AMOS J. TUDBALL AGAIN.

Kumara Times, Issue 2678, 22 April 1885, Page 2

AMOS J. TUDBALL AGAIN.

Most Kumara people will recollect the fire at Tudball's store in Main on the night of May 7, 1877, when Bishop Harper, Primate of New Zealand, was being entertained at a concert in the Theatre Royal. Au inquiry into the cause of the fire was held, and an. open verdict returned. Tudball left Kumara shortly after this, and bought some sheep in Canterbury, for which he gave a valueless cheque, and was imprisoned for about 18 months. He has turned up again in Queensland, where we learn from the Rockhampton correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, UDder date March 12, as follows : I don't know whether I mentioned in my last the arrest here of a man who gave his name as John Tarnball on a charge of stealing £B2 in gold from a portmanteau belonging to Mr Geo. O. Smith, manager of Boroondara station, who had left, the same in his bedroom at the Criterion Hotel, but if I did not—and the case is not unlikely to lead to a veritable cause celebre in the annals of Australian crime—l think I ought not to allow this opportunity to pass of pu ff, 'n<r rnu in possPssWi of 'ho facts. Turnbull, who is now under committal for the larceny mentioned above, was a fellow boarder with Mr Smith at the hotel, ...nd about noon on the 3rd nit. they were together in Smith's bedroom, when thn latter took out the £B2 from his pocket, placed it in a pocketbook, and locked it up in his portmauteau. Smith was jseot from the hotel until about six o'clock, when on examining his portmanteau, he found the pocketbook and coutents had been abstracted. Suspicion immediately pointed to Turnbull as the thief; he was arrested, ami o ;i his pcison was found a sum of £62 Us., among which

was a dented half-sovereign, which Smith swore was his, as he had noticed it when drawing the money from the Bank of New South Wales. There was also found upon him a bunch of keys, one of which exactly fitted the lock of Mr. Smith's portmanteau, wherein the money had been placed in the prisoner's presence. A search among the papers found in Tumbull's trunk revealed a documeut relating to one Rigg, of the squatting firm of Rigg and Turnbull, and upon this document it is believed that a cine has been obtained as to the actual whereabouts of a notorious criminal. It can be shown that the prisoner is identical with the Turnbull who was in partnership with Mr Rigg in the sheep station at Narre Warren, near Berwick, Victoria, then there is little doubt that he is the man who has led a long life of systematic and heartless swindling both in New Zealand, New South Wales, and Victoria, under the Dame of Amos James Tudball; that he was married in July, 1871, to a young lady named Eliza Jane Covet; that in 1876, having forged his uncle's name, he absconded from England to India, and subsequently joined his wife in Melbourne; that later on he went to New Zealand, where he defrauded his creditors and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment ; and later still that he joined and swindled Mr Rigg ; and then committed bigamy by marrying a re spectable young lady at St Kilda, whom he appears to have induced to enter into the holy bond by promising to settle £SOO a year upon her. This lady he deserted shortly after, and absconded from the colony. However, the police here are in communication with your criminal department, and when more is known of the result of their investigations I shall not fail to keep you acquainted therewith.