others. The women included Djaparri, a wife of Dhakiyarr, a Yolngu elder. McColl had handcuffed the women, as part of a plan to trap Dhakiyarr. When Dhakiyarr attempted to contact his wife, McColl shot at him and misfired; Dhakiyarr threw a spear at McColl, killing him. Reaction After the news of McColl's death reached Darwin on 11 August 1933, many in the community became alarmed. A punitive expedition by police was proposed on 29 August by Administrator RH Weddell to "teach the blacks a lesson". There were protests against this idea, peaking in early September, and Interior Minister John Perkins quashed the idea. In 1928, during a previous punitive expedition in the Northern Territory, police had killed up to 110 Aboriginal men, women and children; an event known as the Coniston massacre, and many feared another such slaughter. On 14 November 1933, a Fred Gray, a trepanger, reported that "Mereela" and "Barion" had killed Fagan and Traynor, and Dhakiyarr had killed McColl. On 22 November 1933 a peace mission was planned by the Church Missionary Society to speak with the alleged murderers and eyewitnesses. They travelled to Arnhem Land and persuaded Dhakiyarr and three other men, who were sons of a Yolngu elder, Wonggu, to return to Darwin with them for trial. On 15 March 1934, Dhakiyarr and 16 other Yolngu men travelled to Darwin, accompanied by missionaries. Trials Dhakiyarr was arrested and put in Fannie Bay Gaol, but there were many delays before the cases could be brought to trial, owing mostly to lack of prosecution witnesses. In April 1934, it was ruled that the confessions of Dhakiyarr and Meerera, who was said to have acted with Dhakiyarr in the killing of Traynor and Fagan, were inadmissible in a murder trial for these killings (the remains of one of the two, unidentified, had been found earlier). There was not enough evidence for these cases to be brought to trial. In May 1934, a Northern Territory Ordinance was amended so that a death sentence would not be mandatory in Aboriginal murder convictions. Clergyman and anthropologist A. P. Elkin and others argued for the need for a separate system of native courts. Evidence was offered that the Japanese men had assaulted the Yolngu women before they were killed. Gray was prepared to return the Aborigines to their community in his boat, suggesting that a lecture would be sufficient. On 1 August