THE WAIHI SLIMES CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12044, 14 August 1902, Page 7

THE WAIHI SLIMES CASE.

t it o ; f ■ TRIAL OF FINN AND EGAR, " THE ACCUSED FOUND GUILTY.' . SENTENCE DEFERRED.. ... ; The trial of the; two youhj, men, Cyril Douglas Finn and James Egar, on the charges laid against them in connection with the Waihi slimes case, was concluded at the Su-' premo Court yesterday, before Mr."' Justice Coholly and a jury of 12, the result being a verdict of guilty against both accused, The two accused, both of whom .were lately in the employ of the Waihi boW Mining Company, were charged with that they did, on October 27,1900, break and enter the battery-house rof tho said company- at Waikino and steal therefrom- a quantity ot gold-bearing material, consisting of cyanide gold sliir.es and zinc shavings. On two other counts they were charged with stealing such •material,' and with stealing it as. the servants of the company. On a fourth count they were charged with that they did, on May 10, 1902, receive a portion of such; material, knowing it to have : been stolen. _ ;*,,.:-: •• . The Ron, J. A. Tale (CroWll .Prosecutor), and With him Mr. T. Cotter conducted the ptosecution, and Mr. J. C. Martin appeared for the -accused,-.who pleaded not guilty to the several charges. . < " ."'.•''- ' "■■ Tho following additional evidence ; was called for the prosecution:— ■,-'■,""'■' Serjeant Clarke,- stationed at the 1 names, stated that on May 10 last, in company With, Mr Cha<s.- RUdUes,! funeral manager of the iW W: Company, and Detective Miller, he went to the Mahara Royal battery, at rapu. in the rctorting-rbomthej found, the accused, who, on being questioned, said - they were doing "a little, work," and that, they wore 'hereby the authority of Mr. Dunlop. .Finn said he taut taken the two boxes (containing , the slirties) there: from ! the - buggy. *° I smaller box was empty, but the largei one contained slimes. On the Reused being informed of tho charges against them, ;* inn said, "We are prepared to take outpAbment, but one thing I would ask, that our names bo kept out of the paper. .¥™ standing alongside at the time. The accused were.attested. The and the dust and ashes (produced) collected. Bv Mr. Martin After the arrest witness saw" Mr. S. Carter and hiaVife at the xapu by Mr Tote : Rhodes identified the material in the larger box without any hesitation. . It was after witness said he must take tho accused into custody that Finn said, " We will take our punishment, Miller, stationedat the Thames, said that as he, Sergeant Clarke, and Mr -Rhodes crossed the paddock .front_of, the battery he saw first Egar and then linn look out of the window of the retortroom. On entering the room, and questioning accused they both said they werer doing , a little work." .Witness asked "What s in hoifurnace and in the box?" They both replied . that. they did not know. . « flinn", asked "Where did it come from-' Fin" said"; did not know, but Egar said he brought it in a buggy that morning. Rhodes on examining \ the larger box, saul . Ihose are the slimes taken from thc.Waihi Company." The accused could have heard these words. On being charged with the theft Egar made no reply, but Finn used theids repeated by the previous witness. After the aS'EgJ said V "I knew the T game ] was up when I saw you coming. Its the ; hist 'crook' thing I've been in, and I swear it will bo the 1 st? A letter was found in Finn packet rom Mr, Harris, giving permission for the use of the battery, subject to Mi. DunlopY consent. . • - n , By Mr. Martin: On searching the accused witness found ia . label,; containing- U ,U. Finn, Opitonui," in Finn's pocket. , It wa» rather dirty and .appeared to havebeeo; used. Rhodes on seeing the .label,, saul . -That what gave you away, Finn." ; Witness had traced the slimes as having gone down .inthe boat from Auckland in the s.s. Wakatere, but had not traced,them any further. •-—• Henry Bonner, recalled, stated that the man W. H. Essex, who had been referred to, had never been in the employ of the Waihi Company. ■ ■ ■ ." ''■ This concluded the case for the proseeu'Dcteotive Miller, recalled by His Honor, said that prior to the arrest of the accused, Egar, who had, been acting as an insurance "agent in the Thames district, had been living 'at the Pacific Hotel, at the Thames. « : He ! believed Finn had been staying at the Bnan Roru ■ Hotel. - at: the -; Thames. ... Ho-.. (Finn) wenti to i Auckland: on the ...Thursday.vnight, and returned-to the Thames on the Friday \ night before the arrest;,' ; -. ~ L Mr Martin stated that he would not call i any witnesses. .