THE KUMARA BANK ROBBERY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 208, 3 September 1877, Page 2

THE KUMARA BANK ROBBERY.

The circumstances attending the late " sticking up " of the Bank at Kumara are thus sketched by a writer in the local paper: " This is the age of novels. Everybody reads novels, and I fancy everybody thinks himself capable of constructing the plot of a romance. A constable is not generally supposed to be much disposed to ' weave fancies,' but from what I hesr I am disposed to believe that the Ifokitika 'force' possesses at least one romantic genius. This gifted individual has constructed the plot of a novel something after this nature. A young gentleman of the most respectable connections, who had occupied a situation of great responsibility in which he was trusted with large sums of money, after passing some years in an irreproachable nian-

ner, conceived a schema which, with the assistance of another young gentleman of equally high character, he carried out in manner following. He got under a bed, and behind a safe and spit on the floor a good many times, also throwing down a number of matches in each place. He threw away his revolver, which usually he kept under his pillow, but left another revolver where he could find it when wanted. He got up in the wee small hours, opened the said safe, and took therefrom all its valuable contents, notes, cash, and gold. He then placed an old hat and dirty handkerchief in front of the safe, and daubed the notes and gold bags with red ink. Having done all this, he went to the po9t-office and posted an anonymous letter addressed to himself, written by himself, in a disguised hand, placed the bag of gold outside o£ the bank, and scattered a lot of notes at the back of the premises. He then disrobed himself, and put on a night shirt, hia confederate doing the same. The hour of four having arrived, he takes the revolver, which he had reserved for this purpose, and having half opened the front door, stands as far off as he cau within the building, and fires a bullet through the edge of the door, rushes out madly, calls frantically for the police, scampers with bare feet and en deshabille through the mud and in the pelting rain of a cold winter's morning, firing off another shot while on hia mad career. His confederate meantime shouts 'police,' and stands guard over a few notes and some cash which had been thrown on to the floor of the bank. This is a brief outline of the romance which has been evolved from the inner consciousness of the Hokitika ' officer.' The author has submitted hia sketch to the managers of a certain banking institution, and they have formed so high an opinion of it that they have come to the conclusion that it ia no romance, but a plain unvarnished statement of facts, and on the strength of such conclusion, have actually suspended two of their formerly most trusted servants!"

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