THE DOBSON MURDER CASE.

Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 142, 8 December 1866, Page 3

THE DOBSON MURDER CASE.

TRIAL OF WILSON. (Abridged from the West Coad Times.) Tuesday, Dkc. 4. ■*'. " . On Tuesday the cross-examination of the witness Sullivan was commenced by M'-'ljfitton, but he did not elicit any material new fact, or shake the testimony of the witness.- . After detailing again the circumstances preceding the day on which Dobson wub murdered;- Sulliv.in went on to describe what was done from the- time they entered the tent on the morning, of the -occurrence : — Tho spot was close by where the lire- was afterwards. We had something to eat, and had a coversation before entering the bush. 1 don't know who spoke -first ; we all joined in the con-veraation-jjjit was 'general, antl^lated to the interception oi.Mr Fox. It wa^therc we made arrangements as to how tlie*an-..---t'jrception was to l>e « 1 0-.ie. It might ha\# been half-an-hour, or a little longer j that we were eating our victuals and conversing. We had dinner before we loaded the guns. We could not be seen • from the track .where we were loading the guns, unless a person was looking for us. We were not concealed. If I were watching I could see.>ny person passing up and down the track ;. that is, if I had my face towards* the track. There-was i\ot the slightest anxiety on my mind -as to whetherjinybody' passed up or down. I don't know whether anybody passed by. If any person were whistling or singing and passing tho spot where I was 1 would hear him. In fact, no one could cross the bridge without us ' hearing him. Tho reason that I was selected to go up the road was because I was a stranger and unknown. 1 was a stranger altogether. Murray objected to c;o up the read, saying that lie had been lit Maori Gully ; aud that Mr Fox would know him ; and he also said that I had more manner and address to get him (Fox) into conversation. Whon^ I loft the tent and wont up tho truck about half-a-mile towards the shanty [ nick a young man. I can't say from tho time I left my niatos till the fma 1 met the young man that I saw anybody else. If I had seen anybody 1 think I should have noticed it. I don't recollect having seen a man go'ngup the track accompanied by a do-;. At this time I was watching for Mr Fox. " I went there for that very purpose. If anybody passed along the track where I was at this time I should have taken particular notice. I should know auj'ono to-day if I had ever seen him before' If anybody had met or overtaken me on the track I should have taken particular notice thereof. A person might be on one track one minute and on another the next. I expected to see Fox on what I called the water track. It was quite possible for Mr Fox to have passed me, or even half-a-dozen men, Avithout my knowing it. ' I met the young man on the track I was on. I had a conversation with the young man and asked him how far it was to the shanty. He said it was half a mile. J I don't think it was half a mile from where I met the young man to tho shanty, because I had not travelled more than a Quarter of a mile before I saw the smoke. 1 saw other people, but I did not mget them. I also heard people whom 3 did not see. After I met the young mau I saw another person in the distance going towards the shanty, near the coal pits. I have no idea how far I went after I siuv the young ir.au till I arrived at the place where I saw the other person. 1 can't say' whether the smoke of the shanty was in sight. After I saw this person I don't know how much further I went. I can't tell whether the young lfian was in sii/ht when I saw the other person. I couldn't see the young mau five yards after he left me. I can't say -how far ahead I could see when the young man left me. I was not there for landscape painting. After I had gone a certain distance up tho road I stopped acjainst a tree and lit my pipe. The tree was on the track, and I did not go off the track. I could not see the young man from this tree. I can't say whether I could see the person I have mentioned from the tree, as 1 don't know the exact spot of the track I met him, but I know it was after I saw Dobson, whom 1 term the young man. I couldn't say how long it was from- the time I saw Dobson till I got to the tree. From the time I left the tree till I got to the-tent it would be about three-quarters of an hour. I