EXTRAORDINARY GOLD ROBBERY.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 166, 22 October 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

EXTRAORDINARY GOLD ROBBERY.

PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT,

Under date July 21, the Palmerston (Northern Territory) correspondent of the ‘AdelaiJe Observer ’ writes as follows : The sensation was the robbery from the Southport post-office of live parcels of gold which had come down by the country mail, and would, if they had not disappeared during the night, have been sent by mail to Palmerston on the following day. The facts of the case as developed to the present time are somewhat remarkable. Mr. J. Johnston, the stationinaster, had been in charge of the office for a week, and duly saw that the gold was all right in the safe shortly alter midnight, before retiring to his bedroom, which is separated from the office only by the width of a verandah. Next morning, before 7 o’clock, the Chinese cook as usual came to this room for the keys of the office to clean it up, and was told to take them from the pocket of a coat hanging behind the door. This done, in about half au hour Mr. Johnston went into the office and noticed the first thing that the key was in the safe door and the door unlocked, and when it was opened the loss of the gold was apparent. The live parcels were gone; two registered letters were left. Mr. Johnston immediately went to the police station lilt}'- yards away, and reported the robbery to trooper E. W. Ferguson, who commenced a search, and as a preliminary step arrested the two Chinese j ■servants, and endeavoured to get them to j confess that they had taken the gold, the | first supposition being that while taking the j office keys the ‘boy’ (term for Chinese servants here) had. taken the safe-key from the pocket of a pair of trousers hanging close bv the coat. Feiguson left tlio station, and in about live minutes returned with the outer wrappers of the gold parcels in his hand, saving lie had found them in au empty Chinese liut. When asked how he came to search this hut so speedily, lie explained that be wont to the river to see if the passenger sampan was there, and passing the lint it occurred to him to search it. .SeniorConstable Becker went from Palmerston to assist, and during three days the police and a large number of black boys searched high ami low, all the Chinese stores and dwellings being ransacked. Suspicious celestial characters being said to reside at a garden about a quarter of a mile from the township, tin active search was made there, but nothing was found. Oil the fourth day, Ferguson, searching alone with the blacks, sent a message to Becker that he had found,

in a newly-dug melon-bed in this garden, the inner wrappers of the gold and a mustardtin iu which one of the lots had been contained. Thereupon four Chinese cultivating the garden were arrested, and Ferguson took them to Palmerston and swore informations against them, upon which they wore remanded. iu the meantime Constable Becker had noticed as singular that of all the searchers Ferguson alone had found any indications of the robbery, and, thinking the matter over, and remembering how intimately acquainted with the post-office premises Ferguson was, having been a daily caller, and a guest on tile night of the robbery, found suspicion arise in bis mmd, and ho determined to search Ferguson’s boxes at tiie police-station. Ho did so ; and, iu a small locked tin box covered with clothes in a large trunk lie found about 2250 z of gold, some 20 odd ounces more than the quantity stolen. Now, one of the parties who had posted one of the stolen parcels was in .Southport, and lie unhesitatingly identified some of tile gold as his property, as it; was in pieces of a singular shape and size, produced by defective retorting, and quite unlike any other gold. Positive identification was easy enough. Becker that evening started for Palmerston, and arrested Ferguson, charging him with the robbery, amffim the following morning the prisoner, having pleaded not guilty, was remanded for two days. An inquiry, lasting all day, then took place, and Ferguson was committed for trial, having been defended by Mr. T. Bnrtt, barrister. Bail was refused. The evidence is very damning against the accused. The gold found in iiis boxes was contained in four chamois bags, and in their mouths were small pieces of newspaper which were found to have been torn from a copy of the ‘Australian Star,’ which was among the wrappers found by Ferguson and reported by him buried in the Chinese garden. The defence is that Ferguson bought the gold at various times from Chinese, but he has not been able to produce as yet any evidence that he has done so, nor has he shown that he has ever had the money (some £800) which the purchase of the gold would require, lo meet this be states that he brought that amount iu sovereigns when he arrived here nine months ago, but no evidence to support this statement has ever hern produced. No one has seen sovereigns in his possession. He has paid away none apparently, and. his bank account here never gave any indication of his having had more than £IOO or so in his possession. Ferguson has represented himself as having property in Victoria and .South Australia, and being au agreeable, well-behaved young man, and an abstainer to boot, had been looked upon as quite superior to his position. Love of change aud adventure was the reason he gave for having joined the force and come to the Northern Territory. There is now grave reason to suspect Ferguson of having, about a month ago, stolen twenty-two ounces of gold from another constable who came down country with it in his possession, aud had it stolen in Southport. The pos-

