The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1886. THE MILNE MYSTERY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1355, 30 September 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1886. THE MILNE MYSTERY.

The story of the mysterious robbery at the Ashburton hotel on the night of the 5 th of February, as told hr fore the Resident Magistrate last week, is one of the most remarkable we have ever read. The character of the man who lost the money, as well as that of the hotelkeeper in whose house he lost it* is entirely above suspicion, and there appears to be no shadow of ground for attaching suspicion to any other known person. Milne is shown to have received in Christchurch on that day the sum of ,-£59. He spent a pound or two in purchases, but drank nothing stronger than ginger beer. He then travelled by train to Ashburton with the balance of the cash in his pocket. In the same carriage with him was another “ traveller,” also bound for Ashburton. This “ traveller” proves to have been a person well-known to some of our citizens as a man of unblemished character On the journey down some little conversation—mere wayside talk—occurs between the two but Milne neither exhibits his money nor mentions that he has it in his possession. The two agree to stay at the same hotel and do so, but occupy separate bedrooms. Milne, on retiring to rest, discovers that his bedroom door cannot be locked and as a measure of caution sits down and counts his money, finding that he has odd shillings. He puts the £57 in his coat pocket and places the coat under his pillows and between the mattresses of his bed. His bedroom is upstairs so that nobody could enter by the window from the outside except by means of a ladder. Milne who has been as strictly abstemious since his arrival in Ashburton as he had been in Christchurch, having taken nothing stronger than tea, then lies down to sleep. He wakes twice during the night and the third time in the early morning, this time feeling a sensation of sickness whith goes off in from five to ten minutes. On proceeding to dress, he finds his coat where he had placed it but the money is gone. How and by what means he has never been able to solve. Now the extraordinary features of the matter are these. The door of the room creaks loudly on being opened so that no person could have entered without making considerable noise. Yet Milne, although sleeping evidently the reverse of soundly, as proved by his waking so frequently, is not disturbed by the entrance of the thief nor is he disturbed by the raising of the mattress on which he is lying and the abstraction of his coat. Next, the thief, whoever he may have been, is not content with abstracting the coat and afterwards taking the money therefrom, but he must run the risk of lifting the mattress and the sleeper again and restoring the coat to the place whence he took it. Further, all this is done to a stranger who has never revealed to anyone the fact that he has money about him, much less its amount. Altogether the whole thing is so inexplicable that we confess ourselves quite unable to suggest any resonable solution. Three hypotheses, however, suggest themselves. The first of these is that Milne may have unwit-

tmgly losl the money on his way down to Ashburton and have dreamt afterwards that he counted his money at Henry’s hotel ; the second, that he really had the money when he Ly down and that he disposed of it as he says, but, the care of the money weighing on his mind, arose in his sleep and stowed it away somewhere during a spell of unconscious somnambulism; and, the third that some person by some unexplained means obtained entrance to the house and first chloroformed and thenrobbed him. Of the three the second hypothesis seems to us the most probable, and although it is now not likely that the mystery will ever be cleared up, we shall not be surprised if the solution we have indicated proves to be the correct one.