THE GOLD ROBBERY AT CLYDE.

Southland Times, Issue 1300, 29 August 1870, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GOLD ROBBERY AT CLYDE.

The Clyde correspondent of the Bruce Standard gives the following particulars of this daring robbery : — ■ The township just now is in a state of iutense excitement, owing to the discovery of a daring robbery, at the Police Camp, of £13,000 worth of gold and bank notes, awaiting escort to Dunodin. The facts of the case are as follow : — Under the new regulation* as to escort duty, whereby the gold from this and other districts is only to be forwarded once a month,; instead of fortnightly, as heretofore, much. larger amount than usual of gold and notes had been deposited at the Camp for safe keeping, awaiting the intended despatch of the escort this morning. At half- past twelve o'clock on the night of Sunday, the sergeant in charge stated that he visited the gold-room, and sawall b tfe. He then retired to rest, and, it appears, the Inspector and the rest of the police in the Camp did likewise- At halfpast 4 a.m. j- oa^rising to prepare for the departure of the escort — usually conveyed by Cobb and Co. — they were' astounded on discovering, that the room had been entered, the two boxe3 of gold abstracted, the doors again carefully closed; and scarcely a trace left of the.robberSi One thing only was evident; gold had disappeared, and. the theft had been skilfully and noiselessly effected by some one well acquainted with_thelbuilding and its surroundings. It has been usual for some time past to deposit the boxes of gold, &c., awaiting escort, in one of the cells of a spare ward, known as the female prisoner's ward ; a small weatherboard building closely adjoining another similar building, occupied as a gaol for male prisoners. At the rear of these buildings, and in close proximity thereto, stand the police barracks and sergeant's office — not, however, overlooking the doors of either of the lockups. To the left are the gaoler's quarters, with window overlooking both wards. The sergeant's and inspector's quarters are about ' 30 yards from the gaol and gold-room. The outer : door of the females' room, from the fact of its being disused as a lockup, is merely fastened by an ordinary lock. The cell wherein the gold was placed was supposed to be more secure, being lived with iron, and fastened by a heavy iron bar and strong " Chubb " lock. The thieves, evidently well acquainted with these facts, appear to have watched until the police were off guard, then quietly unlocked the outer door with an ordinary key, and set to work to open the inner door. This they effected by ; simply withdrawing a few screws which, held , an iron plate fixed to one end of the bar of iron, and fastened by the screws to the jamb of the door. This completed, they had no difficulty in opening the door of the cell, and securing the iron boxes wherein the gold was packed. Two *of these they carried away, and from the slight traces left they appear to have carried them round the back of "the barracks, resting them on a sod wall, whichis built within ten feet of the barracks. Over this wall the boxes were taken. The thieves then seem to have returned,; quietly replaced the bar, put back the screws holding it to the door-post, closed and locked' the outer door, and quietlydecamped, leaving behind them in the cell, for reasons best known to themselves; another box, containing 1600 ozs. of gold.; The only traces yet found of the robbers has been the discovery of the two missing boxes, skilfully unscrewed, and minus their contents, thrown into a shallow water-hole, about two chains from the rear of the Camp, and also an'improvised dark lantern, made from a small mustard tin, and a woollen sack. The police haye 1 searched the neighborhood, and scoured' the country in all directions, but, as yet," without avail.