WELLINGTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5896, 31 December 1880, Page 5

WELLINGTON.

(from oub own correspondent.)

My last letter was mostly devoted to a somewhat unseasonable theme—the trial of the murderer Tuhi. I really intended to finish with him then, but »s ho In a topic of connidorAblo Interest I must (with apologies for intruding such matters as murder and death at Christmas) add a few words more, which I trust may not be found wholly unininteresting, on the same subject The Wellington papers daily (or thereabouts) record the progress of time towards the execution of that unhappy criminal, and his reported " state of mind in view of his approaching fate. But they do not enter into full particulars. I am not referring now to the morbid details, from which I Bhrink as much as anybody; but I allude to one or two little facts which have accidentally come to my own knowledge, and which seem to me to throw some further light on the dismal tragedy whose last scene is now drawing so very near. A friend of mine, who has interested himself much in the condemned prisoner, and with sincerely Christian zeal has striven to raise his thoughts to a higher sphere than that which he is so soon to quit, has had several earnest conversations with him. There has be«n no humbug or sickly sentimentalism about these conversation?. The prisoner has not talked for show or effect, neither has his visitor. The two have conversed seriously together as a man condemned to die might be expected to converse with one who was intent on his spiritual welfare, and I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that I thoroughly believe Tuhi's account of the murder as he now tells it, and as translated to me by my friend. Tuhi'a says that when he met Miss Dobie he was under the influence of iiquor, notwithstanding the statements

to the contrary made st his trial. He was not by any means drank, but he had been drinking—had obtained drink from some one who might not care to see hia name mentioned in this relation, —and had had enough to make him recklesß, and inclined to be violent if occasion offered. Of course he did not put it in this way, but it is the nearest English rendering of his Maori form of expression. After he had extorted the money from Mies Dobie she rebuked him—he understanding her words with sufficient clearness, —and finally warned him that she would report his conduct to the Constabulary. And then, he Bays, be was seized with a sudden and irresistible homicidal impulse, which urged him to kill her there and then, both in revenge for her sharp words and as a sure means of preventing the fulfilment of her threat, which latter, he well knew, meant lengthened imprisonment. He had a great fear of imprisonment—dreaded it far more than death. It was.for this reason that he refused to obey Te Whiti's commands to join the ploughing and fencing parties, which refusal rendered the Paribaka prophet to bitter against him. Ec resolved that he would not be imprisoned, and that if either captivity or death must befall him the latter should be hia fate. Here, agaiD, I mutt explain par pareithese that this is a free rendering of his words, which were brief and abrupt, but nevertheless conveyed to the hearer most forcibly a vivid idea of the feelings which actuated alike the dreadful deed for which the speaker was to Buffer, and his own account of the circumstances, related when all hope of escape jwas at an end. He feared imprisonment, he did not fear death ; he was excited by liquor ; he was infuriated with the young lady, afraid lest she should carry out her threat of exposure, and anxious only to prevent that, regardless of what other consequence might be involved : he was reokless and desperate, and he did the deed.

