’I went into the inner room, and saw the bits of pots and things on the floor, and then I came back with White into the kitchen.  The girl Rose had come into the kitchen during our absence.  She was standing with her back against the bin near the fire.  There was a cup standing on the bin, rather nearer the door.  She said to me, “Cup’ll go soon; it has been down three times already.”  She then pushed it a little farther on the bin, and turned round and stood talking to me by the fire.  She had hardly done so, when the cup jumped up suddenly about four or five feet into the air, and then fell on the floor and smashed itself.  White was sitting on the other side of the fire.

’Then Mrs. White came in with Dr. Lloyd; also Tom White and Solomon Wass.  After they had been in two or three minutes, something else happened.  Tom White and Wass were standing with their backs to the fire, just in front of it.  Eliza Rose and Dr. Lloyd were near them, with their backs turned towards the bin, the doctor nearer to the door.  I stood by the drawers, and Mrs. White was by me near the inner door.  Then suddenly a basin, which stood on the end of the bin near the door, got up into the air, turning over and over as it went.  It went up not very quickly, not as quickly as if it had been thrown.  When it reached the ceiling it fell plump and smashed.  I called Dr. Lloyd’s attention to it, and we all saw it.  No one was near it, and I don’t know how it happened.  I stayed about ten minutes more, but saw nothing else.  I don’t know what to make of it all.  I don’t think White or the girl could possibly have done the things which I saw.’

This statement was made five weeks after date to Mr. Podmore.  We compare it with the intelligent constable’s statement made between March 3 and March 8, that is, immediately after the events, and reported in the local paper of March 9.

STATEMENT BY POLICE CONSTABLE HIGGS.—­During Friday night, Police Constable Higgs visited the house, and concerning the visit he makes the following statement.

’About ten minutes past [to?] twelve on Friday night, I was met in Bridge Street by Buck Ford, and Joe’s brother, Tom White and Dr. Lloyd.  Tom said to me, “Will you go with us to Joe’s, and you will see something you have never seen before?” I went; and when I got into the house Joe went and shut the cupboard doors.  No sooner had he done so than the doors flew open again, and an ordinary sized glass jar flew across the kitchen, out of the door into the yard.  A sugar jar also flew out of the cupboard unseen.  In fact, we saw nothing and heard nothing until we heard it smash.  The distance travelled by the articles was about seven yards.  I stood a minute or two, and then the glass which I noticed on the drawers jumped off the drawers a yard away, and broke in about a hundred bits.  The next thing was a cup, which stood on the flour-bin just beyond the yard door.  It flew upwards, and then fell to the ground and broke.  The girl said