- .... , . ,■;, ; - Mr. Cotter addressed the .jury, and pointed out the various links in the chain of evidence 'which pointed to the accuseds' connection with the theft. V '~ "' : \" ;,'"'. „ r Mr. Martin, whoso address to the jury, lasted ? so minutes;" said that there was no direct evidence against: the * accused. /Ineverdict must be returned on inferences drawit from purely circumstantial evidepoe, and unless die facts adduced supported the inference of guilt, .and that only the accused must be given the benefit of the doubt. It was to lie regretted that the evidence ot Hargreaves, who had been in charge of the Waikino battery, was not available to show whether the room had been locked up the night be Corp.. robbery. It was not likely, if the coeuiwd were the guilty persons, that they would have left a .trail of incriminating droppings,; ending opposite their house, or have planted a portion of the slimes near the-same locality. ; This was more like yto be the act of other persons wishing, to -throw suspicion on the accused. Regarding the fire* in accuseds' hut, it was strange that no i attempt" Was mode to secure the I ashes, as if the clothes which were being burned had ! been stained with slimes the evidence could 1 net have been destroyed. ; As to the accused filing attention to some wlcsel marks when Mr. Hopkins was searching, for 5 the slimes, there was nothing significant in that, as Hop- ! kins had then turned away from the, spot where the slimes were afterwards found. Regarding the assumption that the, accused had removed slimes from the river bank in April, 1901 it was • evident from • the time they spent at Maokaytown on the night of the 16th that if they Ha\l, removed anything it must have been in broad daylight. , The man Essex haft been freely mentioned in connection with the case, but why had he not baen brought forward to give evidence? Then why did die prosecution not call Carter, to show whether the accused were or wore hot telling the truth in regard to the alleged authority to use the battery? Detective Miller said he had traced the slimes found in accused's possession as far as Auckland, but why were they not traced further? There had been no secrecy in the way accused journeyed to Tapu, and Finn's request that their names should be kept out of the papers was an evidence that the accused ..were dazed when ■ confronted , by the police, the request' being such a ridiculous one in view, of the importance of the case. As to the identification of the slimes, there was nothing in the slimes themselves- to show that they were>those stolen; If the prisoners had made a find, say, at Opitonui, or in that direction, 1 and had had their quartz reduced to slimes, they would have-to come to Auckland and travel back to Tapii to get to the battery there, in order to make their assay, and the evidence had shown that the slimea had been traced to Auckland. . / His Honor, in * summing up, said it ■ was very evident that no person honestly dealing with slimes would carry them about- in a sack, as every "pound weight of the exudations would be worth about £2. ilie search for the stolen property seemed to have been carried out in a very slovenly way, and in respect to the fire in accused's hut it was remarkable, if the ashes were expected to prove anything, that no attempt was made to preserve them. The evidence relating to the proceedings at the Mahara Royal battery was tho most important, as favouring the assumption that the accused were dealing with stolen property. He agreed with Mr. Martin that in fairness to x the accused Carter ought to have been called. His Honor commented on the falsehoods told at the battery "by the" accused, the absence of explanations, and the admissions, and, said His Honor to the jury, "What more do you want?" Mr. Martin had said 'that no 'direct evidence hsxl been adduced.. against the. accused. This Was quite true.' but even in the most serious charges, such ; as, for instance, of those, ot murder, direct evidence was -very often entirely wanting. A number of links, unimportant in themselves, often formed a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, and in the present case the accuulation of such evidence : would be quite, sufficient to justify the jury in returning a verdict of guilty. The jury retired at half-past tlnee p.m., and at four p.m. returned with a verdict of guilty against both accused on each of the four counts. , , , ■'■-,: ■ • His Honor said he would deter passing sen-tence-on the prisoners for a week.- i He was quite certain that there was a considerable plant of tin* stolen property 'somewhere; -and the sentence would largely depend '-on the information given ■by prisoners ip 'regard' to the recovery of the proporty. .-. His Honor ordered that the slimes, etc., produced in Court be returned- to the Waihi Company. _______ - ' .'

Wade's Worm i'igs, the - wonderful worm worriers, are always effeotive; Is boxes everywhere. - ■ '