11.—37

10

him in the passage near her room door. She went with them to the front door. Her father had only his shirt on. They heard the cries. Her father said he wondered what it was, and her mother remarked she could not think what it could be. She herself said nothing. It never occurred to them that it was the same man. They remained there about a quarter of an hour, when the crying ceased. Neither of them went outside the house. Nothing was said about the man. They then went back to bed. They thought it was a man's voice, but they were not sure. Nothing else occurred during the remainder of the night. She saw the man on the Friday, between 1 and 2 o'clock. She was going to pull some turnips. Her father, brothers, and sisters were with her. They went in a dray. She saw the man near their front gate. He was sitting upon the side of the road. Her father pulled up. Her father had no expectation of finding the man there. Her father got down from the dray. The man just sat as he was. Her father asked what was the matter. The man spoke first, and said "Good day." The reason her father asked what was the matter was because he was sitting where the dray-wheel would have gone, and some of his clothes were off. In answer to her father's question the man replied that he had got his leg poisoned about three weeks back. He said he was going to the chemist's with it. Her father had some tea in the dray, and asked him if he would have some, and he said " Yes." He gave him some out of a bottle, pouring it into a pannikin the man had. Her father also gave him some scones in a piece of brown paper. She saw the man eat the scones and drink the tea. Her father never examined or touched the leg. Her father must have been there about ten minutes. The man appeared to be well, and right in his mind. Young Davis was standing there all the time. The man asked young Davis whether he could cure his leg. The man got up and went nearer the fence. He only went on his knees. There was no sign of pain on his face. He was sitting up when they went on. He had no difficulty in getting on to his knees. He used both his hands to do so. They again passed the place two hours after. The man was on the other side of the road then. They did not stop, but passed on. Her father did not speak to him then. He had all his clothes on then except one boot. His hat was on. She again saw the man at the cross-roads on Saturday morning at a quarter to 9. She was driving her father to the Waihao Eailway-station. They never stopped, and her father passed no remark about him. Her little brother Michael took the man food about 8 o'clock on Friday morning. The man asked him for food. Her brother was looking after sheep and saw him on the road. He took him tea in a bottle. She did not know when her brother asked for food that it was for the same man that had been at her father's house the night before. When she saw the man at 1 o'clock she thought it was the same. Her brother did not tell anybody that he was the same man. She gave her brother the food. Her father had spoken about it to all of them since the occurrence. When he heard of his death, he said he wondered what had happened to him. He said he was sorry he had not reported the matter to the police; that he would have, if he had known he would have died. She drove back after taking her father to the station, but came back the other road. She was sure no dray was driven out of her father's place on Thursday night. Her father was in the kitchen until 10 o'clock. She did not sleep all night—she was frightened for the man. There was no one at home to drive a dray after nightfall. Her brother Jeremiah went to bed at 10 o'clock. He was seventeen years of age. She could not say whether he heard the noise; he never said. He drove the dray next morning to Oamaru. He did not go that road, but drove by the paddocks the near way. Michael McCarthy, eleven years old, brother of the previous witness, deposed that he remembered an old man coming to his father's place on the 9th instant about 8 o'clock. He saw him come from Mr. Kilworth's place. He was at the stable-yard with his father and brother at the time. The man went to the front door, knocked at it, and then began to kick it. His father sent witness down to see what he wanted, and he swore at him. He did not know whether his father heard. He told his father, and he came down to the back door where the man had gone, and was kicking the door. His father asked him what he was doing that for, and he answered, "This is my own house." His father asked him to go away, and he went. When he (witness) was coming down to the house he heard the man say, " Open the b door or I'll murder you." That was at the front door. He was going towards the stable, and his father told him not to go there as he might set fire to the place. The man then went towards the front gate, near which he was lying on Friday. On that morning he was sitting on the side of the road by the fence next the oat paddock. He asked witness for some tucker. Witness asked his sister for it, and she gave him some bread, and tea in a bottle. He never said why he was on the side of the road. He thanked him two or three times for the tucker when he gave it to him. When he asked his sister for the tucker he said it was for the man who had been at the house the night before. His sister told him that she told his father and mother that it was the same man. He heard his father and mother speak about the man after that. His father asked witness if he was there. That was all he knew about it. He heard the dogs bark in the night, but he heard no other noise. No dray went out on the Thuisday night. Before the man came towards the front door he stoned the dogs. Witness saw the man drink the tea, but he did not eat the bread. It was a mere accident that he saw him on the road. He had his clothes on at that time. He was making no noise. He had never seen the man before. His father was not angry at the man, and spoke quietly to him. His father had nothing in his hand. His brother had gone to Oamaru before he (witness) saw the man on the Friday morning. Jeremiah McCarthy, aged seventeen, brother of previous witness, deposed to the old man coming from Kilworth's on the night referred to, the evidence of what took place with the man at the door being corroborative of that of previous witnesses. He (witness) never heard the noise in the night. His father told him before he (witness) went to Oamaru in the morning that the man had been crying. He went to Oamaru through the paddocks with the dray. He went to bed at half-past 9 the night the crying was heard. He never took any vehicle out of the gate that evening.