A Queer Robbery.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 205, 14 October 1873, Page 7

A Queer Robbery.

It, will be remembered that in December last it was reported that a storekeeper named James Hayes, who bought gold for the Banks, reported that he had been robbed of 350 ozs. of gold and sundry moneys, while journeying from Ahaura to Greymouth. The offer of a reward of £SOO did not lead to any traces of th'e robbers ; and recent occurrences led the parties interested to doubt whether a robbery, as reported by Hayes, ever took place. Hayes having been brought back from Melbourne on a charge of attempting to defraud his creditors, is now charged with larceny of £ISOO, entrusted to him by the Bank of New South Wales in Greyinouth. One of the principal witnesses at the magisterial enquiry was Sub-Inspector Goodall, who, in the course of his evidence, said:—"l remember about the end of October or beginning of November, 1872, having a conversation with Hayes. He said, ' I've done a very good day's work to-day. I am just back from Greyinouth. I had £IOOO from the Bank of New South Wales to buy gold with, and they have advanced me £SOO to cash cheques at Reefton.' He added—' I have got the lot on different conditions than before ; formerly I was responsible for the money, but now I am not. I am now acting as the Bank's agent, and even if I get stuck up they can do nothing to me." On the 31st December, he reported to me about half-past ten in the evening that he had been robbed. He first told me on Clifton Road, Ahaura, that he had been stuck up. I said, ' We will go into your house and talk over it.' He said that in coming from Half-Ounce, about half-an-hour previously, when on the first bridge past the racecourse, he was stuck up and robbed of 375 ozs. of gold dust, £55 in notes, and six cheques for various amounts. I j asked who did it, and he said there were I three of them, and gave me the particulars of j how it was done. On the following day he i said it was 350 ozs. lie had been robbed of. I I took steps to trace the alleged robbers, but | did not find them. In February I saw Hayes j at the Ahaura races, and was in his company. ! We were talking about betting. I said I had no money to bet with, when he replied, ' I'll lend you some of the Bank's £ISOO if you like. 1 I said, ' Well, you may as well, as j everyone says you have got it.' I have seen ! Hayes leave Ahaura for Half-Ounce on almost I every occasion he has gone, but. he never I started so late as four o'clock, and he never j returned after dark, as on this occasion. I | went to the scene of the alleged robbery, and j found a saddle strap on one side of the road, I and a saddle-strap, a valise, and a piece of | brown paper on the other side. The valise j was not torn or cut. There, were no marks I of a struggle or of any footprints. There i were footmarks of one man having gone j right past the spot, but none on either side. I When 1 saw Hayes on the evening of 31st December he appeared to be greatly excited, lamenting his loss. At the time I doubted the genuineness of his statement, from the previous conversation I have related, and from thinking his grief was over-excessive for a man who had lost no money of his own. He told me he had lost no money of his own." Detective Browne : " Hayes related to me the circumstances of the robbery ; that he j left Half-Ounce with a parcel of gold in a. valise, strapped on his saddle, and when coming towards the Ahaura Flat he walked across a bridge. When across, a man stepped from behind the root of a fallen tree, levelled a gun at him, and told him to dismount. Another man came from the opposite side of the road, and commenced to unstrap the I valise from the saddle. They then told him i to turn out his pockets, and let everything j fall on the ground. He said the man who i had the gun Was a tall man, with a blanket with a hole in it thrown over his head. The smaller man had something like a flannel shirt thrown over his head, with holes cut in it. He said they took the gold he had with him on the saddle, eight £5-pound notes, j fifteen £l-pound notes, which he got from Michael Noonan, at Granville, and some I cheques. He said he had the numbers of the £5-notcs, as they were taken before leaving Half-Ounce. The man with the gun then told him to go on. Defendant said, he v alked on leading his horaa m»til liu c.a;ao it

the Ahaura Flat, where he saw a man oil horseback going in the direction of where hei had been stuck up. I asked if he spoke trt tine man, and he said he did not. I undorstood from defendant that lie had a watch, and they did-not take it. He said his reason for not speaking to the man on horseback was that he was going along the telegraph line, and the man was 1 Some distance front him, and he did not know that he was not connected with the men who had stuck him up. He said that after passing the man he mounted and rode on as fast as he could to Ahaura, without calling at any place: There is a public-house at the end of the llat before reaching the Ahaura. I asked if it was a single or double barrelled gun that was presented to him, but lie said he oould not tell. He was positive it was a gun. I told defendent it was very strange the men should have given him his horse to ride into town, that I never hoard of a case of the kind before ; and I asked him why he did not stay with them for a time, to find out something, when ho said he felt as if his month was full of bloorL I asked him if they ill-used him, and ho said they used no violence to him. I then asked defendant if he did not think a look ing-glass would help him in describing the' men who stuck hhn up, when he said, ' My God, don't you believe I was robbed?' I said, ' Don't ask me what I believe ; it might be very unpleasant for you to hear.' Ho said that was the only thing that grieved him, that the people would not believe he had been robbed."