Bushranging in New Zealand; Alleged fears of the Escort being robbed;
The First Bushranger, Henry Beresford Garrett; The Maungapatau
Murders; Arrest of Sullivan, Kelly, Burgess, and Levy in Nelson;
Sullivan's Confession; The Discovery of the Bodies; Sullivan's
Release.
The reports of extensive and rich discoveries of gold in the Otago
Province, New Zealand, in 1861, naturally attracted the floating
population of Australia to that quarter. In September the escort
brought down to Dunedin for shipment a smaller amount of "the precious
metal" than had been obtained in any previous month since the goldfield
was first proclaimed. Several reasons were given to account for this
falling off. One was that the weather had been abnormally cold, and the
freezing of the rivers had for a time put a stop to sluicing. Another
was that the gold buyers declined to pay more than £3 10s. per ounce,
and the majority of the diggers, having come from Ballarat and Bendigo
where £4 and £3 18s. 6d. per ounce were paid respectively, refused to
send their gold down and were keeping it for an anticipated rise in the
price. The _Southern Cross_, however, said that the principal reason
why the diggers were not sending their gold forward was the fear of
bushrangers. The guard sent with the escort was wholly inadequate in
the mountains through which it had to pass, and therefore the diggers
declined to entrust their earnings to its care. The _Otago Witness_
pooh-poohed this assertion and declared that there had never yet been a
case of bushranging in the colony, and that if a fair price was offered
for it by the banks and other gold buyers the gold retained on the
diggings would speedily be placed on the market. The bank authorities,
on being questioned, said that the New Zealand gold contained a larger
proportion of silver than either the Ballarat or Bendigo gold, and was
therefore of less value than the gold won on those diggings.
The boast of the _Otago Witness_ that there were no bushrangers in New
Zealand did not hold good for very long. Henry Beresford Garrett, who
was arrested in London on the charge of robbing the Bank of Victoria
at Ballarat as already related, and who was convicted in August,
1855, and sentenced to ten years' hard labour, was liberated from the
Pentridge Gaol, Melbourne, in August, 1861, on a ticket-of-leave, after
having served six years. Early in 1862 he made his appearance as the
first bushranger on record in New Zealand. The scene he chose for his
operations was the country between the Otago Goldfields and Dunedin.
In one day he is reported to have stuck up and robbed no less than
twenty-three persons near Gabriel's Gully, now known as the town of
Lawrence. His career, however, was short if lively, for he was captured
before the end of the year and sent to gaol for eight years.
In May, 1865, footpads were said to be becoming numerous about
Auckland. The _New Zealand Herald_ reported the story of a man being
bailed up while walking along Beach Street towards Mechanic's Bay. A
soldier, however, chanced to come along at the time and the robber
bolted. These petty offenders, however, appear to have been speedily
dealt with, and nothing more was heard about bushranging until the
public was startled by the reports of "the horrible Maungapatau
murders," as they were called.
It appears that Thomas Kelly, alias Noon, Richard H. Burgess, alias
Miller, and Philip Levy went to the new rush known as the West Coast
Diggings, early in 1866, and committed several robberies there. They
were shortly afterwards joined by John Joseph Sullivan, a recent
arrival from Victoria. On June 14th, Stephen Owens, landlord of the
Mitre Hotel, Nelson, went to the wharf to meet the coastal steamer
_Wallaby_, as she arrived from the west coast, and saw four men on
board. They were very shabbily dressed, but he gave one of his cards to
Levy and told him that he and his mates could obtain accommodation at
the hotel. On the following day, Sullivan and Kelly came to the hotel
in new clothes. Sullivan gave the landlord two bank notes for twenty
pounds each, and one ten pound note, and asked him to take care of them
for him. There was nothing remarkable in this. Diggers were frequently
very shabby when they returned from the diggings, and until they had
time to buy new clothes. Sullivan and Kelly appeared to have plenty of
money with them, as they spent it freely. They each ordered a pair of
trousers and a velvet vest from Charles Flood, tailor, paying £4 each
for them. They also spent £3 17s. 6d. for clothing at Merrington's
draper's shop, and Kelly paid besides £3 5s. for a dress for a woman.
