TARRING AND FEATHERING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 8 October 1907, Page 3

TARRING AND FEATHERING.

, J A Challenge and a Denial. New Plymouth, October 5. Further developments are probable in connection with the Opunake tarring and feathering case. On Saturday, Hills, the victim, \wrote to the Taranaki Daily News, inter alia: — “\Sjb~, —I hereby wish to state most emphatically that I did not fail to s'vyear to the indentification of the accused in the Opunake tarring and feathering case. I positively deny thfe statement to that effect. I would t?Jso like to say I was treated most unjustly at the hands of some of the G.mnd Jury on that case.”

This afternoon fourteen otXthe Grand Jurors resident in towft? were seen and each and everyone of them stated that Hill, when under examination by them, absolutel} 7 refused to identify the accused as persons who assaulted him. He identified one of them as having been in Mrs Lister’s house, but stated that this man had spoken to him and so far as Hill was aware he had not taken part in the assault. He also identified one of the accused as having been in the house where he (Hill) was taken after the assault, but he distinctly stated that this man had not assaulted him, or even spoken to him. Of the fourteen jurymen who subscribed to the above facts, four were amongst the minority who favoured returning a true bill, soley on account of the Judge’s direct charge. It is stated that everyone ot the jurymen will deny the statements by Hills in his letter to the press. The grand jurors state that they are in an unenviable position in the matter as it is stated that neither the Judge nor the Crown Prosecutor is quite clear regarding the purport ot the grand juror’s oath aiid whether they are permitted to make public the full facts of the case, as presented to them by the chief witnesses under examination.

As previously indicated, there is little probability of the Crown, in view of the facts available, moving for a new trial or a change of venue.

There is, however, a probability of somewhat serious charges being laid against one of the principal Crown witnesses, involving perjury, in the present case. An equally serious charge it is stated may be laid arising out of a previous misdemeanour under circumstances somewhat akin to the Opunake incident.