Bsip Has Another
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
Native Charged in Honiara
Murder Sensation
VI/’HEN Reginald Poole mur
** dered a native boy in the Solomons a couple of years ago, the subsequent trial became a seven-days picnic for the Aus tralian Press. But when a native murdered a young Australian in Honiara on August 7, it caused not as much as a ripple on the
pond.
In Honiara on August 11, a Rennellese native, Ruel Tuata, was taken into custody and later charged with the murder of Frederick Neil Gilliland.
At approximately 12.30 p.m, on August 7, Gilliland, a 27 years old Australian employed in the BSIP Treasury, was found on the floor of his kitchen suffering from severe knife wounds in head and neck.
He was taken to Central Hospital where he died an hour later.
Gilliland, whose home was in Queensland, had been with the BSIP Treasury for about two years.
During the week prior to his death, he had moved from Govern ment transit quarters to a bachelor house near Government House, and had employed a Rennellese Islander, Ruel Tuata, as houseboy.
On the 7th, Gilliland left his office for the lunch break at 12.05 p.m.
Fifteen minutes later, Colin Marcantelli, friend and neighbour of Gilliland, heard sounds coming from Gilliland’s house. Shortly before this, he had noticed Ruel Tuata strolling away from the house. He became concerned at the sounds and went to the house, where he discovered Gilliland grievously injured. A bush knife was found nearby.
During the next few days Police parties were augmented by part of the Government labour force to make a total of 170 searchers combing the outskirts of the town and the surrounding valleys and bush country, A description of the missing houseboy was radioed to all out stations and coastal plantations, with instructions to detain him for questioning if he were seen.
Despite these seemingly wide spread Police activities it was not until the morning of August 11, that Tuata was seen by two fellow Rennellese near the Bonegi River, about five miles from Honiara.
They persuaded him to surrender to the Police and stopped a car driven by a European who took them to Rove Police Depot where Tuata was taken into custody.
Tuata’s arrest eased a very noticeable tension amongst the
European population which was concerned that he had been able to evade detection for the first hours of the search when he must presumably have been fairly close to his starting point. Once outside the town limits, moving towards the Bonegi area, the bush is thick on either side of the coast road.
There is a certain amount of interested speculation about the conduct of a prosecution, bearing in mind the fairly recent legislation in the UK regarding crimes of this nature. And the Reginald Poole case is still fresh in the minds of all residents, brown or white.
A great many European residents of BSIP were of the opinion that Poole should have been hanged— ]f. for no other reason, then to show that there was not one law for the natives and one for Europeans The Appeal Court in Suva, however, judged that he was insane and he was placed in a UK institution for the criminally insane.
One of the things that did emerge from the Poole controversy was that there was no provision in the BSIP for legal aid for defendants in such cases.
The Melanesian Mission briefed counsel for Poole—Mr. Dudley Jones, of Rabaul. There are no private legal practitioners in the BSIP. It was said at the time that a native in a like predicament would have been without counsel because he could not pay for a barrister to come in from P-NG or Australia to defend him.
It will, therefore, be interesting to see what the BSIP Government makes of the present case; and if Ruel Tuata is to be left without legal aid because he cannot afford it.