He afterwards bought a bonnet, a mantle, and other articles of feminine
wear.
Levy and Burgess went to lodge at an oyster shop kept by Francis
Porcelli. They were covered with mud when they went there first, but
bought new clothes at J.M. Richardson's and other places in the town.
On June 21st, the four men were arrested and charged with the murder
of Felix Mathieu. They were remanded while the police made enquiries.
Sullivan turned Queen's evidence, and the tale he told may be
summarised as follows.
Sullivan landed at the Grey River from Victoria in 1865 with the
intention of digging. He was unlucky, and, chancing to make the
acquaintance of Kelly, Levy, and Burgess, who had been sticking up
people on the roads about the diggings for several months, he joined
them. One day they informed him that Mr. E.B. Fox, a gold buyer, of
Maori Gully, was expected to pass along the road, and they intended to
bail him up, as he was sure to have some gold or money on him. Kelly,
Levy, and Burgess hid themselves in some bushes beside the road, while
Sullivan was stationed on the road with a long-handled shovel, so that
those who passed along might take him for a road repairer. Owing to
this disguise he could keep watch without exciting suspicion. He had
not been long on watch when a man named George Dobson came along, and
asked how far it was to the coal pits. Sullivan replied "About half
a mile," and the man thanked him and walked on. When he was opposite
where the other bushrangers were hidden they fired and killed him
under the belief that he was Fox. When they discovered their mistake
they dragged the body off the road and buried it, and as it began to
rain heavily they all went to their tent. A day or two later they
went to the road again, and took up positions as before, Levy giving
orders that not a man should be allowed to pass without being searched.
Sullivan again appeared as a road-repairer, and was pretending to be at
work when an old man named James Battle, commonly known in the district
as "Old Jamie," came along with a sluicing shovel on his shoulder.
Sullivan said "Good day, mate. Where are you bound for?" Old Jamie
replied that he was going to "look for a ship," as the diggings were
"played out." Sullivan went to the ambush and reported that the man was
an old whaler and not worth robbing, but Levy said he must be brought
back. Sullivan, therefore, followed him and brought him back without
difficulty, as he had no suspicion. Kelly and Burgess seized him,
tied his hands behind him, and led him away into the bush. When they
returned they said he would not trouble them any more. They divided £3
15s., which they had taken from the old man. He had informed them that
he had not done well at the diggings, and had, therefore, taken a job
of cutting flax to earn sufficient money to enable him to get away.
Shortly after Old Jamie had been thus disposed of, Felix Mathieu, John
Kempthorne, James Dudley, and James de Pontius, store-keepers and gold
buyers from the Deep Creek Diggings, passed along the road on their way
from Nelson to Canvas Town. Two of the bushrangers stepped out from
their ambush and confronted them, calling upon them to stand. They
wheeled their horses, intending to gallop away, but found the other
two bushrangers facing them, revolvers in hand. The four travellers
then surrendered and allowed their hands to be tied behind them. Levy,
Burgess, and Kelly led them away into the bush, while Sullivan followed
the pack horse which had been let go, and which galloped a short
distance along the road and then stopped and began to feed. Sullivan
very soon caught it, and led it off the road. He took the gold and
other valuables out of the portmanteau, which was strapped on the
saddle, and shot the horse. Then he went to the camp to meet his mates.
