MURDEROUS OUTRANGES BY A CHINAMAN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 80, 24 July 1876, Page 2

MURDEROUS OUTRANGES BY A CHINAMAN.

♦ " Information reached the Melbourne detective office on the Bth inst. of a series of murderous outrages by a Chinaman at Nillumbik, on the Yan Yean Road. The " Telegraph'' says that a man named John Kennedy, of Coburg, was loading wood at that place, about fifty yards off the road, when he saw a Chinaman approaching him at a sharp walk. The Chinaman had a large American axe in his hand, and when near Kennedy he shouted out, "I will kill you.'" Kennedy made off towards the house of a man named Butler, about one hundred yards away, the Chinaman giving pursuit. Butler heard the shouts of Kennedy, and opened the door, through which Kennedy passed, closing it behind him, leaving Butler face to face with the infuriated Celestial. Butler ran rou nd to the back of the house, and on reaching the door he faced his pursuer, who made a tremendous blow at him with the axe. Butler tried to grapple with his assailant, but the axe descended over his shoulder, the sharp edge cutting his coat just over the spine. A struggle ensued, during which the Chinaman dropped his hat and a large carving knife. He got away from Butler, and ran off at full speed down the Yan Yean Road, leaving the axe behind him. Subsequently it was ascertained that the Chinaman, just before perpetrating this outrage, met a youth named Edward Limbery, eighteen years of age, who was in charge of a two-horse load of wood about half-a-mile nearer Melbourne. He asked the lad to stand, but the latter took no notice of the request. The Chinaman then suddenly rushed upon him, and" struck, him a frightful blow on the head, cutting through the hat and inflicting a wound in the skull nearly four inches long, through which the brain protruded. The Chinaman first of all visited the house of Sir. P. Finnigan on the Yan Yean Road during that gentleman's absence, and nearly frightened the life out of Mrs. Finnigan and her sister, compelling them to fly the house. He then quietly rifled the premises, taking away a work-box containing six £1 notes, a carving knife, and the axe with winch the subsequent assaults were committed. Information was received at a latter hour that the same miscreant had chased two little girls near Grant's Hotel, but they took refuge in a neighbour's house. The police in. all the surrounding districts have been communicated with, and there is every probability of his early capture. [We learn"*, by telegram that the Chinaman was foundvsusp'ended by his waistbelt from a tree, v aiid-it-isvsupposed that he committed --suicide;]