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does not see Mrs. Hawkins again that night. He says, "I did not go to sleep that night." That is his statement. " I did not go into the house till six the next morning." Then he goes on : " Then I saw Mrs. Hawkings. Next morning we milked the cows—about a quarter to seven. I went down to where Hawkings had been lying. It was light. I only took notice of the blood. No one there at first. I had just started to leave the spot when Constables Carroll and Healy came up. I then went back and met them at the spot where Mr. Hawkings had been lying, and the two constables came up to Mrs. Hawkings's house. They were ten minutes looking at the trap and mare. They left. I did not leave with them. I stopped at the house. Same morning about 10 I passed again the spot where the body was found. I drove Mrs. Hawkings to the Morgue. At that time no one [knew?] where the bod}' had been. I returned about half-past 3 or 4 o'clock. I drove Mrs. Hawkings back. As we returned, Inspector Thomson and Constable Campbell were on the bank at the bend of the road. That is where the trap generally rested. They were picking up scattered paper, and cloth that had been shot off Mr. Hawkings's clothes." This is on the Saturday afternoon, the Committee will observe. " They were on the left-hand side as you go up at the bend and amongst the gorse. The gully runs out there. A little way above the bend there is a gate across the road 2 chains or so up from the bend. The gate was open the night before when I went to look for Mr. Hawkings. He would generally shut the gate if there were cattle, but there were no cattle at this time in there." Now, honourable members will see that on Saturday afternoon Inspector Thomson and Detective Campbell are found for the first time on the road —" on the bank at the bend of the road." " They wer.e picking up," as the witness says, " scattered paper." The Committee, in the consideration of that.statement, will have regard to what Bowles said was the condition of the weather. Now, when honourable members come to look at the evidence of Inspector Thomson, they will find that, when he left Wellington to go out to make an inspection of the locus in quo, he had received information from Dr. Cahill—that was the only information he had received —that Hawkings had died from a stab-wound. No suggestion had been made to Inspector Thomson before leaving town on the Saturday afternoon that Hawkings had died from a gunshot-wound. Now, assuming that to be the fact—l have no reason to dispute it —in what way, I ask, would the papers that he and Campbell found lying on the road assist the then theory of the prosecution, that the deceased had died from a stab-wound ? Indeed, according to the evidence of Inspector Thomson, he did not know at that time anything about a gunshot-wound. His attention was only directed to searching for a weapon that would cause stab-wounds, and it was not directed to the necessity of picking up pieces of paper lying on the road. Mr. Houston: The police would be likely to pick up anything. Mr. Jellicoe: I do not dispttte that, or that Inspector Thomson did pick up pieces of paper, but whether he attached the same importance to the pieces of paper he then found as he would have done had he been aware that a gunshot-wound had caused the death of the deceased is quite a different matter. The only point is whether Mr. Inspector Thomson, or any other human being, if made aware that a man had died from the effects of stab-wounds, would have at once directed his attention to evidence which could only be consistent with death from a gunshot-wound. [Mr. Fisher, M.H.E., here entered the room and said, —Mr. Chairman, I do not intend to stay in the room, and should not have come had I not received this notice from you, as certain unfounded statements have been made connecting me with this case. Mrs. Chemis can have no possible knowledge of those statements, and I intend to take no notice whatever of them. (Mr. Fisher withdrew).] Mr. Jellicoe : Dr. Cahill was the next witness examined. He said, " I was summoned by telephone from Dimock's. I got the message about twenty minutes .to 9. I was in. I started at once, after getting a few things. I arrived, I should say, five minutes past 9. I met the two Dimocks at the gateway, at the entrance to Hawkings's road from Hutt Eoad. I met William Dimock and two or three others—l think Bowles was amongst them. I went with them up this road to where the dead body of Hawkings was on the road, lying on his back, head up hill and towards gully, lying across the road. Blood about 6ft. or sft. lower down the road. This accounted for by Bowles, by saying he had turned the body over. It was a pool of blood soaked into the dust on the road. We had a lantern ; could not have found our way up without one. I examined the body. I could not make complete examination then because of light, and I did not think it necessary. I asked to have the body taken to Dimock's. I went with them. I remained by the body till it was handed over to the police. I observed when on the hill two incised wounds on either side of neck, from which blood was issuing. Constables Carroll and Webb came out. I delivered the body to them to take to the morgue. Before removing the body I removed a watch from body. It was going, and indicated a quarter-past 9. I gave it to Bowles. Having given the body to the police, I took one of the police to examine where the body had been lying. I went up and examined the cart. I there saw Mrs. Hawkings. I then returned down hill with Carroll to Dimock's, the body still there in charge of the other constable. I then left. I was at the Police Office that evening. I went there about 11 o'clock, or soon after. Up to that time I had not communicated any suspicion to any one except to Dr. Eobertson. I saw Sergeant-Major Morice there at 11, and told him suspicion." Now, it is a curious circumstance that a doctor should go out, and at 9 o'clock find a dead body, which had been stabbed to death, lying in a pool of blood on the road, and that such a matter should not excite his suspicion until two hours afterwards. It is, to say the least of it, very extraordinary. I need not trouble you with a description of the twenty-one stab wounds, as the doctor's evidence is fully before you, as I think that in reading it in extenso I should be occupying your time unnecessarily. Mr. Earnshaur: How many wounds were there ? Mr. Jellicoe : I think the doctor says twenty-one. Mr. Earnshaw : Are they gunshot-wounds ?

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