EXTENSIVE BANK ROBBERY IN MELBOURNE.

Southland Times, Issue 631, 13 February 1867, Page 3

EXTENSIVE BANK ROBBERY IN MELBOURNE.

MYSTEEIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE. (From the correspondent of the " Geelong Advertiser.") Wednesday, Jan. 30. The most mysterious and sensational event which has occurred for some time in our commercial world has been the subject of discussion this afternoon. It has quite absorbed public attention at the west end of town, and groups have been seen in the Exchange with the newspapers of to-day, and especiaUy the " Herald" of Saturday in their hands, conjecturing all sorts of clues to the secret. To-day's papers contain an advertisement signed by the manager of the Oriental Bank, headed " caution to the public," and intimating that a number of bills of exchange had this day (yesterday) been stolen from the bank. As the day advanced, all sorts of rumors gained currency as to the amount of the stolen bills, and the circumstances of their extraction, but the mystery was intensified as attention became drawn to another advertisement in the "Herald," which first appeared in Saturday's issue, the purport of which nobody could previously diviue, but which the new light thrown upon it to-day was evidently penned by somebody either intending to perpetrate the robbery, or who was in the secret of the deed already perpetrated though not discovered until yesterday. It is said that the new accountant who lately arrived from Sandhurst to relieve the old accountant on his intended departure to Europe, went over the bills with the latter two or three days ago — that they were then deposited in a wooden box, which box was placed inside a large box of tin, and that the tin box was duly locked and secured by the messenger in the vault under the accountant's inspection. That on going to the tin box yesterday it was discovered that the wooden box was not in ifc, but its place was a complete blank like the mystical cases in the hands of a wizard. The gentlemen who locked the boxes protest that they saw them one within the other with their own eyes, and nobody, it is said, could possibly get at the box in the vault to extract its contents. The bills, however, have disappeared, and if, as is conjectured, they have been consigned to the flames, either to cover some heavy liability, criminal irregularity, some few parties will be the gainers. When such a bold and dashing coup is effected there must be something at stake, and I need hardly repeat the various surmises to what that something may be. The extraordinary advertisement in the " Herald " appears j under the head of " Missing friends, messages, &c," and is in the shape of a table acrostic, which reads " Portentious facts," and the third column is supposed to give the initials of each official, the remainder of the line intimating what he will do. The last line is supposed to apply to the coming inspector, who it is said wiU wind up, which seems to imply that what was being perpetrated was aimed at the existence of thie- branch of the bank. I understand that the detectives are endeavoring to trace the writer of the advertisement, who was quite unknown at the " Herald" j office. The magnitude of the sum involj ved gives to the transaction quite a j national importance. I have heard | .£200,000 mentioned, but the majority of j persons professing to know have estimated it much higher, and from half to three | quarters of a million is the amount more generally believed. As, however, these matters are almost invariably exaggerated while the mystery is unsolved, it is to be hoped that the amount is much overstated.