paid by the bank five minutes previously as part bank exchange for the stowaway’s draft, which' he had cashed to pay his fine. The recovery of the note was a simple matter under the circumstances, and further inquiries made by Sergeant Scott led to the arrest of Fairburn., Thereupon the coroner ordered the stoppage of tho inquest, and the bolding of a- post-mortem examination, with the result already stated. Fairburn is a clean-sliaved young men, of medium build. Chief-Detec-tive McMahon says the case is a peculiar. if not mysterious one,, and will require considerable investigation. Tire detectives and police are busily engaged prosecuting inquiries.