Difference between revisions of "Royal Commission report day 52 page 13"

Revision as of 22:03, 20 November 2015

previous page / next page

The Royal Commission evidence for 4/8/1881

'

full text

(see also introduction to day 53)

[[../../people/peQ_R/quinnPartickSy.html|Patrick Quin]] giving evidence

17752 Do you remember seeing me at Fitzsymons's, the man who had the store at the corner of the barracks, opposite the hotel?— I never recollect meeting you there. I recollect meeting you on the footpath near, but I do not remember your speaking to me there.

17753 And it was in the evening, you say, you had this interview?— Yes.

17754 I will show what occurred on that Monday and Tuesday referred to—[reading from his diary]. On Monday the 2nd, a week previous to the Euroa Bank robbery, I left Benalla for Wangaratta. On the Tuesday I went to Hedi and beyond, to Upper King, and took a party of men; I did not return to Wangaratta until the 4th. I came in from Fern Hill, and Benalla, and German's Creek, where the Kellys used to live, on Monday the 9th, that is the week following, the day before the Euroa robbery, and on Tuesday the 10th I was in Benalla all day, and then went up to Albury. On those days there were men and horses really fatigued, having returned from this journey I spoke of. There was nothing of the kind on the previous week. On Wednesday the 27th I returned to Benalla; saw P. Quin, Thursday, 28th. On Friday, 29th, party was in readiness waiting for Patrick Quin, who did not come. On Saturday, 30th, I went to Wangaratta; and on Sunday, December 1st, was there.

17755 By the Commission (to Mr. Nicolson )— Then your statement is that Quin did not keep the appointment he made?— He did not keep the appointment made a week before, but he came in on the following week—the day of the bank robbery. On Monday the 9th he came in. On that occasion there was nothing about Mrs. Skillian ever mentioned. He was mysterious, and told us he could take us away up to this basin. I saw the man was deceiving me, and one of the common sense reasons before him for not going at that moment was that the horses and men were fatigued and unfit for such a journey, having just come in; he could see them in the yard, and he never mentioned to me anything about Mrs. Skillian.

17756 By the Witness (to Mr. Nicolson)— Did you not ask me, when I mentioned about Mrs. Skillian, if she was not in the habit of coming to my place, and I told you she was not?— On every occasion I saw you I asked you about the Kellys.

17757 On this particular time?— No.

17758 By Mr. Nicolson (to the witness)— You have stated that you also met Mr. Sadleir and gave him some information about having seen someone in the bush?— I saw them the night before.

17759 You saw whom?— Ned Kelly and his brother, and three other people I believed was Byrne and Hart, and the third I could not tell who it was.

17760 You have been down in Melbourne several times?— Once or twice lately.

17761 At whose instance are you down here now?— I came down of myself. I asked to come down, and paid my own expenses, and came just in the matter of fair play and justice.

The Chairman . —The witness has written several times to ask to be examined.

17762 By Mr. Nicolson (to the witness)— What was your object particularly in being examined— at whose instigation?— My own.

17763 Why?— Because I think there has been blundering about this affair from the first commencement, and I think, after you came up to the district, you commenced blundering too. In the first place, when you said that you would pay me, I said I would take no money—I would be at liberty to speak over this affair. I told you I would keep a horse in the paddock, and I said, “You can rely upon me that I will neither give them rations from my place or anyone connected with me.” I said they intended to rob banks, and this is what they had taken the bush for. I told you that in the lane at the time, and you asked me what bank, and I said there was a bank at Bright and there is a bank at Avenel and Euroa. I had heard those banks talked of before the men were shot. I mentioned that to you when I saw you.

17764 I should have been much obliged to you if you had. I do not remember it. Did I offer you money?— No; you said you would pay me, and you asked me if I could write, and I said, “Before I write a letter to you, and you get it, where are those men—they are a hundred miles away.”

17765 Is this correct; did I send to you, on more than one occasion, a message according to agreement, and you declined to come?— No; I always had a horse there.

17766 Did you ever make an appointment with me to turn up a certain day and you did not do so?— Never.

17767 You induced me to keep a party of men, as mentioned in the evidence, for more than a week in Benalla?— No. I asked you to come—to proceed, and you made excuses; and you ought to be able to find out by this time whether I had anything to do with the Kellys or with the money from the banks. I thought you would use better judgment than to send men to my place on that Sunday, when my wife was sick, and a lot of people there, for it to get about that I was working with you, and I be likely to be shot.....

Previous page / Next page

The previous day . . . Royal Commission index