THE TAPANUI TRAGEDY,

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 34

THE TAPANUI TRAGEDY,

•A Mysterious Case — The Deceased Shot — Foul Play Suspected.— (Bt Otjb Special Repoktee.) TAPANUI, August 2*. There is a* present a deep mystery surTOunding the circumstances connected with bhe death of the Chinaman Ham Sing Tong, and it transpired at the inqu- to-day that the -deceased was shot in the *cad. Th© reason for this not being discovered before was that the- examination of the body was hastily made, and without the face being properly cleansed of the clotted blood upon it. Circumstances seem to point to the conclusion that the wound was not selfinflicted, and, the fact of no firearms being found in the room gives colour to this conclusion. . The man lived by himself in a small fourtoonied cottage, just on the outskirts of 'the township, and seemed to have gained 'the -good opinion of all the people in the district, so thai it is unreasonable to suppose that anyone had a grudge against him. -.<)n the other hand, he was known to be possessed of money, and it -was pretty well that he kept a considerable Bum ' by him. That being the case, it is gust -within the' bounds of possibility that a "' tjrime has been committed— for gain. As a toietter of fact, the man .had £48 at the Ihead* of Jiis v be<3, -and this -was found intact Wfcer' -the body was discovered, and as will „-»» seen from the €vid«nc«, his watch and 'fcha-in were- also fo\md. . There are two or ~ jfcnre« • small houses close to Sing Tong's place, -and ivro parties state that they heard a shot fired between 9 and 10 o'clock on -hlonday evening, the day preceding that on which the Trody was found. It is altogether improbable that the man made away with fcdmself, as no reason can be advanced why lie should commit such an act. It is true - a revolver owned by Sing Tong was found - in the h'lit, .but this was in a different room from where the hoSy was discovered, and was not loaded, and from the dust jupon -it and -the appearance of tihe inside pf the chambers it had not been loaded nor wed Jor .a considerable time. - /The' matter is at present shrouded in mystery, but close- investigation is being : .niade "by tne jpolice, and something may fet be brought to light. THE INQUEST. -inquest was commenced on Wednestfcy by Mr -W. Quin (sitting as coroner) add *,jury of six, of whom Mr John MacITarlane was selected foreman. .f'Yuhg '-Ghoo, known locally as Peter Ling, /ihe first witness,, recognised the body as that of Ham Sing Tong, whom he had known 'for many years; both in China, near {Canton; and in New Zealand. He was 66 'weirs of age,- and witness had known him ' Borne 40 years; Deceased was a gold miner fcefore he . "came-, to " Tajjenui, and had resided" in "ihe 'district' some 20 year® '' AH' Cheng, deposed that he resided at, Beaumont, and was a cook_-and labourer by , occupation. -He left "Beaumont on the 21sb jinst. - Stayed .at 'Patrick Diamond's that fetigfaf, and. .arrived ,at Tapanui abotit 2 W'elocK -on Tuesday afternoon. H© went to Bing' Tong's, found' no one about, and went "and bought tobacco at Anderson's store. JHe 'then went back to Sing Tong's, jknoeked, and sang out two or three times. BGe waited fora few minutes, turned 1 the ~ nandle of the door,, pushed the door open, and went in. He went to the bedroom, the' door of winch was open. The blind was flown, and Jie struck a match and' saw the-podjr.-iying on the floor, covered with blood. -fee #xen left the bouse and went for the police. • To the Jury: He did not touch anything In the house. To the Police : He had known Sing Tong Jfcbout three or fxrar years. He last saw him Wive before last harvest. Witness had been in 3Sfe-w Zealand 35 years, j D* William. . Robertson, resident at .Tapanui, said lie received intimation from Constable Cowan that Sing Tong, a Chinese -gardener, was dead. He went and saw the fcody. at 7.15 p.m. on the 22nd inst. The tbody bad" been lifted from the floor of the (bedroom and placed in another room. He examined 'the room where the body was (found, and discovered a pool of blood on the floor — arterial blood chiefly. He noticed that a lamp had seemingly exploded, and that the bed was burned on " the side nearest the window, where - 'deceased had -been lying. Only the under part of the bed was burned, and the blankets were not destroyed. The sheet, matfcrass, and wooden edge of the bed were charred. He noticed that the globe of the lamp, was, not broken, but that the vessel containing tbe oil was in small pieces. iPiecis of the -broken lamp were lying -'aroupd -the burned bed. 'He then noticed that pieces; of a clear-coloured whisky bottle Were; 1 lying abotit, part on the bed and part j on the -floor. There was also some on a j s fehelf at' the far end of the room, the shelf ] ceing about five feet from- the floor. The ] heck of the bottle was intact and lay near ; the door. To the Jury." He considered the lamp had "fallen and exploded when coming in contact with, some object of a hard nature. ] Lamp glass was lying 1 where deceased pad been lying. He examined the body of j Hece&sed, and found on th# left side that bhe clothes were all charred and portions ! -Df the flesh burned a little. The face was i Wrked with one wound on the right cheek in the region •of a rather large artery. Close to the c wound was a piece of glass, bart of the whisky bottle referred to. The piece of .glass was about the size and !hape of the edge of the wound. Over the eft- Of the forehead was a large bruise. Dne hand grasped a handkerchief tightly. (The face was covered with blood, and one eye. was closed. The nose was flattened on one side owing to the weight of the body. To all aupearance deceased had then been dead over" 12 hours. When the wound in the cheek was received Sing Tong must have been alive. The bruise on the forehead pad been inflicted during life. Deceased had not had any large- dose of opium or alcohol bhe previous evening. He had no reason to suppose deceased was addicted to opium habits. He would not like to say if the wound Mid bruise were incurred at the same time. The. bruise looked as if made from something round. The apparent loss of blood ,nras' not sufficient to cause death. Constable Cowan gave evidence as to the' state" of deceased when lie took possession of the hut. On examining the body he found the right eye closed, and the left eye only half open. There wae a. deep cut on the right cheek, with a small piece of glass sticking in it. On the left side of the forehead there was a large bruise from which blood had evidently not flowed. The body was badly burned

and one hand clutched a handkerchief tightly. The handkerchief wa3 partly covered wi f h blood, and the face also. On the court again assembling this afternoon the Coroner outlined the evidence that had been taken for the benefit of Inspector O'Brien, irho, with Detective Cooney, arrived at Tcipanui about 3 o'clock, and called Dr Robertson, who had been engaged making a post mortem examination of the body. Dr Robertson gave evidence as ta the result of the- post mortem examination of the body, and was examinad at length by Inspector O'Brien. At this stage the inquest was. adjourned till 1-30 p m. next day.