session of this quantity and that stolen from the post-office just accounts within an ounce or two for the weight of gold found in, Ferguson’s box. it would appear that the theft has been contemplated for some time, and, it having been noticed that the postoffice doors had been tried at night heretofore, facts have transpired that point to Ferguson’s having been on the watch for a favourable opportunity. Mr. Machell had left the station a weel: before the robbery. 'During his occupation two bedrooms were occupied, which the thief must have traversed to reach the office. The theft was effected on the very first night on which tile safe contained gold after these rooms were untenanted at night. Ferguson was in the post-office the last thing at night, with -Mr. .Johnston, and knew that the gold was there, as about the same quantity comes down every Wednesday by the country mail. Mr. Johnson believed that he locked the sate before leaving the office, but cannot positively swear that he did so, and there is a possibility that the key was left in the safe. If it were not so it would have been easy for Ferguson to have taken the key from Mr. Johnston’s bedroom, as, if he had been detected in the act. his presence there would have been easily accounted for by a statement that he had noticed some Chinese prowling about, and was watching them in stealth. That Ferguson never dreamed of suspicion lighting upon him, and the searching of his boxes, was his mistake. There is no doubt whatever that he planted the wrappers to cast suspicion upon the ChinesinamWjh^^^i

when he buried them in the garden has been indicated by occurrences that need not be detailed. Ferguson has been talking of leaving for sonic time, and was, it would appear, waiting to make a oat/) aud then depart. Sorry enough as many who until a week ago were Ferguson’s friends are that lie should occupy his present 4 position, this feeling is obliterated by gladness that the gold has been recovered, for the loss would have fallen very hard upon the owners.

‘ That land ought to be used as a cemetery,’ remarked a gentleman as the train glided by a field i n which sand and stones were the principal jwoductions. ‘ Excellent idea,’ returned his friend ; ‘nothing but the

The ‘Times’ (London) gives an account of a method of reporting late debates in the House of Commons by telephones lately adopted in the office of that journal. A typesetting machine has for some time been used in the office, by which, it is stated, a fair workman can attain an average speed of 100 lines an hour, even when composing from manuscript which he has to read for liitnself; and this speed can be doubled, or nearly so, when the operator is assisted by a reader, and thus composes from dictation. The mode in which the telephone has been brought into use in connection with this machine is thus described: —The conductors of this journal, having obtained permission from the Metropolitan Board of Works to lay down the necessary wires in the subway of the Embankment, formed a new connection between the House of Commons and the office, and placed one of Edison’s loud-speaking tele]'hones at either end. The immediate result of this arrangement has been to bring the compositor at the machine into direct communication with the parliamentary reporter at the House, and to enable the debates to he reported and printed from half to three-quarters of an hour, later than had previously been possible. The notes made by the reporter can be read directly into the telephone receiver room adjoining the gallery, either by the reporter himself when relieved or by another person employed for the purpose ; and the compositor, at his machine in the office, sits with his ears in juxtaposition with the other terminal of the instrument. The plan which has been found the most efficacious for the purpose of shutting out distracting sounds of other kinds is to place the disc of the telephone above and behind the compositor, and then to arrange two tubes, each with two trumpet-shaped extremities, in such a manner that these extremities are applied at one end to the two sides of the telephone disc and at the other end to the two ears of the compositor. The compositor is also furnished with a speaking instrument, with a key for ringing a bell, and with a bell which, is rung from the House—a simple code of bell signals, consisting of one, two, or three strokes, sufficing for the ordinary requirements of each message. The compositor aannounees by the bell that he is ready, receives a sentence, strikes the bell to indicate that he understands it, sets up the type with Ida machine, strikes the bell again for the reader to continue his dictation, and so on until the work is carried as far as time will allow. If there is any doubt or difficulty about the words, a bell signal will cause them to be repeated, or explanations can be sought anil received by direct vocal communication. In this power indeed resides one of the chief advantages of the method, and one which ought to lead to greater accuracy than has ever previously been attainable. The names of people, places, &e., can bo spelled out letter by letter if there is any doubt_about