BUTLER AT AUCKLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5851, 23 April 1897, Page 3

BUTLER AT AUCKLAND.

INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. [Per Press Association.! AUCKLAND, April 23. Frank Butler alias Richard Asoe, is in safe custody aboard the Mariposa, which has arrived from San Francisco. Detectives Roche and M'Uattie and Constable Conroy are in charge of him. Butler gave no trouble on the voyage. Ho behaved qiiietly, and read a little. He was supplied with whatever he wanted in the way of liquor, tobacco and food. His guardians took turns of four hours each in watching Butler two men being constantly in the cabin with him. Butler took very little exercise outside the cabin, preferring to remain in his temporary cell rather than go outside, and was not taken to the upper deck. He made no attempt to commit suicide on the voyage. Two state rooms were set apart for Butler and his guardians Butler's i was kept as bare of furniture as possible, only a settee and clothing tor two bunks being left in it. An iron grating was placed outside tho window and another in the doorway. It was originally intended to take Butler in the steerage, but the chances of privacy were so little, and the opportunities for getting assistance from tlie sailors and others were so many, that Captain Haywara strongly advised against taking tho chances. American news by the same steamer as Butler arrived in, says that since he was imprisoned Butler was not trusted for ono minute alone and was denied visitors, but ho raised a pair of thick brown whiskers while in gaol and materially changed his facial expression. Talking of his return, he said —"If anything, I think that an accused man has a better chance there than here. Good attorneys are always appointed when a man is too poor to pay them, and he is given every chance to defend himself. If I go back I think I will have a woman lawyer. There are three or four there. I think it would be a good thing to give one of them a chance in this case." Butler made an unsuccessful attempt to destroy himself on April 2 by scratching his temple with a finger-nail. The two guardians in the cell, to keep themselves awake, played at cards. Butler was in his cot with his face towards, the wall, and over the blankets only the top of his head was visible. From eleven till one o'clock he was quiet, and was thought to be sleeping Roundly, save that occasionally his body twitched. At one o'clock, one of the guards, noticing the twitching, and wanting to learn tha cause, threw back the blankets, and saw blood on the prisoner's face, pillow and beard. The blood come from a scratch on the temple. Butler was evidently seeking for the temporal artery, but after he had scratched for a while the pain was considerable and he coidd not keep his body from twitching. Butler told his guards that the scratching was an accident; but an accident it could not have been, for he was at work with his nails for a long time. Failing in an attempt to get morphia, a piece of glass in his tobacco pouch having been discovered before he had a chance to use it, he tried the only means at hand to commit suicide. The prisoner's nails were then cut short and the wound was covered with [ plaster. Butler, after his arrival at Auckland, expressed a wish to see the pressmen, in order to contradict a statement in the San Francisco papers that he admitted killing Preston. The reporters having been admitted, he absolutely denied having made such a statement. He! also said that had he remembered; the Swanhilda being 1 signalled, things would have been different, because when the boat came alongside at San Francisco and the men were called up, he thought it was for the health-officer. He had a revolver in his possession fully loaded, and if he had known why they were wanted, ' there would have been a bit of a stir.