Moresby Gaol

Triple Murder at Port Moresby Gaol

From Our Own Correspondent.

Port Moresby, June 10.

RESIDENTS and natives alike were startled on June 9 by the discovery of a triple murder at Badili Gaol, 11 mile.'! from Port Moresby.

The head warder, a native, was absent on the evening of June 6, and his wife took her small daughter and went to look for him. On Thursday morning, all three were found on the small island where stands the European gaol. They had all been dead for about two days, their throats being cut, and the bodies lying in pools of dried blood.

Throat-cutting has not previously been known in Papua, but the fact that in each case the main arteries were sev ered is considered significant. There was no sign of struggle.

Explanation of the tragedy is being sought by the police. The dead man w T as known to be credited with sorcerous powers, and sorcery is still one of the strongest forces in native life. He was a native of the Mekeo district, in which the belief in sorcery persists more strongly than in any other controlled part of Papua. Canoes from the district visited the gaol during the last week, two of them left at daylight on Tuesday morning, after the crime had been com mitted, but before its discovery. The police now are trying to intercept them.