But swift remorse followed, and instantly sobered him. Very touching indeed is his simple, unaffected tale of his own thoughts and feelings after the murderous act was irrevocably completed, and his victim silent for evermore. Intensely as one must loathe the atrocious crime, it is impossible wholly tosteel oneself against the doomed man who is to suffer death for that moment of unresistei homicidal impulse. Still harder must it be for those who are in daily communication with that unhappy youth—for he is but a mere stripling—and who, talking with him in his own language, cap hear from his own lips his plain, unvarnished tale. I have before said that, far from being at all repulsive or ferocious in aspect, he has a singularly pleasant and prepossessing countenance, a good open face, an engaging smile, and a sort of fraak, amiable, good-humoured expression, which appeals to one's sympathies at once, and makes it difficult to realise the fact that he is the clearly-proved and selfconfessed murderer of a defenceless girl. True, when you notice critically the shape of his head, it is easy to recognise its phrenological defectiveness, its lack of due balance, its want of moral strength ; but his face is entirely a good nne, and assuredly not that of a brutal murderer. And yet he 1b one, and the act was committed mainly for the most; sordid motives. Verily there are strange inconsistencies and contradictions in this life. In Tubi's case we have another lesson on the folly of "judging from appear»hm«." But I am digressing into platitudes ; let luo »«sume the thread of my discourse. Tuhi saya tw. after he had finished his horrid work and returned to bis whare lie was miserable beyond the power of words to describe. He felt utterly wretched, an outcast and a murderer. He tried to work, but his victim was always before his eyts, and he could not Biiut out the dreadful spectacle. Every reader of Dickens will at once recall the thrilling descriptions in "Martin Chuzzlewit" and "Oliver Twist" of the mental agony endnred by the murderers Jonas Chuzzlewit and Bill Sykes after they had stained tbeir hands with human blood. I dare not venture to attempt any approach to those masterpieces of descriptive writing, and will merely say that with very little verbal alteration they would illustrate with striking fidelity the frame of mind which Tuhi, in his simple, unsophisticated diction, endeavours to pourtray. He could not settle to work ;he could not eat; he got his horse and tried the effect of a ride, but this recalled the recent tragedy still more forcibly to hiß memory, and he hastily returned. He lit his pipe, but even smokiDg — that universal panacea for mental disquietude —wholly failed to relieve him. And so, crushed by despondency, harassed by remorse, tormented by unavailing regret, he made up his mind to await his capture, which he felt an inward conviction would not long be delayed, and which he now cared not to avoid. "If I had wished to escape," he said, "what shonld have prevented me ? I had a good horse—better than any of the Constabulary horses; they could not have caught me if I had ridden away, for my horse was much faster and stronger than any of theirs. I could soon have fled beyond reach of pursuit, had I desired it, but I did not wish to live. I felt I bad committed a wicked deed and deserved death. My only wish was to die quickly, ■"--»a__L_. stayed and let them take me. He continued, lv a w~o nf deep feeling : "Let me now die, but let the ' drink' die with me !" He explained this to mean that he blamed the few glasses of liquor that he drank for his m»d impulse to murder. He is very bitter in his remarks about some of the witnesses who swore positively that he was sober just before the murder, for he will not believe that they could help seeing he was under the influence of drink; and while he v willing and desirous to die in satisfaction for his crime, he shrinks from the idea that he should be remembered as a cold-blooded slayer of a woman, when he asserts, and I believe honestly, that the act was committed under alcoholic influence. It is for this reason he urges that " drink should cease," or, in other words, that the sale of liquor to Maoris should be interdicted. He harps continually on this string, and it is rumoured that; he has addressed, or is about to address, a letter to his Excellency the Governor entreating him to use his authority in this direction and save

the Maori people by withholding from them the intoxicating drinks which have proved so

terrible a curse to the New Zealand Natives, as well as to many other aboriginal races. Unluckily, even if his Excellency sould make a prohibitory law he could not enforce it, and one oF the witnesses at the late trial remarked tb .t "the law was a dead letter in that disMict."

The wh lo case is a very sad one—Baddest of all for the innocent victim and her bereaved relatives, but sad indeed as re-

gards the fate of the fine, promising-locking youth who is to die on Wednesday morning next for his indulgence in a momentary murderous impulse, born of excitement from drink. It is right and just, and indeed imperative, that he should thus expiate his dreadful crime ; but the moat intense loathing is not incompatible with a feeling of deep pity for the misguided and doomed criminal whose last thread of life is co noarly spun. In my last letter I referred to the somewhat injudicious antl-oapital punishment sermon delivered in one of our city churches by a reverend deacon la the Civil Service, and the strongly-expressed disapprobation of the incumbent of that church. That same incumbent, lait Sunday, alluded in his se; - toon to the impending fato of Tuhi (on whim he is in spiritual attendance), and declared in plain terms his conviction that capital punishment was tcriptuially warrantable, morally justifiable, and, on grounds of public necefsity, entirely advisable He quoted texts from the New Testament in support of this view, without falling into the common error of adducing the Old Testament text, "Whoso sheddeth man's

blood, by man shall his blood be shed," as a direction; whereas it is only a prediction. He quoted with still more force the remark made by a soldier who was sentenced to death in Wellington 113 years ago for murdering his superior officer, and on whom the rev. preacher also attended as religions adviser. Just before his execution the condemned man said : "I know I ought to be hanged, for if they don't hang me another officer will be shot before long," alluding to one who was well known to be personally hated by his men. lam not arguing for or against capital punishment, but merely mentioning among the news of the day these expressions of opinion on the subject which have been evoked by the impending fate of the Opunake murderer. I owe an apology to my readers for the lerjgth at which I have dwelt on this gloomy subject at a season when my record, in the accepted order of things, should have been one of festivity and rejoicing; but the Fates decreed that the trial and execution of this murderer should be inseparably associated with a Wellington Christmas, and against Fate I am powerless. Bat let us now change the theme.