The four bodies were discovered by William Flett, when he was out
looking for horses in the bush. They were lying less than half-a-mile
from the roadway on the Nelson side of the third creek from Franklyn's
Flat. Mathieu's body was lying in the loose ground broken up by the
uprooting of a large tree by the wind. It was on its back, the hands
tied behind, and the feet tied together at the ankles. It was sheltered
and partially hidden by the upturned roots of the fallen tree. Dudley's
body was about eighteen yards away with a handkerchief tied tightly
round the throat. Kempthorne's body was some twenty yards further,
lying on its back, untied. The body of De Pontius was lying some thirty
yards further along with a number of stones piled loosely around it,
suggesting the idea that they had been thrown at it from a short
distance. Dr. Vickerman said that Kempthorne had been shot in the head
behind the ear. The bullet and some paper were found in the wound,
showing that the shot had been fired at close range. Mathieu had been
shot in the stomach, and then stabbed. The wound was under the fifth
rib, and had apparently been made with a large knife. De Pontius had a
bullet-wound in the back of the head, and the right side of the face
was smashed, as if from the blows of rocks or stones. It was supposed
that the bullet had not killed him at once, and he was therefore stoned
to death. Dudley had been strangled.
A revolver was found in the gorse hedge at Toitoi by Constable Peter
Levy. A gun, identified by James Street as one which had been stolen
from his place on the Kamieri River, near Hokitiki, in the January
previous, was also found by the constable not far away.
Mrs. Mathieu identified Levy as a man who had frequently visited her
husband's store at Deep Creek, and exclaimed when she saw him in the
court, "Oh, Levy, Levy, how could you be such a villain?"
The police ascertained that Sullivan had sold to the banks in Nelson
gold to the value of £106 7s. 6d. Kelly had sold gold to the value of
£76 and a few shillings, and Levy had sold another lot. These, with
three nuggets which were sold together for £5 3s. 4d., made a total
of about £230 disposed of by the robbers since the murders had been
committed. It was, of course, impossible to say what proportion had
been stolen from each of the four victims, or whether the whole of it
had been taken from them.
George Jervis, a publican at Canvas Town, said that he gave the
prisoners permission to camp in an unoccupied hut not far from his
hotel. When they were leaving Burgess said "Good-bye, old boy; we're
going away from this---- country. There's nothing to be done here." The
publican had no suspicion as to the characters of the men, but thought
that they had not been very lucky recently.
Old Jamie left the diggings a short time before, and crossed the river.
The old man was well-known in the district. His body was discovered by
George James Baker, of Nelson, one of the volunteers who accompanied
Sergeant Major Shallcross and the police who started out to search for
the missing men when the murders were first reported. There was some
freshly-turned up earth near a fern root which attracted Mr. Baker's
attention. A log had been rolled across the place, and on this being
rolled aside and the earth scraped away, a portion of the clothing was
seen. The body was buried in a shallow hole, lying on its back, and
only just covered with loose earth. The trousers had been torn off, but
the other clothing remained.
The trial lasted for three days, Kelly, Levy, and Burgess being found
guilty and sentenced to death on September 17th, 1866. Sullivan was
tried separately on the 19th for the murder of Old Jamie, and a verdict
of guilty was recorded against him. He, however, received a pardon in
accordance with the terms of the Governor's proclamation.
Felix Mathieu was well-known in Australia. He was a native of
Marseilles, about forty years of age at the time of his death, and
had been in the colonies about twelve years. On his first arrival he
was employed as barman at the Union Hotel, Beechworth, after which he
opened a baker's shop at Spring Creek. When the rush took place to the
Snowy River in New South Wales he went there and opened a store, and
later on he kept a store at the Lambing Flat (Burrangong) and another
at the Lachlan (Forbes). From there he went to the west coast, New
Zealand, where he met his death as recorded.
Levy had been tried at Castlemaine, Victoria, about six years before,
on the charge of murdering a woman with whom he was living, but was
acquitted for want of confirmatory evidence.
