MAUNGATAPU MURDERS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

MAUNGATAPU MURDERS

STORY OF BUIRGESS GANG MEMORIES OF A VETERAN. FATE DECIDED BY TOSS OF COIN. Probably the only man still living who had personal contact with the notorious Maungatapu murderers, Burgess, Levy, Kelly and Sullivan, who spread terror through the Nelson district in 1866, is Mr. J. W. Hughes, of Ruahine Street, Palmerston North. Now a veteran of 87 years, Mr. Hughes is still very bright mentally, and his recollection of his chance connection with the bloodthirsty gang has never faded from the memory. A Dominion representative visited Mr. •Hughes recently, and found him willing to retell the story of his youthful adventures with the worst gang of bushranging bandits New Zealand has known. Young Hughes was only 20 years of age at the time of the encounter. He was the son of a farmer of Canvastown (between Blenheim and Nelson), and was employed at a country store kept by Mr. Jarvis. It was Mr. Jarvis who allowed Burgess, Levy, Kelly and Sullivan to occpuy an old disused hotel building next the store, during the week before the murders. After working hours, Mr. Hughes used to drop in on them, yarn with them, and watch them play cards just to fill in time. While staying in this place Levy went one day to an hotel at Deep Creek kept by a Frenchman, Felix Mathieu. John Kempthorne was boarding at that hotel, and with Mathieu was making preparation to outfit a party which was to proceed to the West Coast gold diggings. Levy heard all about the preparation, the number of- the party, and what they were carrying, and with that information he went back to the camp. ' FATEFUL TOSS OF SHILLING. At that time the men became aware of the presence of young Hughes, and, under the impression that he might know too much, actually tossed up a shilling to determine whether they should murder him or not. However, Hughes could be said to. have won the toss and he was spared “the happy dispatch.” On their way to meet the gold mining party, the gang fell in with a man named James Battle, an old whaler, who evidently wanted company on the road, as he persisted in footing it with them. As the presence of an interloper was likely to interfere with their plans, the gang set upon Battle, strangled him, and hid the body. That was on June 12, 1866. The next day they walked on until they, encountered the mining party, and without further ado held them up. These were Felix Mathieu, James de Fortius (a New Yorker), James Dudley and John Kempthorne. Each of the prospectors was covered with a gun, and one by one they were bound with ropes, led to different parts 'of the adjacent bush, and then murdered in cold blood. DISCOVERY OF CRIME. What first led to the discovery of the crime was the fact that the party was missed by two friends, who had gone on ahead from Deep Creek. On their nonarrival at Nelson, these friends became anxious, and when, on top of that, a Mr. Miller, an ■ enthusiastic walker, reached town over the same track without having seen anything of the prospecting party, they became • genuinely alarmed for their safety. Then an itinerant draper, Mr. Burrell, of Picton, arrived over the same road, and also reported that he' had seen nothing of the missing men..

A search was instituted by volunteers, gnd, as is now well known, the bodies of the murdered men were found in the bush. .A-hue and cry was set up and the., countryside was searched for the murderers. .Mr, Hughes was subpoenaed by the Crown to identify the prisoners as.Jhe men with whom he had been in contact at Deep Creek on the night before the murder of Battle, and two nights before the murder of the prospecting party. . - On that occasion the shilling which the men had tossed up to decide his fate was given to Mr. Hughes. The coin having passed into the hands of Mr. Jarvis, -the storekeeper, he handed it over to Mr. Hughes, who still wears it on his watch chain as a memento of an extremely hazardous experience. Mr. Jarvis died in Ohio, U.S.A., about ten years ago. All the four members of the gang were arrested in due course, and, as is well known, Sullivan turned Queen’s evidence, and so saved his neck. Burgess was a bravado even on the scaffold, but Levy and Kelly cut sorry figures.