THE ANNIE NEILSON CASE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2230, 26 February 1886, Page 2

THE ANNIE NEILSON CASE.

In consequence of the extraordinary tale told to us yesterday, and which we published, we telegraphed to Wellington for information, and received the following reply from , the Press Association Asylum and Police authorities deny the statement made by Mrs Neilson, that her daughter was confined in the Asylum. Mrs Neilson's statement is' believed to be unfounded.

The Wellington papers have also made enquiries, and the "Press" says:—On receipt of this message a representative of the Evening Press proceeded to the Mount View Lunatic Asylum, this being presumably the institution alluded to, and succeeded in obtaining an interview with Dr Levinge, the Medical Superintendent, and related to him the contents of the forgoing telegram. Dr Levinge stated that there had been no such patient in the Asylum of late, and he has no knowledge whatever,of the person mentioned. He is wholly at a loss to understand the statement.

On receipt of the telegram from Wellington we interviewed Mrs Neihon and her daughter, whon the following statements were made to our reporter, who took them down in writing, and afterwards read them over in the presence of both, and they signed their names to the statements. STATEMENT OP ANNIE NEILSEN.

It is about four months since Mrs Thompson came to my mother's, and arranged with her to go to Wellington, I went with Mrs Thompson to Wellington to her boarding-house as servant. I don't know the name of tho street. It used to be tho timber yard. I think it is Taylorstreet. There was another servant there. Mrs Thompson used to make us work very hard. I had to do the most of the washing. She used to make us go into the lodgers rooms when the men wero not up in time and strip the blankets off them. Rather thango up stairs to do this I got through the window and dropped down into tho timber-yai'4 and hid myself. When I canje in again I got a thrashing by both of them, I don't know how long I was there. I was there three Sundays. They both hammered me vory often. The very last day I was there Mr Thompson thrashed mo with his belt, It was a big belt like my father weara, I don't know what, he beat me for. A man came and took me away, He asked me where my father and mother was. I said ovor in Masterton. . I several times asked the peoplo at tho Asylum to take me home. I don't know how long I was there. I think it must have been three months. There was a different man that took mo out of the Asylum, not the same that brought me there. I had seen tho mail at the Asylum. There were a lot of mad people at tlie Asylum. Tho man took me on Monday morning to Thompson's Boarding House. I ■ stayed with them until yesterday. I had to dp work about the house. Mr Thompson told me not to tell my' father that I had been in the asylum. Mrs Thompson said my mother wanted me home, and that 6he was going to give me a good thrashing. He did not givenie any wages o,r olothos! 1 only had tho one my back when I came home, ]\liv Thompson brought me the railway ticket to, the house, and I \yeflfc down to the station just boforo the train started at four o'clock. No one went with me to tho train., Mother did not expect me wl\en I got home. He did, uo.t give me any money at, all, only the ticket. I said to BJr Thompson " No, I wont tell father," while I was in tho h.oflao. When I got out, and had tho ticket, I said to him, " I will tell father," and then I wont a\yay to tho station,— (Signed.) Anxib Nwwon, Statement qp tp motto, Mrs Neil-

My daughter will bo 14 on the 9th A.pril. Before I came up to Masterton I stopped at Mrs Thompson's Boarding House for a few days, That is how 1 knew her. About four months since, Mrs Thompson came down to see mo. Mib Christiansen brought her down. Sbo said, '-hullo! are you here ?" I said "yes." She said, "can I get your big girl?" I said, " yes if you will be good to her." She promised me she would treat her like her own. Young Mrs Mutne was present in my house at the same time. Mrs Thompson promised to cjojihq her, after givp Her'Ba a week, aflij # took her- away with her. She promised if the girl did not suit hor alio would send her straight home. I went down in January to Wellington, because it was a choap trip, and I wanted to seo the girl. I got there and asked for the girl, and they both said she was run away. They did not know where she was gone. "Look here," .1 said. " You must find my girl," They said they would not do it. If I I liked to have tho police find hor ho would go with me. He fetched a dotecfcive, (a tall thin man) and k him a description $ njy girl!' He took the iktpctjvo 'to ft house tjiat ho said lyae a bad house, where he said she was often going. He stayed outside tho house with me whilst tho anddetectivo went in searched the house. The detective came out and said she was not there, and that it was not a bad house, I wandered about the town all day till half past 8 o'clock when it was time to go back home by the train. I told my husband when I came home, he said it was a wonderful thing that he (Thompson) did not know where she gone. The next day J ts| |ho ' polioo 1 herd! They said it was ur the hands of thi Wellington police, and they could do nothing here, I saw them twice about it, I have been making enquiries all 1 can in Wellington, but could get no news, I got a friend to write a letter to Thompson ;at Wellington, but he would not answer. People at Wellington said it was a very low place where 1 sent my girl. I questioned my girl on her she said Mr, Thompson hryiyflered her, because 'she, v/pulcl not go injq room. She l(id 'apy many times because she would ijot go into the men's bedrqoms, and both .Mr and Mrs Thompson beat her for it, The big servant girl thrjafiqd by too, and told Mr Thompson because sho would qafcgojn, Qn iqorning after tho fatal accident t-Q Cook's boy, 1 told the Dm? reporter about my. girl being lost, and he said ho would make it Known through the paper, My girl told mo that they tied her legs together, and tied her round the waist to the bottom of a funny sort of cart they took hor to the asylum in, A policeman saw hor being taken away.-(Signed.) Sar, Neilson. The girl Annie Neilsen has since stated that she Baw in the Asylum were she was Staying, a lady belonging to Masterton, (whom sho named) and wlio is known to be at that institution in Wellington, Also, that while she was there, ft yourig girl, named Alice Lptf, '.'and J was sl(e pogseßaos a portrait, of tho debased girl. Annie Ifeilsop still adheres to her story, and furtliw, when sho was brought to Taylor's last Monday from the Asylum she ran away and tried to find her way home by road to Masterton, but she was overtaken near Petone by a man who, she supposed, belonged to : the police, and was taken back by him : to- Thompson's. '