MISCELLANEOUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 February 1928, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

MOTOR BOAT -MYSTERY. NICE, Dec. 2, AI. Audibert, the owner of the small motor-boat La Perle, is alleged to have been murdered at sea yesterday iby a young man who had hired his boat to take him for a trip in the Baie des Anges. The boat was found stranded on the beach in the Californio quarter of the town, with a pool of blood on its bottom planks A fisherman had seen a young man (not At. Audibert) get out of the boat the moment it touched the shore and make off. It is thought that after having murdered and robbed the owner of La. Perle, tho man threw his body into tho sea. A man and a girl were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment a few months ago for a similar crime committed at Marseilles last year. £7,000 HAUL OF GEMS LONDON, Dec. 2. Methods usually left to the imagination of fiction writers were employed

by skilled thieves who, it was discovered yesterday, entered the premises of Messrs Leighton Bros., antique dealers and silversmiths, New Bond-street, W. and, cutting open the hack of a safe, removed jewellery valued at about £7,000. It is believed that the men concealed themselves and their apparatus in the cellar of the next door premises before they closed. These premises are occupied by two dentists and are entered by GO or 70-people daily, so that strangers would attract no notice. On the first floor of the dentists’ premises are a. waiting-room and a cloakroom, the latter 'being immediately above Messrs Leighton’s premises. The thieves first cut a hole, 18 inches wide and 2 feet long, through the flooring of the cloakroom, removing the oilcloth and taking up boards. Tho work was skilfully done. DIFFICULT FEAT. Tlie next move was probably the most difficult and dangerous of all. A long webbing strap was fastened round the floor joists and down this were

lowered two cylinders of oxy-acetylene. To complete their work tlie thieves lowered down several feet of flexible piping, crowbars and jemmies. Although two men took part in these operations it is believed that only one actually lowered himself into the shop. Here the third act was completed. A

member of the firm told a reporter last night that the front of the safe was visible from the street, that a 50-candle-power lamp was left burning in tlie shop, and that there were no curtains to hide the shop from view. He added: All that could not be seen was tlie hack of the safe, and- this was completely cut out by tlie oxy-aeetylene 'blow apparatus. As the man wont down tlie strap ho would certainly have been visible from the street had anyone been looking. Tlie curtain across tlie window was not drawn—it never is—and tlie fact that he was able to do tin's safely remains to us the mast perplexing feature. The jewellery in the safe included diamond watches and brooches, rings, gold and platinum bracelets, pearls and other jewellery. The stolen property represented the most valuable stockin the shop and was all of a type that, is easily carried away. The thieves left their apparatus behind. PRISON MUTINY SIEGE. NEW YORK, Dec. 2. Thanksgiving 'Day (November 24) mils marked bv one of tlie most spectacular and dangerous prison rebellions in tlie hstory of California. Folsom Prison, 25 miles from Sacramento, is guarded by battlemented walls oil all sides except that which gives upon American River. Yesterday 1,200 convicts, after a Thanksgiving Day dinner, were attending a cinema show in the gaol. Then, at a prearranged signal, a number of them surrounded eight turnkeys, stabbed one of them to death, wounded another, seized four, and made a concerted rush for the main door. They were baulked by two turnkeys who slipped through the door and locked it. The convicts had by some means secured pistols, axes, and other weapons. They maintained a constant fusillnnde on the prison guards, who had assembled in tlie yard, and who were soon reinforced by State police and military to tlie number of 400. During last night tear-gas bombs were hurled at tlie infu-barred windows of tlie prison by tlie police. Tanks and machine guns wore hurried to the scene by order of the Gorernor of the State, blit the convicts, seven of whom

were killed during tlio exchange of shots, declared their intention of slaying the four turnkeys whom they held as hostage if the military battered in the doors.

After an all-night vigil by the police the convicts this morning admitted tho prison doctor, who attended to their wounds. They were then informed that if they failed to surrender the water reserviors would Ire opened and the entire prison inundated. The threat proved effec-tivo, and at 7.30 this morning a white flag was waved from one of the prison windows in token of surrender. Troops then swarmed into the building and the convicts returned to their cells.