My motive for so doing is to case my own mind, and to gratify the interest which I know you take in the Aborigines of this country.
"The man shot by the police was named Padlalta, and was of so mild and inoffensive a disposition, that he was generally noticed by the settlers on that very account, several of whom I have heard say since, it was a pity that some other native had not been hit in his stead.

The same man was captured last year by Major O'llalloran's party, but was set at liberty as soon as I came up and testified his innocence, for which the poor fellow kissed my hand near a dozen times.
"The day before he met his death he was as usual in the town, doing little jobs for the inhabitants, to get bread or other food.

On the evening when he was killed, he had encamped with about half a dozen other natives on the northern side of Happy Valley, a short mile from the town.
The police who were sent by the Government Resident to see what number of natives were at the camp state, that while searching the man's wallet, he seized hold of one gun, and when the other policeman came up to wrest it from him, he the native grasped the other gun too.

In the scuffle that ensued, one of the guns went off, when the other natives who had fled returned and presented their spears.

They then shot the native who held the gun.
"Now this statement is a very strange one, when it is considered that the native was a very spare and weak man, so that either of the police ought to have been able to keep him at arm's length; but to say that he seized both their guns is beyond all credibility.