H.— 28,

2

Similarly, a Mrs. Edwards lias made statements (one to the police and one to an Inspector of Society for the Protection of Women and Children) which are not only self-contradictory, but are also contradicted by Dodds, her employee. Mrs. Edwards to Mrs. Moleswoßth, Inspector, Mrs. Edwards to Police, January, 1929. Society Prevention Cruelty to Women and 0n 22nd Septem ber one of the men left the farm Children. 19th September, 1929. (Childs). I engaged Alf Dodds, who started work on On Saturday, September 22nd, 1928, I advertised 22nd September. Bayly called. I told him to come for help on the farm. On Sunday William Bayly applied back in a few days and I would see which applicant I and was given the position. He was engaged to com- would take. On Wednesday, 3rd October, 1928, Carr mence work on Saturday, September 29. told me Bayly had been out to see me. As a matter of fact I had not engaged Bayly although he went out to the farm to work. I have a recollection of mentioning to Bayly that I had not engaged him, and he said " Let m» stay on." On Monday 24th, Tuesday 25th, and Wednesday On 22nd September Childs left. ... I adver26th following, William Bayly had lunch at my home. tised for a man when this man left . . . One of the applicants was William Bayly. I told Bayly to come back in a few days. Bayly told me he was going away for a week. I felt very annoyed with him for not commencing I engaged Alf Dodds, who started work on 22nd Septemwork as arranged on the previous Saturday, September her, 1928. Bayly told me he was going away for a week. 29. He knew perfectly well it would put me in an On Wednesday my assistant John Carr told me Bayly awkward position to be without a man for even one day. had been out to see me. As a matter of fact I had not I got another man, Alf Dodds, to take his place. engaged Bayly, although he went out to the farm to work. I have often a feeling that something is going to happen . . . called second sight, and I unconsciously connected W. Bayly with the Elsie Walker mystery. ... I felt he knew a great deal about it. W. Bayly left a kerosene-box in my kitchen. I felt Questioned by Detective-Sergeant Kelly and Detecso worried about the whole affair that when I saw some tive Knight she said she had burned letters but had not letters in this box I read two of them read the letters and did not know what they contained. (One) " 1 hope to be with you soon : it will be all right down here. lam sorry for poor Cinderella, but I will fix things all right and we will soon be together again." (Two) "I am so glad you married me, dear, instead Dodds says : " When Bayly left the farm he did of poor little Cinderella, but lam really sorry for her." not leave any letters about." I burned those letters. Nine months after her first statement to the police this woman gives details which she either suppressed at the time of making her first statement or has since invented, but which in any case have no evidential value. She now speaks of often having a feeling that something is going to happen —that is probably called second sight; that she unconsciously connected W. Bayly with the Elsie Walker mystery ; that she felt that he knew a great deal about it; and that she felt so worried about the whole affair that when she saw some letters in his box she read two of them, which she burnt. The evidence of Mrs. Thomason and her sister, Mrs. Langdon, must be regarded as entirely untrustworthy because of their having made diametrically conflicting statements on the really only important point contained in those statements —that is, to seeing William Bayly on the train on the day of Elsie Walker's disappearance. After the closest inquiry from all available sources not a tittle of evidence can be obtained by the police to support the belated story of these women or that William Bayly was anywhere other than he says he was —viz., in Auckland —of which supporting evidence was given before the Coroner. Mrs. Thomason and her sister now say that their attention was drawn to Bayly by some commotion in the passage-way of their carriage; that Bayly and a stout Maori woman occupied this passageway ; that the guard of the train could not pass owing to their presence ; that he ordered the man to leave the lavatory, who refused to do so. The guard of the train when seen by the police says he has no recollection whatever of such an incident. Although the Thomason-Langdon family are of Maori descent and know most of the Native race in the district, they have not been able to produce the Maori woman, or give any information by which she may be found. The closest inquiry by the police has failed to discover such a woman. Their mother, Mrs. Brady, a lady of full Maori blood and of some standing in the district, of which she has been a resident for many years, cannot assist the police in discovering the Maori woman referred to. A Mrs. Teague, who knows William Bayly well, travelled on the same train with Mrs. Thomason and Mrs. Langdon, but saw nothing of Bayly. A careful departmental check has been made, and there is no record of the issue of a ticket to Papamoa on that day which cannot be accounted for. If Bayly had got on the train surreptitiously and without a ticket and had been seen by the guard as now stated by these women, it would have been the guard's duty to,report the fact or issue a ticket to Bayly from his book. There is no record of the issue of any such ticket. The train in question was a small one of three carriages, and in October it travelled in full daylight to beyond Papamoa. The following day, 2nd October, Mr. Bayly, sen., saw Mrs. Thomason at her house and told her of the disappearance the previous night of Elsie Walker and his motor-car, but strangely Mrs. Thomason said nothing to Mr. Bayly of having seen his son on the train the previous afternoon. Furthermore, Mrs. Bayly, the young man's mother, visited and conversed with Mrs. Thomason, with whom she was on friendly terms, almost daily after the disappearance of Elsie Walker, but Mrs. Thomason did not mention the train incident, and this although at that time no tragedy was anticipated, or any sinister aspect attached to the girl's disappearance. If it were true that