SPECIAL STAR TELEGRAMS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 28 November 1901, Page 3

SPECIAL STAR TELEGRAMS.

Presentation to Father O'Neill.

A Desperate Forger. Extension of Harbor Reclamation.

(Special to “Stab.”)

Dunedin, This Day. Prior to his departure for the Old Country, the Rev Father o‘Neill waa presented by his parishoners at Milton with a purse containing 200 sovereigns and from the Catholic clergy of Dunedin he was the recipient of an additional, "century.” Mr Wi Wardrop of South Dunedin and Mr H. Rodda (labor) are mentioned as probable candidates for the Caversham seat.

The late Harry May who committed suicide by drowning in St Clair Baths acme months ago, would appear to have been a veritable “Jim the Penman,” When the suicide took place, speculation was rife concerning the cause thereof, and it was commonly attributed to business wories. The theory received some confirmation in the Court when it was alleged that deceased had carried on a system of forging other men’s names as endorsement to his bills. The denouncement was a result of an action brought by Robert Blair Dennistou, of Dunedin, a mining engineer trading as E. B. Denniston and Co. against George Esther of Dunedin, financial agent, claiming to recover from him the sum of £6l 2s 4d being the amount duo to him as the holder of a dishonored promissory note for £6O 19s fid signed by H. May and Co. and interest thereon. The bill was made on November Sob, 1900, in favor of K. B. Dennistou and was endorsed by the following, R. B. Dennistou and Co. and R. R. PeoDisWu (without recourse), George

Esther and E. B Denniston. It was claimed the signature was the proper signature of George Esther, and this was denied. For the plaintiff, evidence was given by J. N. Brown (bank manager) and Robert Ewing (a former bank manager) that they were conversant with the defendant’s signature, and would certainly have passed the signature in dispute. Mr Ewing in the course of his evidence described May as a wholesale forger, and in many cases both clumsy and clever. The commercial property of the company of which the witness is now manager had been largely victimised by the deceased’s forgeries. The defendant and his clerk deposed that the signature was not that of Mr Either, and the plaintiff accepted a nonsuit.

The members of the Harbor Board will have before them at to morrow’s meeting a proposal by 1 lie engineer to sanction the reclamation of another stretch of the foreshore—this being the mud flat at Pelichet Bay between the lime works and the railway. Mr Eawson estimates that the redemption of this thirty acres of filth and ugliness would cost about £2,500. This ought to be good business to acquire land in such a position for £B3 odd an acre.