THE ALLEGED GOLD ROBBERY NEAR THE AHAURA.

Evening Star, Issue 3315, 4 October 1873, Page 3

THE ALLEGED GOLD ROBBERY NEAR THE AHAURA.

It will be recollected that in December last it was reported that a storekeeper named James Hayes* who, bought gold for the banks, reported that he bad been robbed of 3560z. of gold and sundry moneys, while! journeying from Ahaura to Greymouth. The offer of a reward of LSGO did not lead to the discovery of any traces of the 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 L 1,500, entrusted to him by the Bank of New South Wales in Greymouth. One of the principal witnesses at the magisterial inquiry was Sub-Inspector Good all, who, in tbe course of bis evidence, . said :—I 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 Grejaaouth. I had a LI,OOO from the Bank of New South-Wales to buy gold with, and they have advanced me LSOO to cash cheques at Beef ton.” He added —“I have got the lot on different conditions than before; formerly 1 was responsible for the money, hut now I am not. I am now acting as the Bank’s agent, and even if 1 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 about it.” He said that in coming from Half-Ounce, about half-an-honr previously, when on the first bridge past the racecourse, he was stuck up and robbed of 3750z. of gold dust, L 55 in notes, and six cheques for various amounts. I asked who did it, and he said there were three of them, and gave me the particulars q! bow it done. Ou ths following day

he said it was 3560z. he had.been robbed of. T took steps to trace the alleged robbers, but did not find them. In February I saw Hayes at the Ahaura races, and was in his company. We were talking about betting. 1 said I had no money to bet with, when he replied, “I’ll lend you some of the Bank's L 1,500 if yon like.” I said, “ Well, yon may as well, as everyone says you have got it.” I have teen Hayes leave Ahaura for Half-Ounce on almost every occasion he has gone, but he never started so late as 4 o’clock, and he never returned after dark, as on this occasion. I went to the scene of the alleged robbery, afld found a strap on one side of the road, and a saddlestrap, a valise, and piece of brown paper on the other side. The valise was not torn or cut, 7here were no marks of a struggle or of any footprints. There were footmarks of one man having gone right past the spot, but none on either side. When I saw Hayes on the evening of the 31st December he appeared to be greatly excited, lamenting his loss. At the time 1 doubted the genuine) ess of his statement, from the previous conversation I have related, and from thinking bis grief was overexcessive for a man who had 1 st no money of his own. Ho told me he had lost no money of his own Detective Browne: Hayes related to me the circumstances of the robbery ; that he left Half-Ounce with a parcel of gold in a valise, strapped on his saddle, and when coming towards the Ahaura Flat he walked bis horse 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 cime from the opposite side of the road, and commenced to unstrap the valise from the saddle. They then told him to tarn out his pockets, and let everything fall on the ground. He said the man who had the gun was a tall man, with a blanket with a hole in it thrown o>cr his head. The smaller man had something like a flannel shirt over his head, with holes cut in ii He said they took gold he had with him on the saddle, eight LS notes, tiftfen Li-notes, which he got from Michael Noonan, at Granville, and some cheques. He said be had the uumbtrs of the L5-notes, as they wore ta'kftn before leaving HaltOunc •. The man with the gun then told him to go on. Defendant said he walked on leading his horse until he came to the Ahaura Flat, where he saw a man on horseback going in the direction of where he had been stuck up. I. asked if he spoke to the man, and he said he did not. I understood from defendant that he 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 lino, and the man was some distance from him, and he did not know that he was not connec ed with the men who stuck him up. Hesaid.tbai after passing that 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 flat before reaching the Ahaura. I asked if it was a single or dou ble barrelled gun that was presented to him, but he said he could not tell. He was positive it was a gun. I told defendant it was very strange the men should have given him his* horse to ride into town, that J nevei heard of a case of the kind before ; and ] asked him why he did not stay with them for a time, to find out something, when he said he felt ns if his mouth was full of blood. I asked him if they ill-used him, and he 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 him up, when he said, “ My God, don't you believe 1 was robbed?” J said, “Don’t ask me what I believe; it might be very unpleasant for you to hear, ” He said that was the only thing that grieved him, th'at the people would not believe he had had been robbed.