CURIOUS CASE OF FORGERY.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 571, 18 April 1876, Page 3

CURIOUS CASE OF FORGERY.

The Otago Daily Tunes of the 13th insfc, given the following account of a charge of forgery under extraordinary circumstances, which came 1 :fore the police court on the previous day:—“ The accused is ! Arthur Robert Maule, described as a gentleman, and by profession a lawyer’s clerk. The form of the charge preferred against him appeals in our court report, but there was a separate information against an accessory, as follows:—‘For that Edward Kellett, of Dunedin, on the 11th April, 1876, at Dunedin, did with intent l o defraud, forge a certain deed, purporting to be o convey ance from the said Edward Kellett t o Williara Richard Windsor and Aithur Robert Maule, of real estate in the colony of Victoria, and the said Arthur Eobnt Maule, on the day aforesaid, did feloniously abet, counsel, and procure the said Edward Kellett to commit

the said felony.’ Maule was placed in the dock alone, and a colloquy took place between the inspector of police and the Bench as to whether Kellett, who is only eleven years of age, should not be jointly charged ; to consider which point the Bench adjourned the further hearing of the case until to-day, prisoner’s application for bail being refused. The circumstances of this singular affair appear to be somewhat as follows:—On the 6th April, 1858, one John Kellett, of Victoria, purchased from the Grown 175 acres 2 roods of land, in the borough of Woodstock, for the sum of £IBO, being on behalf of himself and three others, Thomas, Edward, and Catherine Kellett. The Crown grant was subsequently deposited with one Coker for the loan of £l2O to John Kellett, and in August of the same year Kellett sold the land to one M‘lntyre for £3OO, subject to Coker’s mortgage. MTntyre afterwards sells the land to Messrs Windsor (solicitor), Taylor (auctioneer), and Moule (gentleman). These persons, apparently requiring a title for the land, put an advertisement in one of the Dunedin papers enquiring for a family of Kelletts, in consequence of which Mrs Kellett, a widow residing in Dunedin, communicated with the advertisers in Victoria, and Maule was led to visit New Zealand. He called upon the Kelletts, and at first said he did not think they were the parties enquired for, but he subsequently called upon the 11th and got the boys Thomas and Edward Kellett to sign for their interest in the aforesaid property to the said Windsor, Taylor, and Maule, the considerations throughout being left blank. What gives the concern a ridiculous appearance is the fact that Edward Kellett is only eleven years of age, and he is stated to be a legatee of the property in 1858. Maule appears to have left the signing of the deeds until the last moment, for it is believed he was about to leave by steamer when arrested.