can't tell how long it was from the time I left the tree till I saw tho three" men and heard the talking. The. distance from the tree to where I saw these men would be over a quarter of a mile. I did not meet or. hear anybody, batween the place I saw these three men till I returned to the tent. If a man passed with a. clog, and the dog had barked at the tent, anybody in it would have heard the barking, unless he had been drunk. If the prisoner and Kelly were engaged where 1 saw Dobson's body, I dpii't think they woulcl / b«vj r e heard a dog barking. Had I been ixt, a like distance, and doing the like work that Kelly and prisoner were engaged .in, I don't think I should have heard a dog barking at the tent. I did not see a man with a dog on the track that day. I was dressed in a Crimean shirt with black spots in it on that day. I had no coat on until the afternoon, and- that was. on- my return to the tent. When I wont back to the tent, after being up the road, I put my coat on. My coat was hanging on a sapling. I put my coat on this sapling when we were having dinner. It didn't rain all the while from the time that I left the tree till I got to the tent, but it rained off and on. I wore a black pea-coat, that day. My trousers were a darkish grey. I wore boots I think 1 had them outside my trousers. The young man I met had dark cloth' clothes on, and was carrying a big coat over his shoulder, fastened by a saddle-strap-. The second person I met, that is the one after 1 saw Dobson, appeared to be a tall man, and had no coat on. It being six o'clock, the Court was adjourned till 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Wednesday, December 5. Cross-examination continued : I was requested to do nothing else but keep the I road.' One of the party, asked me to help to bury him. 1 think it was Kelly ; lie spoke the most: At the time Kelly asked me to assist at the burial no one was appointed to keep the road. It took about, live minutes to make the arrangements. I left the body almost immediately after seeing it, The arrangements were made as we walked to the tent. After this I went down the road towards Greymoiith about* eighty or a hundred ya^ds^. It was about; twenty ..minutes- afterwards that I rejoined-.. Kelly aud Murray, jb should

imagine it was two hours and a half from that time before we reached Greymouth. There were, two revolvers aiid two double barrelled guna? ■ One revolver befcjngod 'to prisoner' and tho other to Kelly. The guns' were the property of Kelly. I n-over had any tirosr.ns. I used one of theirs in the fore-part of the day*. .^Wlien 1 say used I mean" tlia 1 : 1 had one in n*y possession. Wilson told me on thfe 19th May .that the revolver he had was one of Piiil ''Levy's, and that he meant .to stick to it. That revolver was lent ' to-' Burgess^ by Wilson on the 27th May, and I saw Burgess return it to him on the same d;-y. I kad v never been up the track in my lire towards ilio Am 11 Township, before, tlie 28th May — that is, further than the iron hut. Besides the arms and .the provisions the swags contained a tent; two 'possum, rugs, bedding, tomahawk, tin kettle, and three pannikins, and ' ammunition. 1 don't know what money the other two had,' but I had none. We left.some masks or caps -winch Wilson- brought "out on the iVlond:iy morning. K^lly had a small glass, jar, about three ": inches high, containing: strychnine. .Ije also h;;d- some flax. P^jcm't think j&£re was anything else. We '^ir|ed;^^^ffiwags between us. The in-isoner'c^^^pie 'possum nig,"revolvers, pi'ov-i^j^BH^itl.Pt pannikin, and tomahawk., By^fieTjetile 1 mean a billy. He also carrrcrl ",|he pbwdor and some slugs. 1 cannot recollect whether tho prisoner carried anything else. Kelly had the tent, the ii-ix, and the buttle I have mentioned. It was in his pocket. We had, a shovel. Kelly carried' it to make him look like a digger. It belonged to him. There was a ridge pole and a fork already cut at the place Avhore we encamped. Thore was also an upright which I call a fork. 1 cut another upright, and the tent was hung over tho ridge pole. Wilson lveved tho tent tln;uugh, while Kelly was getting a revolver from Wilson's sw.ig. It was possible some one may have parsed' win!