We have every prospect of gloriouß weather for the Christmas holidays ; indeed, the weather for a long time past has been as fine as any I ever experienced in the whole course of my life or in any part of the world. And I Bay this with a vivid recollection of the glorious seasons to be eoj ayed occasionally in the northern and southern districts of the Otago interior, and on the Canterbury Plains, and in Nelson—to instance New Zealand alone. We have had occasional gales and rainstorms it is true (what place has not ?), but these have been comparatively rare, and the general meteorological characteristics of the whole year have been blue skies, bright sunshine, and moderate breezes. At the same time there has been nothing approaching a drought, and even now the depth of water in the reservoir is only decreasing at an average rate of half an inch dally. Seeing that the depth is nearly 60 feet over a very extensive area, it will take some time to run us short of water this summer, and the next thunder-shower will probably repair the loss of a month's dry weather. Ho we need not apprehend scarcity of water this summer, although the new works, by which we shall ba supplied from the Wainuiomata Kiver, will not be completed for several months. Unluckily, although the quantity of the old supply is as yet all that could be desired, this can by no means be predicated of its quality. The watershed of the stream by which the reservoir is fed has not been acquired by the Corporation, but remains in the possession of a private owner, who is exceedingly anxious to sell it at a fancy price to the city. I will not say it is an instance of " cause and effect," but undoubtedly it ia true that the watershed ia plentifully stocked with dead and decaying animals—cattle, sheep, and dogs—the putrid remains of which are slowly washed into our drinking water, and however plentifully this loathsome essence may be diluted by the large volume of water into which it drains, the idea of swallowing the mixture is not at all agreeable. The owner of the land has pleasingly suggested that the Corporation should purchase it for £50,000. The City Council have consented to give £2000, so there is rather a wide difference, and the chances of agreement are remote.

There is to be no paucity of excursions this Christmas. Fully a dozen steamer trips are announced, the various destinations being Picton, Nelson, Blenheim, Kapiti, Wanganui, Foxton, and Lowry Bay. Three steamers — the Wanaka, Grafton, and Kennedy—go to Nelson ; and two—the Ringarooma and Wanganui—to Ficton, those being apparently the favourite places of holiday resort. Railway excursions in abundance also are arranged, one feature of which will be a material curtailment of the present time occupied in the journey to the Wairarapa townships—Featherston, Greytown, Carterton, and Masterton, The ordinary jonrney from Wellington to Masterton )'■ four and a half hours, including stoppages, the distance bring 65| miles. It is now to be done in 3f hturs going and 3J hoars returning. The shortening will be due mainly to curtailment of the wayside stoppages, which are ueuilly so wearisome. 1 mentioned in my account of the opening trip that some three hours out of six were occupied in delays at wayside stations, and only the other day the journey waß done in 2 hours 35 minutes actual travelling time, the other two hoars or «o going in these stoppages. The district manager is, however, indefatigable in his efforts to effect an improvement in this direction, and it is hoped that the experiments to be tried during (.hoao Christmas holidays will prove it practicable to render such improvement permanent.

Time and enlightened experience hare shown that certain substances formerly used and relied on in medical practice are unnecessary and dangerous. Dr Walker's 'California Vinegar Bitters contains none of these, but is, on the contrary, composed of purely vegetable substances from California. For all disorders of the liver, kidneys, bladder, skin, and digestive organs, and for purifying the blood, they are the most wonderful remedy known.—Agents: P. llayjian & Co., Dunedin.—-[Advt.]

Premature Loss of the Hair, which is so common nowadays, may be entirely prevented by the use of Burnett's Cocoaine. It has been used in thousands of cases where the hair was coming out in handfuls, and has never failed to arrest its decay and to promote a healthy and vigorous growth. It is at the same time unrivalled as a dressing for tho hair. A single application will render it soft and glossy.—[Advt.]

Asthma.—Thousands of the worst cases of asthma have been relieved by using Jonas Whitamib's Remedy for Asthma. In no case of purely asthmatic character has it failed to give prompt relief.—Bates, Sise, & Co., Agents.—[Advt.]

US' £1 Free Gifts !—The Proprietors of Wolfb s Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps, to induce the destruction and previ nt the improper use of their wrappers und labels, and thus further protect the public against fraud and deception, have enclosed in the wrappers, or under the label on the quart bottles, since Ist October, 1878, and continue to enclose in every day's tacking throughout the year, THREE £1 ORDERS, which are drawn upon the undersigned, and which will be cashed by their Agents. To secure these Gifts, the public must be careful to ask for, and accept nothing but the Genuine Udolpiio Wolfe's Schnapps, with our name upon the top label.—M. Moss & Co., Wyn yard lane, Sydney —Agents: DALGETY & CO Dunedin