THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 27th SEPTEMBER, 1895.

Southland Times, Issue 13323, 27 September 1895, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 27th SEPTEMBER, 1895.

The trial of John Keown for the murder of Hugh Stewart at Balfour ou the 20th of July last, was completed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, and once moie we have to congratulate an Invercargill jury upon bringing in a strong verdict in a case involving the death sentence. The particulars of the atrocious crime are only too familiar to our readers and hardly need to be recapitulated here. The victim of the tragedy came within reach of the murderer while in the prosecution of a legal duty. He was the mere instrument of carrying an order of a court of law into effect. In the execution of his orders Stewart bad been put in possession of ten horses upon Keown’s homestead, on the 11th of July, by the bailiff Middlemiss,and had apparently remained in charge for some days. On the 18th Middlemiss and Stewart were in Gore and both proceeded by way of Riversdale to Balfour again, transacting some business by the way on the 19 th, and reaching Keown’s about four on the morning of the 20th. Stewart went towards the stable, got off bis horse and entered, when, apparently immediately, Middlemiss, in the darkness, saw three horses come out. Stewart jumped upon his horse and the two men lied. As they made.off Middlemiss saw Keown on the verandah with a gun, and immediately afterwards a shot was fired and Middlemiss beard a shot whiz ptst h’m A man on horseback also came after them, passed them, wheeled and rode back to the house —that was the wilnees Windus, one of Keown’s hands. This was the first act in the tragedy, and betokens preparation and deliberate determination. The fugitive officers continued their flight to Riversdale; Middlemiss going on to Gore by t'ain. He returned in the afternoon, and the two, taking diorse again, proceeded once more to Keown’s, where they arrived about five in the afternoon. As they oeared the house Keown appeared with the gun again,and ordered tlfem to stand, which they did. He then aimed atMiddlemiss, changed his mind and covered Stewart. Twice Le shifted bis aim from one man to the other, and while-he was covering Middlemiss Stewart called out “ don’t do that Jack, have tome sense” —an expression that of itself betokens the pre-existence of familiarity, if not of .ripndbhip—whereupon be once more

changed bis aim, fired, and Stewart fell, shot in the head. That Keown heard Stewart’s expostulation is evident from bis own remark while holding the men at the muzzle of bis gun, “ I cannot shoot both of you, but I’ll have one of you.” He had also said to them when he ordered them to stop “ I intend to shoot you.” Dot content with shooting his victim Keown went up to him and battered him about the head with (begun till it broke into pieces. Middlemiss again fled and was once more pursued by a man who suddenly appeared mounted. The subsequent incidents of that dreadful night are ol less importance, but each adds to tbe scene a horror of its own. The trial has excited intense interest here, and the most strenuous efforts have been made on the. prisoner’s behalf. The ablest counsel in tbe colony has defended him, and he has had a full and fair triol. On both sides the case has been con- ' ducted with conspicuous ability. Tbe plea set up by the defence—alcoholic insanity—was worked out with great ingenuity and elaboration, and supported by a considerable amount of evidence more or less relevant while the summing up of his Honour was marked by the acumen, deliberation and moderation which Mr Justice Williams invariably displays when handing over a serious issue to a jury. After an absence of Uo and a half hours the jury returned to court and delivered a verdict of “guilty,” with a recommendation t, m<rcy. Such a comparatively firm deliverance was hardly expected; the general anticipations being that they would find fur manslaughter. Several very subtle considerations were undoubtedly in operation in the public mind having this tendency; and it was naturally assumed that the members of the jury would be subject to similar unconscious influences. I’here was first the bare possibility of a species of insanity, and next tbe still more potent, though less definite, motive to leniency in the desire to avoid the horror and disgrace o f another execution in Invercargill within four months Happily, for the cause of justice and public safety, tbe jury proved superior to these seductive elements and returned a verdict that vindicates the law and affirms the sacredness of human life. The recommendation to a certain extent weakens the finding, but in the face of the medical evidence —almost always necessarily inconclusive, and bewildering to the lay intellect—the jury could hardly have avoided making it, unless they had given much greater weight than they appear to Lave done to certain definitions of the Criminal Code to which his Honour directed their attention, in which case they would probably have limited their verdict to one word. The worth of the recom - mendation was, however, immediately gauged by his Honour, who said that, looking st the prisoner’s previous history, he felt that “ the recommendation of the jury may not be altogether unreasonable,” and by his advice to the condemned man in the next sentence “ not to place too great confidence in the recommendation to mercy which the jury have thought fit to give being given effect to.” The ultimate result now rests with His Excellency and his advisers, and it is to be hoped they will review the whole circumstances of the case dispassionately, and that they will especially guard themselves against squeamish promptings from within, or personal considerations from without. Looked at thus it is difficult to see how they can accord to the recommendation more than a feathers weight, Stripped of the colour imparted to it by feelings of relationship and personal friendship, even the evidence for the defeme discloses a career of atrocious ciuelty such as, we may hope, is rarely to be met with. For years, even before he was injured, and before he gave way so completely to a course of gigantic drinking, Keown appears to have been a constant cause of terror to all over whom he had any right of control. From his own wife down to inanimate objects within his reach, nothing was safe from instant violence at bis hands. On the slightest provocation, or without provocation, he appears to have taken a malignant pleasure in venting his uncontrolled passion upon everything that could be made to suffer or that could be destroyed. There is not in the whole case a tittle of evidence to show that he ever attempted to control himself, or desired to be controlled. Drunk or sober an offence, real or imaginary, was promptly visited with excessive and cruel punishment, whenever such could be inflicted without tbe risk of retaliation. The evidence reveals the home (?) at Balfour as a perfect Pandemonium, the lair of a ferockus animal, where domestic tyranny in its grossest form held unchecked sway, ultimately culminating in the deliberate murder of an unoffending person, Jf Keown is not to be held re-ponsible for his act it is difficult to conceive of any future murderer, who takes the precaution to be sufficiently violent and unreasonable in his antecedent conduct, ever being brought to the scaffold. His excessive drinking, his capacity to swallow an inordinate quantity of intoxicants, and yet keep his feet and be able to go about his ordinary avocations—able even to point

a gun with steady aim—is surely no proof that he was incapable of controlling bimself, or had lost the use of his reason. The very reverse might be assumed. And the specific act • for which be now lies condemned was not a hasty cne. The trageiy really extended over twelve hours, The first shot was fired about five in the morning, and the fatal one about the same hour in the afternoon ; and even at the last there was deliberation, not cool deliberation, perhaps, but certainly such consideration of his design as showed that le knew perfectly well what he was about-, and that he fully intended and desired the natural effect of his action. He regretted that he could hot shoot both men, and hesitated for a moment or two as to which be should kill. Finally he selected Stewart, whom he thereupon proceeded to murder, and did murder with exceedingly savage brutality.