A THAMES SENSATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 414, 13 May 1902, Page 2

A THAMES SENSATION.

ARREST OF TWO WELL-KNOWN

YOUNG MEN

A FORMER GISBOIiNITE CHARGED

(Special to Times.) Auckland, last night. A sensation was caused when it became known that Douglas Finn, late of Gis- 1 borne, was arrested on Friday in connection with the robbery in October, 1900, of cyanide slimes, \alucd .at, £7OO. Douglas Finn is tlie e'dc-st son of Mr H. J. Finn, solicitor, of Gisborne. Ho was educated at the Gisborne school. Then he entered Christchurch Coliege, and finished his ; education at King’s College, Auckland For a number of years Douglas Fiuu was laboratory assistant at the l Thames Scnooi of Mines. 'The exciting news reached the Thames yesterday that ScsgoutH Uaike and Detective Milter had arrested at Tapu two men charged with being connected with the robbery of cyanide siimes from the Waihi tioldininiug Co.’s Waikino reduction works in October, 1900, over IS months ago. It was ascertained that cyanide siimes of the value of about .-£7OO wi re stolen from the reduction works at Wailtino. Although every effort bad been made to trace the perpetrators of the- robbery, the efforts were lutile. although about £2OO worth of t-iie slimes was then recovered. Some months afterwards another lot was taken from the mines a short distance below the works. The remaining £SOO worth of siimes remained undiscovered until to-day, when two men named Cyril Douglas Finn and James Edgar were arrested while in the act of treating siimes alleged to bo the same as those stolen in October, 1900. Ever since the robbery suspicion rested on certain individuals us having been connected with the affair. Two of these were the men arrested to day, but another, who was under suspicion, is still at largo. These men were suspected by the polico at the time of the theft, but thero was not suffi cient evidence. In April last year some of the Waihi Goldmining Company’s employees saw traces of slimes that had been taken from the river again. The police found that the suspected men had been in the locality on the night the slimes were removed, and had met at Mackaytown and drove to the Thames after midnight. Still the evidence was not sufficient for an arrest to be made, but ever since the movements of tho men have been closely followed by Mr Chas. fihodes, the Waihi Goldmining Company’s New Zealand Attorney. Some time ago one of them applied for a claim at Whangamata. It was thought that the intention might be to get bullion extracted from stolen slimes and show the result as having come from the Whunga-mat-a claim. This, however, did not eventuate. Some time after Rhodes became aware of an application made by one of the suspected men to treat ou tribute some practically rejected tailings at the Owera battery on the Kauri Freehold Gi-id Estates property. Montgomery, of tiio Kauri Freehold Gold Estates, warned the man that ho would make nothing of it. He replied that he was satisfied ho could make good wages. Accordingly, as the agreement made with him was that he should treat the tailings, and that the bullion be handed to the company, who, after certain deductions, would pay the proceeds to the trihutor, he thought that the stolon slimes would make their appearanco here, but apparently the tailings in question were never treated. Though the men wero still watched nothing occurred to warrant their arrest till Friday. On that day, Rhodes chanced to be a passengor by the steamer Wakatere from Auckland to the Thames. On the steamer, he accidentally observed some shreds of filamentary zinc on a canvas-covered box. As ho had previously noticed one of tho suspected men on board, his suspicions were at once aroused. On arrival at the Thames, he immediately communicaied with the police. The result was that Finn and Edgar were watched. They were seen to leave the wharf with a suspicious box in the buggy, and proceed down the coast. .Arrangements were consequently made by the police to follow on. Proceeding to - Tapu, they were followed by Mr Rhodes. 1 It was ascertained that Finn and Edgar ! had put up at the Royal Oak Hotel on , tho preceding night, and had left again 1 after breakfast for the Mahara Royal 1 Gold Mining Company’s battery, some 1 four miles up the Tapu creek. Sergeant i Clark and Detective Miller, accompanied i by Mr Rhodes, at once proceeded up the 1 creek, reconnoitred the battery, and on i arrival there found the two men actively engaged treating the alleged i stolen slimes in a retort furnace. ! On being confronted by the police neither i Finn nor Edgar could give a satisfactory reason for their presence there, but on a ; search being made it was ascertained that ; they had placed considerable portions of slimes on a coke fire in the furnace with 1 the view of oxidising the same, whilst a 1 further quantity was found in a beer box which was covered with scrim. Mr 1 Rhodes examined the slimes, and being convinced that they corresponded with 1 those stolen from the Waikino reduction works in October, 1900, gave the two men into custody. They were brought on to ■ the Thames by Sergeant Clark land Detective Miller, ami lodged in the lockup. From the particulars made known the treatment of the slimes had only been begun when the police and Mr Rhodes arrived on the scene. It takes some time to get a furnace with a coke fire sufficiently hot to operate, and as a matter of fact Mr Rhodes calculated pretty accurately what would take place from the time Finn and Edgar could get breakfast at the hotel, and he made his arrangements with the police accordingly. After the arrest was effected it took Mr Rhodes and the police quite an hour and a half to clean out the furnace with its contents, gather up the slimes which had fallen into the ashpit, and replace them i-n the box. The slimes recovered are valued at £SOO. Both the accused are well known throughout the goldfields and Auckland. Finn is about 24 j v ears of age. He passed through the local Sohool of Mines about three years ago with great credit to himself. He was subsequently employed at Waikino reduction works, and was engaged there when the robbery took place, but left shortly afterwards. Since then he has knocked about on different parts of the goldfields, latterly at the Thames. Edgar is about 27 years of age. He was employed before the robbery by the Waihi Goldmining Company, but latterly was acting as a life insurance agent. At the Thames Police Court this morning Cyril Finn and James Eager were charged with having, on or about October, 1900, stolen from the reduction works of the Waihi Company a quantity of slimes, valued at £7OO. The case was not gone into, the accused being remanded and liberated on bail, each in £2OO and sureties of £2OO each.