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NORTHERN TERRITORY MURDERS.
At the March sessions of the Palmerston
Circuit Court five persons were convicted
of murder, and sentenced to death by Mr.
Justice Dashwood. Two of the prisoners are
aboriginals named Nabaloona and Copper-
ang, two others Chinamen, and the fifth is
also an Asiatic alien. The sentences in all
cases will be considered by the Executive
Council The Attorney-General has shown
us the depositions taken at the trial of the
aboriginal natives Nabaloona and Copper
ang, who were sentenced to death for the
murder of Thomas Richardson Moore and
Kenneth McKenzie at King River, on
December 3, 1898. The Jury returned a
verdict of guilty with a strong recommenda-
tion to mercy on account of the great pro-
vocation which the blacks had received. Ac-
cording to the evidence of Lucy, a half
caste aboriginal from Borroloola, Tom Moore,
''to whom she belonged," brought three
lubras to a place named 'Our Harn' after
a trip up the Liverpool River. Two of
these were named Jungle Lily and Biddy.
Moore took Jungle Lily to his hut, and
McKenzie took Biddy. As Jungle Lily
tried to escape during the night Moore tied
her up, and later on he gave her to another
white man named Tuck, who handed her
over to Copperang 'because she all all the
time cry.' The same witness stated that
when Juugle Lily was first put in the boat
on the river Moore put steel wire on her
legs, but did not tie up the other lubras,
and that she cried all the time. In cross-
examination Lucy avowed that Moore was
'all the time good fellow along black
fellows.' A lubra named Malaba, whom
Moore had captured on Melville Island,
stated that the white man beat her and
Lucy all the time, but did not beat Jungle
Lily. Robert Tuck, a buffalo-hunter of
Malay Bay, gave evidence that Jungle Lily
did not stay in the camp against her will.
He denied that he handed her over to Cop-
perang because she made so much noise,
but simply because he did not want her any
more. According to the evidence the
murders were committed outside the vic-
tims' huts with rifles which the prisoners
had obtained. They were arrested on
December 27 by M.C. Stott. Evidence was
given by natives that Nabaloona fired at
Tom Moore, and that Copperang shot
McKenzie in the temple. A blackfellow
named Nalorman, who saw the shooting,
deposed that Moore had been growling at
the natives for not fulfilling his orders, and
that he had knocked one of them down
and was beating him when Nabaloona fired
and killed him.
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