Sullivan had been transported to Van Diemen's Land, from whence he went
to Victoria in 1853. He opened a butcher's shop at Ironbark Gully,
Bendigo, where he was well known. He removed and opened the Half-way
Inn on the road between Bendigo and Inglewood. At the time that he
sailed to New Zealand he left his wife in charge of a store at Mount
Korong and sold an allotment of land at Wedderburn to raise money to
pay for his trip. He was certainly not driven to crime through want
or poverty, and if, as he said, he was unlucky on the New Zealand
diggings, he could without much difficulty or delay have obtained
remittances from Victoria which would at least have been sufficient to
enable him to return home.
After his companions in crime had been executed, Sullivan was kept
in gaol for some months, popular feeling being so strong that it was
deemed inexpedient to release him at once. It was during this time that
he made some further revelations about his late companions. Soon after
he joined Burgess, Kelly, and Levy, he said he saw a young man sitting
propped up against the butt of a tree. He was dead. Sullivan asked
whether the body was to be buried? Kelly replied "No, better leave it
where it is. It will make people think he died from exhaustion. I've
put many a man away like that." It was supposed that he referred to the
wild times immediately following the discovery of gold in Victoria. The
young man in question had been strangled, and the robbers had taken
from his body a silver watch, a gold chain, a compass, a few shillings
in money, and a deposit receipt for £32, which they burned, to prevent
it from turning up in evidence against them.
Soon after his release he returned to Victoria, but was recognised at
Bendigo and other places and boycotted. People refused to sell him
food or to have any dealings with him whatever. The Government was
urged to put the Criminals' Influx Prevention Act (18 Vict., No. 3) in
force against him, but his case did not come under the provisions of
that Act, as he had not been sentenced to penal servitude since his
departure from Victoria. He drifted from town to town, and finally made
his way to Sydney, from whence, it was said, he went to South America
and was lost to sight.
The story of bushranging in New Zealand further illustrates the
intimate relationship between the colonies to which I have already
referred. Garrett, the first New Zealand bushranger, was an old
Victorian criminal, and the Maungapatau murderers, with whom the record
terminates, also went to the islands from the same colony, some of
them, if not all, having been previously transported from Great Britain
to Van Diemen's Land.
It may be advisable here, perhaps, to say a few words with regard
to Sullivan's evidence. The point in it to which I wish to draw
the attention of the reader is the partial exculpation of himself.
Substantially, the confession was no doubt correct, but we have only
Sullivan's own word to prove that the murders were committed by his
companions and that he himself only shot a horse. We notice a similar
effort on the part of Daniel Charters and others who have turned
Queen's evidence to minimise the share they took in the outrages with
which they were charged. Charters, indeed, went rather further than the
majority of informers and stated that he was sent away to take care of
the horses while the escort was robbed, because he was too frightened
to "risk his---- skin." He thus openly admitted his cowardice in order
apparently to justify himself, to himself, for turning informer. Of
course, his evidence may have been true in this particular, but the
constancy of this principle in informers generally of claiming that
they merely took a very secondary share in the crimes which they are
the means of bringing home to their fellows, tends to raise a suspicion
that they do, as a rule, consciously or unconsciously, endeavour to
excuse themselves to the public, and perhaps also to themselves, as a
sort of relief perhaps to their own conscience, for turning informer.
Their action in this respect contrasts strongly with that of men like
Pierce, the cannibal, or John Lynch, in making confessions after they
have been convicted. In these and other cases which might be cited the
condemned man appears to be anxious to let the public know how very
bad their actions have been. I do not say that they exaggerate their
crimes, but merely that they are particular that even the smallest
facts shall be made public. At the same time, they endeavour to satisfy
their own consciences in some way or other for what they have done.
Pierce, for instance, excused himself by saying that he must either
have killed and eaten his companions or starved, although this is not
borne out by the facts as far as they are known of his last act of
cannibalism. Lynch, on the other hand, endeavoured to prove that he
was the instrument of divine vengeance, that he had a mission. But,
whatever the excuse put forward may be, the fact remains that they take
care that their crimes shall be known to the very smallest particulars.
This point is I think worthy of the investigation of the criminologist.