A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 182, 23 July 1900, Page 3

A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

ABORIGINALS ATTACK A FAMILY. THREE PERSONB KILLED AND THREE WOUNDED. THE VICTIMS MUTILATED. [PEB PBESS ASSOCIATION,] (Received 21, 7.40 p.m.) Sydney, July 21. A terrible tragedy has occurred near Gilgandia, The police report that two aboriginals named Jemmy and Joe Governor attacked the family of a selector named Mowbray, killing the son(Percival),the daughter (Hilda), and a boarder named Miss Kerz, a school teacher, and dangerously wounding Mrs. Mowbray, her daughter (Grace), and her niece (Elsie Clark). (Received 21, 8.16 p.m.) Sydney, July 21,.. Other reports state that four aboriginals employed by Mowbray committed the murder.

They ascertained that the latter would be sleeping from home, when only the women and children would be together. They attacked them after they had gone to bed, and as they rose and attempted to escape the murderers battered in their heads and horribly mutilated them with tomahawks.

One little boy escaped by creeping under the bed.

1 -There is small hope of the wounded recovering, their injuries being so terrible.

A strong force of mounted police and settlers is pursuing the murderers.

ANOTHER OF THE VIOTIMS DEAD. FAINT HOPES OF THE OTHERS' RECOVERY. DETAILS OF THE HORRIBLE AFFAIR. Received 23, 1.45 a.m. Sydney, July 22. Grace Mowbray is dead, and there are faint hopes of the mother and Miss Clark recovering. 1 One of the Mowbray boys who escaped states that he and his two brothers were sleeping in a room adjoining the house. The blacks knocked at the door, and Percy, aged 15, opened it, and was at once knocked down and kicked. He heard the other blacks outside say, " Sail into them. Kill all." The second boy escaped by getting under the bed, and the third managed to get out and run for his father. Mowbray found the body of Miss Kerz lying in her nightdress some distance from the house, and Hilda's body, a few yards away in a creek, was discovered. Both front and back doors were smashed in. Mowbray rushed round to the blacks' camp, but found that all bad cleared out.

All the women were sleeping in one room. Hilda and Miss Kerz managed to escape, but were pursued and cut down with a tomahawk.

Various reasons are given for the tragedy. One is that Mowbray owed a little money for work; another that Mrs. Mowbray tried to get Jimmy Governor's wife, a white woman, to leave him. This woman was arrested while making across country, and told the police that only Jimmy and Joe Governor were engaged in the tragedy . When they came back Jimmy said they had killed all the Mowbrays,and told his wife to clear out or he would kill her.

■ Joe Porter, a|black, and a boy belonging to the gang, were arrested hiding in the bush. They stated that they had nothing to do with the murders.

The murderers were seen and fired on to-day, They left their tomahawks and provisions, which the.previous day they had obtained from a settler. They are making towards the rough country at the head of the Goulbourn River, and are known to have a rifle with them,