ALL WHITE JURY -

“On the Wednesday night before Christmas 1912, a body was found about fifteen yards from the tent of Hyland’s Circus. The deceased was identified as Amid Bin Kadir, a young Malaysian indentured worker on one of Robinson & Norman’s boats. There seemed to be no shortage of witnesses to the death of Kadir. Even Corporal Lamb’s two young sons were there. With dismay, Corporal Lamb realised that it was his duty to charge with murder Tom Hyland junior, the blind jockey. From what Corporal Lamb was told, it seemed a rather simple case. Kadir was one of a group of Malays taking turns to watch the performance through a hole in the tent. Whem Tom felt from the rippling of the tent that a face had reappeared, he punched as hard as he could. The head disappeared. And that was that.

The inquest into Amid Bin Kadir’s death commenced before Mr Russell JP and a jury of three in the second week of January 1913. Hall appeared for Tom Hyland, while Coleman appeared for the Crown. Tom Hyland sat in the dock and listened as a series of witnesses swore they had seen nothing to link him with the murder. Corporal Lamb’s children, Thomas aged thirteen and Roy aged eleven, said they saw a Malay looking through a hole in the tent and heard the sound of a blow, but Tom wasn’t in the tent at the time.

Jack Leston, the circus clown, said that Tom was with him dressing for the jockey act. Harry Harris, a patron of the circus, said he saw a man on the ground who he thought had had a fit. Another patron, Mr Roe, said he heard young Percy Hyland say, ‘Come and look at the man Tom has knocked out.’ Percy, Tom’s seven-year-old brother, was careful to deny this – all he saw was a drunk man lying in the grass. Tom Hyland took the stand to say he did not leave the dressing room that night. The first he heard of the death was when the circus was over.

The jury did not want to hear any more and brought in a verdict that the deceased had died by a blow to the mouth, but it was not possible to say who struck the blow or how it was struck. Tom was released. It was a popular decision, at least among the white community.”

From: The White Divers of Broome. John Bailey. Pan Macmillan.

Such was the nature of things in Broome that you could even get away with killing someone, as long as they weren’t white…

Hyland Circus

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