A MOONSHINE MERCHANT

NZ Truth, Issue 1197, 8 November 1928, Page 2

A MOONSHINE MERCHANT

Thought They Bought Business, But Purchased Pup

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) "Ain't some men lucky? There's me just out from doing a month for not having any Visible means of support and me getting on for seventy* and never robbed nobody." . '

SUCH was the comment of an old man when he heard that Edward Saville Lyall Esdaile, a young man of sturdy build, had been » placed on probation for five years after being found guilty of obtaining £.250 by false pretences. Esdaile returned from Suva under arrest, , having travelled thus far on his way to the United States, . and spent .the time . after his return m Mount Eden gaol, awaiting his trial at the Supreme Court, bail not being* forthcoming. It is said that while behind the stone walls there, he impressed himself very forcibly upon at least one of his fellow -prisoners, who thought to take a. rise out of him — and he has the build of one who could do it. While head of the Grosvenor Art and Publicity Co., a concern which he had formed to exploit a contract he had obtained from the Auckland Ferry Co., at £200 per annum, for a period of five years, Esdaile met Dr. Harold Alexander Cooper and Edgar Frank Chivers, both of whom were interested m the Gray Marine Motor Company. It would appear that Esdaile's gifts as a salesman lent him a certain charm tp his two new acquaintances, for it was finally agreed that Esdaile should go to America and carry out some business for- them, '

Before he could go, however, he made it clear to the others that he must get rid of his co- directors m the Art and Publicity Co., for they, so he told the doctor, were giving him "a — of a time.": It/was thVdoctor who finally parted up with £250 of the best and a.nother £50 for personal expenses, which was supposedly to buy out the interests of the co- directors. Hardly had Esdaile sailed than it was - discovered that the very efficient salesman had no co- directors — that, the Art and Publicity Co. was composed of himself, with. 1245 shares, and another, Martin Wilkins, .accountant, having five shares. ' .In plain language, Dr. Cooper and

Chivers had been spoofed. Lawyer Finlay appeared for Bsdaile m .the Auckland Supreme Court when he game up for trial before Judge-Blair. , ; j'iThe' first witness to be called" was Dr. Cooper, who grave ■ evidence to the effect that accused: had told him he had contrived to persuade his codirectors to accept a ; mere £250 for their share m the Art and Publicity Company, These directors the advertising salesman mentioned as being Grant and Wilkins. : This statement ; the doctor did not > y.erif y- : and the money, finally passed over to buy out their Interest.'

. When asked if Bsdaile had not made somewhat of a sacrifice m. leaving his advertising business as he had, . the doctor replied to Lawyer Finlay: "Yes. perhaps was an element of . sacrifice." •■ ■ . -. ;- ' ' '■"'■ "■■'■ . ' ■ •••■■ '■ He knew that accused had ufied somq of the £250 to pay hie debts, but he could not say what they •were. ■•■- : . ■•■.•■• ' , .. "• , To his honor, the. witness replied: "We paid his fare to New York and 'back, and gave him a letter' of credit for' £150, besides the £250; he took the let ter of. ■ credit with him, though he' cashed £25 of it here." ' Up to the time he advanced the £250, the doctor said he had no doubtabout' Esdaile coming ba^ck. A determined effort was made by Lawyer Finlay to show by a certain minute from the papers of the Art and Publicity Co. that this business had become the property of the doctor. It did hot quite succeed, for the witness asked if the minute had been signe,d. Ttte lawyer was compelled to admit that no .signature- had been appended. "The payment of \£26o waß to be used to' buy put the co-directors," insisted the doctor.

•^'The minute says that the Gray Motors were buying out the Art and Publicity Company," urged Lawyer Finlay. : "-■.. ''■■', His Honor: "No, it / Dr. Cooper assured the lawyer that they didn't even own a chair of the Art and Publicity Company, adding: "He had given us a nasty jar "before he left for the States." ■ Lawyer Finlay suggested that hft could assure the doctor that he did own the Art and Publicity Company. "You can't assure me," waa* the retort, and the doctor refused to be convinced. Trying a new line, Lawyer Finlay said: "He took nothing belonging to the Art and Publicity Company." The doctor replied: "There, was ' nothing to take." •

