Jonathan Roberts

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 48, 20 October 1891, Page 2

Jonathan Roberts

: *E = = S - Most of our readers will remember -^ Jonathan Koberts, whose escapes from M goal and subsequently from the colony" Jf caused such a sensation. The Sunday Sun of a recent date contains the following in reference, to him:— One of the & leaders of the insurgents in' Chili iaan;=£| Englishman -"who has -had a somewhat J§| chequered career. In the long ago his $%$ name was Jonathan Boberts— it is " Pel " \fsC something with an "o " at the end of if- " - now— and his father -was a gentleman"' "farmer, living near " Canterbury, New Zealand. One nigWf young Eoberts had | occasion to go to Timaiu,~the nearest *| township, and, proceeding to his father's ,|| paddock, saddled the first horse he came across and rode off. Arriving at his des- J|| tination he ran short of cash and sold the Sag animal, which he believed belonged^ hisj||| father. It transpired, however, that thel§| horse, which had strayed into the p&d*l»| dock, was the property of a neighbour,\|gi who refused compensation, and insti|^S£ tuted a~ prosecution, as a -result ot^sS" which Eoberts was sentenced, to tvo^ years' Imprisonment for horse stealing.,^ He escaped fr #in but was re-ftj* V*'. rested after being at liberty three monthi, < and was then sent across to an island in^.^ Lytteltpn Harbour, sonic miles from the - "-^ "mainland, where convicts were engaged., npon^the construction of some fortifica/ £ \^ " tions. ATfew days subsequently he swana-l^ ashore, and sncceeded in getting away to "y|| South America, "^.-few years since h e^p settled in Chili, where Se Iraeame a prom^^ inent politician. "When tberecent troubles ;g|| broke out, the Congressional parfcyriad^*^! plenty of men but a laiaentable lackor -^ officers, and the New Zealander, having > , | bad some sort of military training, was jj* speedily installed in a foremost position. ->#■