O’FERRALL, THE DEFAULTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4189, 24 August 1874, Page 3

O’FERRALL, THE DEFAULTER.

The following is from the Melbourne ITcrald; —Since the disappearance of O’Ferrall, the Crown Lands defaulter, there has been a large amount of mystery as to how he escaped from the Colony so successfully, and how the detectives were so completely toiled in their attempts to secure him. It has been known that he left Melbourne for New Zealand in the Alhambra, and it is also a matter of notoriety that two detectives were sent to Fiji, and- afterwards one to New Caledonia, in search of him. But beyond this nothing has been known. We are now in a position to give the real facts. When O’Ferrall first disappeared, certain information was given to the detectives which led to two officers being sent down to Fiji in the schooner Lily. On arrival there they found that the information in question was utterly false, and therefore they made the best of their way back. The speediest means of doing this was via Auckland, and thither they proceeded. They were detained at Auckland some days, and during that time they fell in with a hawker who had a few days previously arrived in a coasting vessel, named the Dauntless, from some other New Zealand port. He gave such information as to place it beyond a doubt that O’Ferrall had beeft a fellowpassenger of his in the Dauntless, and that he had a day or two before the arrival of the detectives in Auckland taken ship for New Caledonia. As quickly as possible, the detectives went to Sydney, the hawker accompanying them. This individual had, of course, learnt in the meantime, that a large sum of money was involved, and, thinking that hemight as well make hay while the sun was shining, he slipped

off to New Caledonia on the quiet, while the detectives were telegraphing particulars to Melbourne, and awaiting instructions. These instructions were not sent to them, and they had both to return to Melbourne., After further delay one of them was despatched to New Caledonia; but, in the meantime, the cute hawker had been there, and, as might have been expected, O’Ferrall disappeared from the settlement immediately afterwards. How far the hawker benefited by the timely information that he was enabled to convey to O’Ferrall is not known, but there is more than reason to suspect that, before Detective Mackay reached New Caledonia, O’Ferrall was already in Tahiti, and that he is still there. The whole business, in fact, was mismanaged. Had the detectives had carte blanche to proceed to New Caledonia, they must have succeeded in getting their man, but, while waiting for instructions, the hawker was too smart for them.