THE CHEMIS CASE. CHARGE OF PERJURY. REMARKABLE STORY OF A DREAM. Wellington, August 27.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 398, 31 August 1889, Page 5

THE CHEMIS CASE. CHARGE OF PERJURY. REMARKABLE STORY OF A DREAM. Wellington, August 27.

Cut-Mis continued his evidence this afternoon in the case in which Detective Benjamin is charged with perjury. He paid he had used his gun to shoot quail on Wednesday and Thursday mornings that week. They were in a tin on Saturday, June 19th, on a shelf in the kitchen. Benjamin took down the tin and looked in, but said nothing. There were some bullets in the drawer which he had obtained iroirt a man named Gibson, of Kaiwarra. He got them because there were some wild pigs on the land he had from Hawkins. He u.sed some, but they were too small for his gun. There were no fragments* of newspapers in the bundle the detective took out of the bedroom to Inspector Thomson. He kept a revolver like everybody else, because he was living in a bad place. It had been loaded about eighteen months or two years. The police took away the gun on Sunday morning, and he told them he wished they had taken it the previous evening, as there were a # lot of people about, and he did not liko to' be suspected. Benjamin then paid, " Were you anywhere last Friday night?" Witness answered, "No ; every night when I come, 1 have an hour or an hour and a-half's ,work before me." Witness described his actions on the evening of the murder. He knocked off work about 4.30. He wore the same clothes as € he was arrested in. He arrived at the gate about ten minutes or a quarter to 5. He saw his wife in the cow-shed, and roped up a calf so that Mrs Chemis might milk the mother. He went to the hay loft and took down a handful of hay, and cut up a caskful of mangolds. He did not leave the premises that night, nor did he use any stiletto or shot-pouch. By Mr Bell : Was in Kaiwarra on Saturday morning, June Ist. He delivered milk as usual that morning. Did not think ho collected any money, bub could not be sure. Could not swear one way or the other. Mr Bell a3ked him to collect hi& thoughts, but witness said it was so long ago he could not now be sure. He was told on his rounds by Jack Mack that Hawkins had been killed, but did not understand he had been murdered. Charles Collins told witness Hawkins was hurt, and Dr. Cahill had come up in a hurry. Went home and had breakfast, and returned to work, being at Kaiwarra aboub 8 o'clock. Did not hear Hawkins had been murdered till the afternoon. No, he was wrong ; it was in the morning before dinner. He remembered now the barmaid at the Rainbow Hotel told him and Mr Coulter there had been foul play. Would nob say whether he told his wife ab dinner time ; could not remember. Reached home on Saturday about half or three-quarters of an hour before the police arrived. Did not remember whether he spoke to his wife. Was outside the house chopping firewood when the police came. After looking over his clothes they went outside because they would have more light there. There were no fragments of paper, in the handkerchief taken out to Inspector Thomson. , , Mr Bell asked why, when called upon by the Judge to say why sentence .should nob be passed upon him, Chemis did not mention this. Witness said in such a dreadful position he only spoke what tirab came into his mouth. He gould not say why he did not mention the paper in his statement to the Governor. Mr Bell : I invite you to explain it nqw. Witness : I mus.b have forgotten 1 it. ' The evidence of Dy veil and others was read te him during his interview with Mr Jellicoe lin prison. These were the witnesses M i Bunny ht\d subpeenaed 'at his request, te give evidence in the Supreme Court: Did