© we were loading tho lirearn s in the bush. Nobody could .have crossed the bridge from tho Arnold side witkoi t my hearing. Nobody could have 'passed up or down the track without my knowing it. I had no appointment with Burgess that night but I met him. Burgess made no arrangement that night to go with us and bring in the things the next morning. He might have gone a good many times, but I did not see him. Burgess did not make any arrangement on that night (the 28rh) to go anywhere else tho next morniirj. It was about ten o'clock on Tuesday ■ morning when we arrived at Greymmith. I started from the last-named place about half-past five a.m. At about eight o'clock I got into company with the prisoner ; about throe miles and a quarter from Grey- ! mouth, at a place where a canoe was lying jon tde track. It was not fay from there j : that we " planted "the thinga the preceding night. I cannot say how far it was I from there, but it was not a great distance. | ; It w;is "not a mile — nor half n mile — it might have been a quarter of a mile. It ' would take longer to walk from the canoe ito where the things were". We stopped j for a while where the things were and I made two swags of them. I Mr Button : Did you stop there half an. hour, or how long I >■ Witness : It would not take a man half an hour to undo a swa£. ■•' Cross-examination cor.tinucd : When wo m'-ide the swags up v/e were returning to Greymouth, and we met Murray, and on meeting him we proceeded on the same track towards Greymoiith, but we stayed at the iron hut. Directly we mefc, tho. prisoner and Kelly quarrelled ; it lasted while we were walking to the hut, which was a distance of a quarter of a mile. .-We remained at the iron hut about ttwo minutes. I put my swag down, aud Murray took his turn to cany it. After leaving the. iron hut we stopped,. when we" mot some men inquiring for cattle. We stayed just so long -as a person could put a question and receive an auswer. We then went on to the shanty, which is about 400 or 500 yards from the bridge, which is on.ihe Arnold side. We only remained there while I took the swag from Murray. A 1 out a quarter of a mile at the Arnold side of Greymouth, Murray and I waited about half an hour, when Kelly came up and we all went on towards Greymoiith. We had no more stoppages on tne road. Murray then took the swag that I carried from the shanty. I don't know what the strychnine was for. On Monday night I slept at Greymonth. I did not sleep quietly that night as I was disturbed both by a man in the house, and tho thoughts of what had taken place during that day. On Wednesday and Thursday, Murray, Kelly, Burgess, and myself went up the track. We did not go further, than a little past the iron hut. After Monday, the 28th, I never went up the road as far as. Dobson's grave. Our object in going up the road on the Wednesday and Thursday was to intercept. Mr Fox on his way from Greymouth. It was arranged that we were to bail up Mr Fox. 1 knew of no other object. Cross- oxamination continued : On Sun-, day the 3rd' June we left Greymouth. •Mr Button : How many of the paity ? Witness : What party f Mr Button : Your party. W't'ioss : There were four. Mr Button : Was the prisoner one of the four? Witness : He was not. Mr Button then sat down, and Mr South said that he did not deem it necessary to re-examine the witness. The evidence was then read over to Sullivan, and signed by him. The Court then, adjourned until tho following day (Thursday.) Thursday, December. G. George Windhover, a contractor, was examined, and he deposed to having seen the tent mentioned by Sullivan as erected j near thj^bridge on the track. Saw a dark compieisioned and a fair haired man at the door of the tent. Shortly afterwards he met Dobson, of whom witness enquired how for it was to Shechan's store, and he replied about half a mile, Sullivan was not one of^the men witness saw at tho. doot of the tent. William Beilby, a miner, deposed to. having seen the tent in question and the. I two men, one of whom was a fair haired one. Was not sure whether the fair man had a beard or not. The man with the fair hair spoke to witness, but ho was not in tl'.o habit of remembering faces seen months ago. Witness believed he had told Inspector Brolian .that the prisoner resembled the fair haired<anan. ' The examination -was frequently interrupted by passages of arms between the learned counsel, and on one occasion the Magistrate reproved Mr. Button for improper language t'o\t'ie Bench. . The case was adjourned until this day (I"ri:lay .-)"._