The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 78
The Crux of the Crux
The Crux of the Crux.
1887.—"Last time I was at Meikle's—about 6 p.m.—was before Arthur Meikle's arrest one or two nights. . . . Arthur turned grindstone for me, and while we were sharpening knife father came out."—(P. 21.)
1895.—"I went one night to get a knife sharpened. I do think the night before police came."—(P. 46.)
1906.—"Can you recall when you were last at Meikle's before the police searched?"—"Yes, I think the last time I was there I went to sharpen a knife."—(C. 177/618.)
As Arthur Meikle was arrested on the 4th November, and Lambert's visit was before the entry of the police on the 2nd the date cannot have been later than the 1st; nor will Lambert description of it as a night or two before Arthur's arrest all the placing of it further back. Thus, despite the doubt expressed by Lambert in 1895, we arrive from his own evidence in 1887 at the very night before the police came as, the date of his visit. The hour, according to his statement, was about p. m., but as his tea-time was "somewhere about 6 o'clock,"and he had had tea that evening, and then travelled a mile from hut to Meikle's—(C. 178/640-3), it must have been at least o'clock on his own showing. The Meikle household were all agreed that it was about two hours later.
"I do not know exactly. I took the knife up there."
" Had you any reason for getting the knife sharpened ?"—" Yes; I was going to kill some sheep at the station."
"Did you spend the night in the hut or go on to the station?"—" I did not go on to the station."—(C. 178/646-7.)
"On day I sharpened knife I left Meikle's and went home, ten miles."—(P. 21.)
"Had you got any bag with you?"—" No, I had not."
"No blankets or anything else?"—"What would I take my blankets up there for ? I would have to fetch them a mile back again, as I would have to pass my hut when I left Meikle's to go home."
"I will put this to you in order to get at the other side :' Was it not a little bit out of your way to go to Meikle's to get a knife sharpened if you were going on to Mataura, ten miles, the same evening ?'"—" No, I do not think it was."
"Was Meikle's on the way to Mataura?"—" No."
"Was it [i.e., Mataura] not ten miles exactly in the opposite direction?"-" Yes."
Dr. Findlay: "He did not say that he came to get his knife sharpened."
Mr. Atkinson: "What did you come for?"—"1 do not know exactly. I took the knife up there."—(C. 178/667-672.)