The West Australian
WEDNESDAY, 3RD JUNE 1885
A CONTRADICTION.
To the Editor of the West Australian.
Sir, – In your issue of the 28th of February I noticed that one of my many friends in this country has been good enough to drag my name into the Roebourne Bank murder case.
Your authority in this matter says that suspicion also rested on a man called William Pontt, who was noticed limping the morning after the murder and had a cut in his boot. Had your informant taken the trouble to make enquiries, he would have found that William Pontt left Roebourne some time before the murder, in company with Messrs. Samuel Young and Fred Townsend, of the Mill Stream Station, with a view of buying horses for our present expedition, and that neither of us returned to Roebourne for nearly three weeks after the murder had been committed – a fact which nearly all the people in Roebourne, especially the police authorities, must well know.
With reference to my having been seen the morning after the murder with my boot cut and limping, that is simply absurd. I challenge all Roebourne to say that I was in Roebourne the day after the murder or within a fortnight of that time and further that any persons ever saw me with my boot cut or limping, since I have been up in this part – nearly, two years.
Unfortunately at present I am unable to act as I should like in the matter being out of the reach of civilization, engaged on a prospecting expedition to the Ord River. But at some future date I hope to make further enquiries about this matter.
If you will kindly insert the above letter, you will much oblige.
Yours etc., WILLIAM PONTT.
Upper Fitzroy, Kimberley District, May 3.
We, have received a communication from Mr. F. Ward, of Derby, on the same subject, asserting that, of his knowledge, William Pontt was miles away from Roebourne at the time the murder was committed. – ED. W. A.