27

I.—IB.

T. H. JOHNSTON.

about going home for dinner I was told, " Oh, no, Johnston, just wait." I said, " The wife will be worried. If you want me I do not mind waiting, but send word to the wife, because she is not in very good health." I had also asked the sergeant before he left for leave to go home for dinner and I would return immediately after, and he said he would not be long. I may also state that there were a couple of constables outside the door, and there were two inside. 95. To put it briefly you reckoned that they were not going to allow you to leave the station —you were practically in custody? —Yes. I began to think then that I was in custody, for what I did not exactly know. 96. When did Dr. Craig arrive on the scene?— Some time about 2 o'clock. Sergeant Wohlmann started the conversation. 97. After Dr. Craig arrived? —Yes. 98. Who were present?— There were only Sergeant Wohlmann and Dr. Craig and myself. As soon as Sergeant Wohlmann came in he said, " Johnston, I have brought Dr. Craig along. I told you we were going to do something for your good, and I have brought Dr. Craig along, and we between us are going to see the company and the union and the townspeople and send you away for a holiday owing to the stand which you have taken in this town." And Dr. Craig said, " Yes, Johnston, that is correct. We are here as friends to send you for a holiday, but it is no good your going for a holiday unless you have a tonic. lam a medical man and will prescribe for you, and the prescription and medicine will not cost you anything." I thanked him. He said, "So that I may thoroughly diagnose your case tell me the main incidents of your life, and also your father's and mother's." I said, " That is a thing I have never done." He said, "Well, do it this time. It is strictly private." Sergeant Wohlmann sat down to the writing-table in the office there, and Dr. Craig sat at one end of the table and I sat at the other end. Sergeant Wohlmann was a silent listener to the conversation which took place. After Dr. Craig had asked me that question I related to him the main incidents of my family history —about my grandfather Nelson; how, the last I heard of him, he was practically a hundred years of age, and how he had made money, and how my father's father had made money and was able to leave money to every member of the family. I went on like that, and told him how my father at the age of eighteen was manager of a chemist's shop in Melbourne, and retired at twenty-seven, and died at forty-one. Then he asked me about my mother. I told him there was nothing the matter with her except her heart. 99. Did you then make any statement about epilepsy? —No. Then he asked me if my mother was still living, and I told him I did not know. He said, " Why? Do you mean to say you do not communicate with her?" I said, "Yes." He asked, "Why?" and I related how she had got married again. He asked, " Why do you not communicate? " I said, " Owing to certain things." \ 100. That she married a man to whom you objected ?■ —Yes. 101. And you made a statement that you went over there owing to a presentiment there was something wrong at home? —Yes. 102. You found this man courting her? —Yes. 103. And you objected?—l objected to it. 104. Did you use the expression that he hypnotized you?— That is how I put it to Dr. Craig. I was working in the South Island, and I was engaged, and I had a presentiment that something was wrong at home. I threw up my work straight away, drew my money, and went over to Australia. When I got there one of my sisters told me that my mother was going to be married again within a week. I prevented the marriage for about three months. Everywhere that man went I went. If lie went in for a drink I went, if he slept in a room I slept there. I threw myself in that man's company. This is the way I put it to Dr. Craig :at the end of that t ; me I turned round and had no objection to the man marrying her. Dr. Craig said, " How do you account for that? " 1 said, "I do not know anything about hypnotism, or mesmerism, or anything of that sort, but it might have been possible for him to have hypnotized me." That was the way I put it. 105. You mean he exercised some strong influence over you?— Yes. That was all that was mentioned on that point. After that Dr. Craig asked, "Do you and your wife live happily together?" or something to that effect. I said, "Yes." "Do you quarrel?" "No." "Tell us about your married life," he said. I told him we had ups and downs—how quickly we had got on at times and how quickly we had come down at others. For instance, I narrated how Mrs. Johnston had a miscarriage, and we sold every stick of furniture and had not got anything in the house, and I did all the work myself. He said, " Did you ever have a revolver? " I said, "Yes, perhaps I did." "When?" he asked. "In West Australia." "What did you have it for?" he asked. "For shooting kangaroo rats, and so no." Then he said, "Did"you ever have one in New Zealand?" I said, "That is none of your business." "Did you ever have one in Waihi? " he said. I said, " No." Then he asked me if I had ever attempted my wife's life. I said, " No." Then he asked me if I had ever attempted it with a revolver, and I said "No." He had his arms on the table and he looked straight at me. "Johnston," he said, "Will you deny that?" I said, "Certainly." He asked, "Did you ever attempt your wife's life with a revolver? " I said, " No, I never did." He said, "If any one said that would it be correct? " I said, "If any one said that it would be false." He said, "You emphatically deny it? " I said, " Yes, I deny it. I never at any time used a revolver in any way on my wife or on anybody else." He turned round to Sergeant Wohlmann and said, "What do you make of that? " Sergeant Wohlmann then spun him a yarn. 106. In other words, he related an incident which was supposed to have occurred before you came to Waihi?—Yes, -a. good while before. After he had spun the yarn to Dr. Craig the latter