LYNCH LAW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 50, 23 October 1912, Page 3

LYNCH LAW.

A TALE OF FORTY YEARS AGO AT

THE THAMES. This is the story of a lynching at tho Thames, in the winter of 1868, says the Auckland “Star,” with “Curly Bill” as judge, when the prisoners received fair play in a trial before a jury formally empanelled, counsel chosen to defend the accused, and a prosecuting attorney, and with every observance of correct legal usage conscientiously followed. In view of the recent article in tho ‘Star” dealing with some aspects of the good old days on the Thames, an account of ‘this famous trial, supplied by Mr Isaac Hopkins, may be interesting. Among others who took part in it' was Mr J. L. Stevens, who was at til:lit time erecting Gocdall’s battery, and is now mine host ,of the Stirling Hotel, Waihi.

Outbreak of Petty Crime. During that first winter after the opening of tho Thames Goldfield, when tho fame of' the Shotover, Barry’s, Tookcy’s, Long Drive, and other noted claims was attracting all sorts and conditions of men from all quarters, .a few very undesirable characters found their way to the Thames. Petty robberies from tents on Tookcy’s and the Karaka. flats became frequent, and it was not safe to leave a tent unguarded. It must bo understood that your old-time diggerregarded stealing from tents as the most [heinous crime in the calendar. To be tarred and feathered was one of tho lightest forms of punishment inflicted upon a detected offender. When these undetected tent robberies were aggravated by a case or two of stick-ing-iip,” tho exasperated diggers determined to make an example of the first person caught. Feeling ran very high when “Red Bill,” who had been missing for some time, was found (the victim of foul play) at the bottom of tho first prospecting shaft sunk in Karaka Flat. The scene of the bungling, amateurish attempts at highway robbery was the tract (which pioneers of the Tihlaracs will remember) between Tookcy’s Flat and Shorthand—running along and near tho beach, thence across the flat where Grahamstown now stands, and, skirting the old ranpo swamp, over the log bridge across the Karaka Creek (where many a fellow had an unpremeditated ducking), and on through the Maori peach grove. It was quite an adventurous undertaking to grope along this track on a dark, boisterous night, with a bottlelantern that was liable to go out at any moment.

A Blacksmith Gn The Spree. The police force, consisting of cither two or three members under Sergeant Lipsey, was numerically inadequate to cope with the thousands of new arrivals. About the time to which the story refers two noted characters, It—and" D—, well known to the police in other parts of the colony, had camped on'Tookey’s Flat, near to where Murdock’s smithy stood. _ Very early diggers on the Moanataiari Creek may remember a man of medium stature, somewhat past middle-age, who plied his trade as blacksmith in a little smithy on. the creek below the Junction shaft. He was very clever at sharpening and tempering picks, was a very quiet, respectable little man, ] )U t had a habit of going off occasionally on a quiet little spree of two or three days. On one of those occasions the two characters above referred to fell in with him, stuck closely to him all day, arid when evening came were still, in his company at the Knranui Hotel, one of the oldest on the Thames, and tir.cn only recently built for that genial old soul “raipo. If | V ras the popular meeting place for tin 1 bovs of Tookey’s— Curly Bill, Wild Missouri (so called from his claim) Jim Boyd (with his one optic), Hied Kennedy (tlio “bearded pard”), Bil

Brown, Jack Morgan, and a host of others, a genuine straight up-and-down lot. A Cowardly Assault, About eight o’clock on this Saturday night, trie muddled blacksmith expressed a desire to go home, and when one of the boys, according to custom, was going to take charge of him, 11— said/“Oh, I will see him home. I have been witli him all day. He will he all right.” They left together, but about 11 o’clock the old blacksmith, covered

from head to foot with blood and mud, staggered back into tho hotel. After being attended to he stated that IT—and he had been joined by a third party, and the pair had insisted upon taking him in an opposite direction to that in which his home lay. He had. he said, been felled by a heavy blow, held down, robbed, and dragged by the legs over some, boulders on the beach at tifcle foot of the Kuramii Creek. Wihlen he came to himself h ewas lying in the mud, wet and cramped and bruised, and had made with difficulty for a light, which turned out to be that shining from one of the hotel windows. Condemned to 1)3 Hanged.

Some of tho crowd went immediately and brought hack R—• and I) as prisoners, and with one impulse a lynch court was set up in the manner described previously. The prisoners wore indicted for highway robbery and intent to kill. The evidence of independent witnesses was to tho effect already indicated so far as proceedings during the day wore concerned, but the blacksmith would swear only to tikic identity of R—. He described his purse and its contents, half a sovereign and ten shillings in silver, and a search of the prisoner’s tent resulted in tho finding of the purse with the contents, nearly as stated, under one of their mangaio beds. It was also proved that tho old man, after the robbery, had been dragged below high! water mark, and left so that the tide would have flowed over him. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty against both prisoners, with a recommendation to mercy in the case of I)—. The judge sentenced R— to be hanged to the nearest and most convenient instrument, and gave D— 21 i!.lours to clear out from the Thames. Ho didn’t wait. Their tent with all its contents wore ordered to bo burnt, and was soon ablaze. A rope was obtined, and R— was led out to one of Harry Rawdon’s drays. The rope was run through the ring bolt on one of the shafts, the dray was tipped back, with three or four men told off to stand on tho tail, and while one end of tlhie rope was knotted round the condemned man’s neck the other was pulled vigorously by willing hands. Worse Than Hanging. When the rope began to tighten, however, those on the end of the dray jumped off, and down came the gallows. The capital sentence was tihien commuted to so many lashes on the bare back with a rope. R— was spreadeagled on the dray-wheel, and lashed so severely that he prayed to be either shot or hanged. When sufficiently recovered he made his way to a cutter on tho beach, but was quickly hunted ashore, where he made good his escape, “the boys” being heartily glad to be finished with the night’s work. About five o’clock R—-, clad in only a pair of trousers, ; was discovered crawling under the curtain of a tent, but was hunted away, ( and was never again seen on the Thames. When Sergeant Lipsey heard of the affair ho and his men came up from Shorthand, and searched for R— and D , but neither could be found. .Three months later it was learned that Rhad made his way across the peninsula to Mercury Bay. , h It was believed that tho police wore really pleased at tho turn things had taken, as it completely put a stop to robberies, and was admittedly one of the most justifiable oases of punishment, ever inflicted by lynch law.