not tell Benjamin when looking at the gun he had quail in the house, bVit when looking at the tin he believed he eaid, ''Them is the quail I fired the gun at." His wife was in the kitchen at the time. He also mentioned it again on Sunday, and drew the attention of Benjamin aud Campbell to the fact that he had pointed out quail to them. Gob 12 bullets from Gibson and fired off three. As they did not'fit his gun he used to. put paper on top as when loading with shot. Was sure he did not wrap paper round the bullet. The police left one bullet behind when they went away. The stiletto was sharp at the point, and never bent. , If it wos bent now he could not account for it. (The Btilieto was produced, and shown to the prisoner, who expressed surprise at the point being bent, and tried to straighten it with his teeth, but was of course promptly stopped). He said it was not so when he la3t saw it. Saw the police take a handkerchief into the parlour. Did not see any fragments of newspaper pub into it there. No newspaper was taken out of the children's room, in fact, he saw no paper taken at all, except what was taken out of his own coat pockets, at ' any rate not so far as he could see, and he saw protty well everything that was done. Could say positively they could not have packed up four or five pieces in the children's room. In answer to further questions, Chemis said he had iseen Hawkins while the lawsuit between them was pending. He spoke to him, but never threatened him. Hawkins summoned him for some surveying, and one morning witness met him, and iTawkina told him ho would let him ofF for £50. Witness told him he was always wanting money. " You blooming devil, you are never satisfied," were the words he used. On another occasion, aboub four months ago, he told Hawkins he did nob want his children to beat witness'; he might just as well givo witness a slap himself, and not take revenue on the children. Hawkins said he was quite mistaken, itwas not his children who had done it. At this stage the Court adjourned till tomorrow. Mr Jellicoe asked that Benjamin, who has hitherto been released on his own recognisances, should be required to find bail, but Mr Graham said to alter the mabter now would look as though he were expressing an opinion on the case, and Mr Jellicoe did nob press the point. Chemia appeared in Court shaven and cropped, wearing the convict dre?s. He gave his evidence in English, which he spoko fairly well. It is stated that a sheath knife, sharp on both edges and with the point burned, has been picked up on the scene of the Kaiwarra murder, along with a shot pouch. The discovery is alleged to be due to dreams. Mr Law, the findei, is stated to have some time since dreamed on four successive nights that a knife would be discovered in a small creek, where it was found, and for the last four Sundays so impressed was he with the vision that he has devoted the best part ot those days to his search. This fact is well known to Law's friends, not only in town, bub also ab Kauvarra, where his periodical visits had come to be regularly looked for. The little creek where his search has from time to time been so persistently made is led by a spring in the hill, and the surface of the water is generally covered with a growth of watercress, and knife and shot pouch were found in a small waterhole in the creek some 18 inches or two feeb deep. Law's search yesterday, as ib invariably had been, was prosecuted by himself alone, and it was not until hia call bo some city people, who happened to be taking "a constitutional," attracted them, that anyone was aware of his object in " fossicking "up and down the creek, although his movements had been observed. The knife is described as being a formidable-looking instrument, aboub fifteen inches in length, and has been ground both back and edge unbil it bears a marked resemblance to a stiletto. The articles have not been handed to the police, bub to someone else whom Law refuses to name. The police are, however, insbitubing inquiries inbo the matter. Another account says that though Law dreamed about finding the articles, and it was that which caused him to be bo persistent in his search, the place where he found them does nob by any means tally with his dream.

Wellington, August 28. The cross-examination of Chemis was resumed this morning. He deposed : The right hand drawer contained no newspapers, only bills, Italian letters, and documents. He replaced a number of articles in the drawer after the police had made a search. When the Inspector took the stiletto from its sheath he remarked, "The thing is rusty. We will see it betber by daylight." He-examined he said : His statement to the Governor was written in the Italian language. He was not aware who translated it. Had not had a private interview with Mr Jellicoe before that statement was made. Attheinstanceof thegaoler he only put down the more important particulars. It was not a full statement. He knew nothing of the present case nor what they were investigating:. After he was informed that Hawkins had met foul play, he fully expected houses in the neighbourhood of the scene of the murder would be searched by the police. He did not junderstand the evidence given at the trial by Tasker respecting the piecing of the paper therefore in his statement to the Governor he had not mentioned anything about the fragments of newspapers. The evidence pi-oducod before the Governor ho was aware of before he was shown it by Mr Jellicoe. There were no newspapers in the hand kerchief when handed by Benjamin and Campbell to Inspector Thomson. In fact Inspector Thompson said, " There is nothing we want from there. There are only letters, bills, and documents.'] If anyone used his shot pouch he would know whether his shot was greased. He had the powder flask for four or five years. It was repaired a week or a fortnight before the death of Hawkins. Dowd was at wit- ; nes3 ! house on the Sunday after the murder. Robert; Dybell was recalled and questioned as to his being frequently in the company of Dowd about the time witness made the affidavit. He replied that Dowd passed his shop almost every day aud generally dropped in. He denied he had been in Dowel's company collecting evidence in Chemis' favour. Dowd was not present when witness made his statement to Mrs Chemis. He said he frequently went out shooting with Chemis' gun which he kept hanging in a bedroom. He took the shot pouch, powder flask, caps' and wads, from the right drawer. The last time he used the gun was on the Sunday before the murder. .

Sometimes it is better to beg pardon than to fichb. The other fellow may be bigger, and a blaok eye is a cloud, Qredit-able. — " I'll settle my account like clockwork," as the man said to the tailor when he was ordering his clothes on tick. ' If a man spends three-quarters of an hour, trying to unlock the front door with a button-hook, how much did he spend at the club during the eVoning ? ( - ''" ' {