THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS.

West Coast Times, Issue 253, 14 July 1866, Page 3

THE MAUNGATAPU MURDERS.

(fhom the nelson colonist, june 26.)

In no measure is the public excitement allayed respecting the murders of the four unfortunate men, Matthieu, Dudley, Kempthorne, and Pontius ; and gradually are circumstantial proofs thickening around the four prisoners, who are known to be among the most noted villains in the Australian colonies. Since our publication on Friday morning several articles have been discovered. We then announced the finding, on the previous day, of the body of the horse, shot with a bullet through the forehead. The bullet was found lodged in the animal's neck, much flattened and misshapen by coming in contact with the frontal bone. It is of the size and weight of an ordinary revolver bullet. On Friday there was discovered, lying at the foot of a tree, about fifty yards from the horse, a double-barrelled gun, short barrels, both loaded — the piece reminding one of the short guns that poachers use in England, and which are adapted to be : carried with the butt resting in an inside pocket of the, coat, so that by a man of ordinary stature the whole piece could be concealed without the barrels protruding above his coat collar. On- the same day a Crimean shirt qf a purplish color marked with heavy spots, was found a short distance away. People from Deep Creek are prepared to depone that this was the shirt that Levy wore when he visited that township on Sunday fortnight. Yesterday, a cloth gun-cover was found, and it is said that evidence can be produced to prove that it was seen in the possession of one of the party. Various reports are received of men being seen early on the evening of Wednesday week, not far from the top of the Maungatapu. The whole chain of evidence as it is, bit by bit, here a little, and there a little, gathered together, goes to fix the strongest possible suspicion on the men now in custody. They were passed by Mr Birrell on Thursday, in the previous week, on their way from Nelson up to Canvas Town ; he did not meet them coming into Nelson, as was at one time stated. They arrived at Canvas Town on Saturday, the 9th June. On the following Sunday, Levy went to Deep Creek, which he left on Monday morning. Next morning, early, Mr Jervis saw them preparing to cross the river, after they had silently left Canvas Town, with the intention, no doubt, of getting away unseen. Nor was this the last that was seen of the prisoners, as was at first supposed. Mr Galloway, of Picton, who left Nelson for Picton, we believe, on the Tuesday, and travelled a great portion of i the distance on Wednesday, reports that he met the lost party at the Pelorus Bridge Accommodation House, and took breakfast with them there. Mr Galloway had previously met "four suspicious looking tramps '' a few miles in advance.

Mr Jervis, of Canvas Town, who returned on Saturday, from Wangapeka, where he and the police were searching, identified all the party, particularly one of them, Burgess, to whom, when at his place, he gave medicine to cure dysentery. On entering the man's cell, Jervis at once recognised him, and asked if he was cured; Burgess replied that he was. Jervis said that he wished he had given him a dose of poison instead of the medicine, upon which, Mr Jervia says, the man, with an exclamation, made as if he would have rushed at him, but the officer prudently pushed Jervis out, locking the cell door. Mr Jervis also identified the particular opossum rug of the three he saw with those men at his place. It has a black flying squirrel's ski:* in the centre , aud this he noticed at the time, and spoke of to one of the party.