West Coast Times, 15 Dec 1866: TRIAL OF WILLIAM DeLACY. CONSPIRING TO ROB

Benjamin Barnard, being called and sworn, deposed " l am now a storekeeper, but in the month of May last I was proprietor of the Provincial Hotel, Greymouth.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand  24 July 1866: The Prisoners in Nelson Gaol." The following appeared in the Grey River Argus, of a late date, and may be interesting to our readers:

Benjamin Barnard, keeper of the Provincial Hotel, Greymouth, was charged on the information of Inspector James with harbouring and suffering to remain in his house three men, known as Burgess, Kelly, and Sullivan, the same being reputed thieves and persons of notorious bad character, on or about the Ist of June. Inspector James said :On the Ist of June last I received information that Burgess, Kelly, and Sullivan were concealed in the Provincial hotel. I went, in company of Sergeant Welsh to tho house, and when within a short distance of it, I saw the defendant standing at the hotel door, but as soon as he saw us he hurried inside. Suspecting that he was informing the men of the presence of the police, I ran to the house, and entered the bar parlour. I met the defendant returning from the room in which I found Burgess, Sullivan, and Kelly. Although it was daylight at the time, the room in which the men were concealed was so dark that I had to get a candle before I could discern who was there. The defendant first said that the men were all strangers to him, but he afterwards admitted that he knew either one or all of them some time ago on some diggings which he mentioned. I cautioned the men to leave the district, and called the following day to ascertain if they had left, when the defendant told me they had left that (Saturday) morning, for Hokitika. I have since ascertained that this was false, as the men did not leave until Sunday morning, when they left by the Wallaby for the Buller. I have since received a letter from Burgess exonerating the defendant from harbouring him and his mates. The defendant admitted that the men had been at his place, off and on, occasionally away for a night, and returning again. Sergeant Welsh corroborated the Inspector's evidence. The defendant's statement was that he took the men in as lodgers, and they paid their way. He was bound to take in lodgers. He never saw the men before, or had any transactions with them. One of them recognized him as having been on the Kanieri, and that he never told the police that he knew the men. The Magistrate considered the charge fully proved, and as he was determined to put a stop to this sort of thing, he would inflict the full penalty of £10, and he would further recommend tbat the defendant's license should be cancelled."

("The town  of Dodson was named for the surveyor George Dobson, who was murdered at this site in 1866. He was killed in a bungled robbery by a gang who had mistaken him for a gold buyer carrying gold from the nearby Arnold goldfield. A monument now stands where George Dobson was murdered)