Chivers was able to say that he knew Wilkins had never been approached to sell his flye i shares; that Esdaile had told him.the profits of the Art and Publicity Company amounted to £1000 a year, of which £7,50 was his, '■■'■'. -: ■'■" -..<•■• •. It was suggested by Lawyer Finlay that Chivers was to draw, a- salary of £5 a week from, the Art' and Pub-

licity Company during Esdaile's abS6XIC6 "I've not got it yet; I live m hopes," was Chivers' reply. "Well,- the Gray Motors wero to acquire all the interests m the Art and Publicity Co?" asked Lawyer 1 Finlay. '"Oooh, no," Chivers was most emphatic. And the smile which accompanied the reply caused the lawyer to say that he did not like it. When counsel tried to make capital out of the minute, as he had done with the previous witness, his honor interrupted: "That's . been written out by your client and there's Nothing to support .it." .. . "Is that minute true?" asked the lawyer. Chivers 1 answer was a most emphatic: "No." / Pressed on .the transaction m ojther phases, Chivers, who gave the imprea* sion of a young man with some perception, replied: "You're trying to get something out of me that you can't get." . . . Again his honor interjected to say to Lawyer Finlay: "I fail to see that the Art and Publicity Company is such a marvellous business as you are trying to make out." '<• Evidence was given by Robert McIntbsh Grant as to haying first met Eedaile in 1 August, 1927, when Wilkins introduced him with the object of witness doing the legal work m connection with the Grosvenor Art and Pub-

licity "Company, which was formed to exploit the contract which Esdaile had entered into with the Devonport Ferry Company. It was a personal contract, so far as Grant knew. . No cash was paid up and the shares were issued as fully paid. Esdaile took a legal risk m a sense, was the lawyer's opinion. The company never had a legal assign- ■ .. ment.' ' Grant said that he was 'later instructed to alter the name of the company by eliminating: the Grosvenor, but as the costs of the other work had not been paid, he didUhot do so. A letter was read by Grant which he had received from Esdaile, m which

some discussion, his honor said the decision rested with Crown Prosecutor Hubble, and, the latter offering no objection, Lawyer Finlay laid the book on the registrar's desk. "That's not the w,ay to put it m," objected his honor. The first that he had heard of Esdaile's departure, said Martin Llewellyn Wilkins, when he took his place m the witness-box, was _ the day after he had sailed. , He had never received any profits from the Art and Publicity Company and had nothing to do with Its management—nor had 'he ever been approached to sell his shares. , Lawyer Finlay did not see fit to I place his client m the witness-box and commenced his address to the jury. He had not proceeded far befbre he was twice interrupted by Judge Blair. The first interjection was: "They" (Cooper and Chivers) "paid £260 to some recalcitrant directors — that's all there is to it." / ■ : f Later, his honor stopped Lawyer Finlay to say: "There's no proof that the company was worth a threepenny bit, and what you are saying is pure

imagination." Summing up, his honor remarked— among other things * which reflected nothing to the credit of the accused: "The money was rather ingeniously obtained. He invented a set of direor tors which did not exist He knew it was moonshine." ■'•■■■ His, honor went on to parable the action of Esdaile by flaying that he. had tried to tell the men he defrauded that he had ,a very, fine cow for sale, whereas he had sold them a horse— and they didn't want a horea. In admitting Esdaile to five years' probation, during which he, wijl be asked to refund the £250, Judge Blair 5 remarked that ' the accused was a young man of ability who might be over-sanguine; he had probably had the idea that he was m On stfch a good thing with the Gray Motors that he thought he could help himself to the funds. While he 'thought f this might be a lesson to Esdaile, he expressed the hope that they might not meet again. If the stocky young man before him expressed any such wish m reciprocation, it was inaudible, but he lost no time m stepping" out of the dock.

the latter said. that he enclosed a blank cheque; but, observed the lawyer, with a wry smile, no cheque' was enclosed. In this letter Esdaile said to Grant: "They have just paid the exact fare." "What about the blank Cheque?" asked Crown Prosecutor Hubble. "That's all there was of the cheque —a blank," replied Grant. ■■'►••■ •• . Lawyer Flhlay, wished to put m as evidence a book of the Art and Publicity Company which contained some of the contracts, but Judge Blair objected to this:. "You can't have It both ways, Mr. Finlay; you're too old a hand for that." However, aft c r