The "Waikouaiti Mystery" of 1890.

This story is presented as found in the newspapers of the time.  This writer does not in the least share the prevailing racial attitudes of the time.

A WAIKOUAITI MYSTERY.

HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN A RAILWAY DRAIN. 

A human skeleton in an advanced stage of decomposition was (writes our Waikouaiti correspondent) found on Saturday morning by some boys in a channel cut in the formation of the railway line quite close to the railway station. How the remains came to be where they were is a mystery, and as no one has been missed from the district their identification is not likely to be easily accomplished. The channel or drain was cut some 12 years ago when the railway was formed. Since then there has always been about 3ft of water in it, but the recent drought has had the effect of drying up the water, and thus led to the recovery of the remains. 

From the surrounding circumstances the case appears to be one of determined suicide or a brutal murder, the facts pointing more strongly to murder than suicide, an with the remains were found two pieces of iron rail, each weighing from 5lb to 61b, which were apparently round the neck of the body, and thus kept it from coming to the surface. As already stated there is no one missing from the district, and no clue to identification.  -Otago Daily Times, 24/3/1890.

Late Colonial News

[By Telegraph.] (From our own Correspondent). Dunedin, Thursday evening. 

Nothing further has been heard re Waikouaiti mystery, but the 'Star' recalls a confession by a man in London, as reported in its correspondent's letter of 29th August last, in which he affirmed that he had killed a man in Otepopo Bush, but nothing could be found out about it.   -Mataura Ensign, 28/3/1890.

The Dunedin Star, referring to the Waikouaiti mystery, says: The supposition is that the man was either a stranger who was waylaid and killed near the place where the remains have been found; or that he had been done to death in another locality, carried in a vehicle to Waikouaiti, and there hidden in the ditch. The latter seems more than likely to be the correct solution of the mystery. In this connection a somewhat curious circumstance is recollected. Writing under date of August 23, 1889, our London correspondent told how a man named Robert Perris Stewart, a private in the 1st Battalion of Scots Guards — where be appeared to have borne an excellent character — walked into the Caledonian road Police Station on Saturday, August 24, and gave himself up for murdering a man named Muir in New Zealand twelve years ago. He then said that the deed had been committed in Otepopo bush, where he and his victim had evidently been working. He struck Muir over the head with a large lump of wood, and killed him. At first the authorities were unwilling to believe Stewarts statement, but he persisted in alleging that what he said was true. He was ultimately locked up, when the police authorities at Home decided to make enquiries as to the likelihood of his statement being true. The man was said to be in a very excited state, and appeared to be suffering from remorse, and after confessing gave it out that his conscience was much relieved, and that he was much easier in his mind. When the story was published by us the police here regarded the "confession" as the act of a man whose mind had been unhinged, but now his story is remembered, and some people are apparently inclined to believe that there was "something in it" We have made enquiries, and, so far as data in the local police department is concerned, there seems to be foundation for the opinion that the body of the supposed murdered man has never been found; and when it is it considered that for some time there was considerable passenger traffic through and in the vicinity of the Otepopo bush, the facts seem to point to the belief that the body was not left there by Stewart, but, if a murder did take place, was secreted somewhere.  -North Otago Times, 29/3/1890.

It would be interesting to know whether the police are bestirring themselves to test the truth of the latest story which has been put forward in connection with what the newspapers have called "The Waikouaiti Mystery." Our readers will remember that some days ago two boys at Waikouaiti found in a ditch not far from the railway station what appeared to be the remains of a full grown human being. The police were at once communicated with, and their investigations led them to suspect strongly that a murder had been committed, and that for the purpose of concealment the body had been placed in the ditch at a time when it was full of water. The sergeant who examined the spot found, embedded in the mud and underneath where the skull had lain two pieces of iron rail. On removing them he found portions of a coarse canvas bag. The only report to which we have had access is closely condensed, and no doubt the sergeant gave very much fuller particulars than those which appeared in print. However, the theory adopted by the police was that the body had been placed in the ditch and weighted down in the water by the two pieces of iron rail tied into the bag, and that in process of time the bag had to a considerable extent rotted away. It was proved that the ditch had only recently become dry. Dr Hislop, the medical man who examined the remains, gave the following evidence before the Coroner: — "He believed the remains to be those of a Chinaman because of the shape of the skull, which appeared to belong to the Mongolian type. The eye cavities and the upper jaw pointed to that conclusion, and the lower jaw was massive and very wide at the back part. He also judged of this from the fact that the head appeared to be a large one on a small body. The teeth were stained yellow, as if with opium smoking. The height of the man would be about 5ft, and as the teeth were worn down he judged him to have been a middle-aged man. He thought also that he could not have been an old man from the shape of certain bones which alter at old age, but in this case had not. With some diffidence he expressed the opinion, from the condition of the bones, that the man had not been dead more than three years, and it was with a knowledge that the bones had been under water all the time that he offered the opinion." The jury found that "there was, from the surrounding circumstances, very grave suspicion that the said unknown man came to his death by foul play." Now for the second chapter of this strange affair. A few days after the inquest the Otago Daily Times published the following paragraph: — "A Waikouaiti correspondent writes in all seriousness that the skeleton found in a ditch near the railway station there was that of a gorilla. He states: — 'Shortly after the railway was opened here in 1878, a circus passed through. A gorilla died, and the proprietors, not wishing to waste time, put the remains in a bag, and threw the bag and the contents into the ditch or channel near the railway station.'" On the whole of these facts and statements it is evident that further very serious inquiry is absolutely necessary. We entertain a strong suspicion that the letter which we have just quoted is not to be depended on. We do not remember that any circuses in New Zealand in 1878 or in any other year had with it a gorilla or other very large ape, but on that point we may possibly be mistaken. If the letter is an invention, the writer of it should be thoroughly ashamed of himself, for his statement is calculated to throw dust in the eyes of the police in their efforts to reach the perpetrator of a dreadful crime. On the other hand, if the latter be true, and the remains found were those of a gorilla or orangoutang, how can Dr Hislop account for his having been betrayed into so grave a mistake as to pronounce the Waikouaiti remains to be those of a human being, and probably of a Chinaman who had been addicted to the use of opium?  -Timaru Herald, 3/4/1890.

Some remains, thought to be human, found in a ditch at Waikouaiti, Otago, are now found to be those of a gorilla. Not much difference, you see, between a Chinese-Otago Scotchman and an ape!  -Observer, 5/4/1890.