THE SPURIOUS GOLD SWINDLE.

Southland Times, Issue 1537, 13 February 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SPURIOUS GOLD SWINDLE.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court on the 23rd insi, three Chinamen, named respectively Ah Hoon, Ah Koug, and Ah Chow, were charged on suspicion of receiving moneys, a portion of the proceeds of the late spurious gold swindle: Inspector Fox gave evidence as to their apprehension at the Railway station. He also produced a telegram from the agent of the Bank at Riverton, giving the numbers of the notes paid by their gold buyers to the Chinaman, Kee Chang. On being compared with the money got in the jumper, they were found to correspond. The Inspector stated that he had telegraphed for the Chinese interpreter, and until his arrival, and further inquii-ieß into the matter, he asked for a remand. Eventually the remand was granted for eight days, on the understanding that if the police were prepared to go on with their case in the interim, the accused parties should he brought up. ESCAPE 05 KEE CHAN&. I We regret to learn that Kee Chang has so far escaped detection that he is now understood to be on his way to Newcastle (N.S.W). The escape was well planned, and aided by a series of fortuitous circumstances, has succeeded only too well. Vague rumors were received by the police that Kee Chang had left the neighborhood of the Puni Creek at midnight on Sunday. Acting upon these, a searching inquiry was made, but it was not until midnight on Tuesday that any reliable information was obtained as to the whereabouts of the fugitive. When we take into account that Chang's movements were aided by his countrymen, and that there was no interpreter at hand, or in fact any one who could properly prosecute inquiries, it is only surprising that the police succeeded in getting any trace of their man at all. It now appears that he embarked in a fisherman's boat at the lower pool, his destination being Stewart's Island. * On Monday afternoon he reached Port William, where, luckily for him, tho Mary Cumming, from Oamaru, bound for Newcastle, was lying wind-bound. Chang 'immediately proceeded on board that vessel, and succeeded in negotiating a passage with the captain. It is reported that all the ready money he had about him at tho time was £6, and as this was insufficient to defray the expenses of the passage, he was compelled to deposit the letter of credit referred to in last issue with the master. On Wednesday morning, at 11 o'clock, the vessel set sail with a fair wind, and is now supposed to have got clear of the New Zealand coast. At daylight on Wednesday morning the police, acting on the information they had obtained, set out for Stewart's Island, arriving just in time to find that the vessel had got beyond all chance of being overtaken. To show the good fortune which has so far attended Chang, we may state that with the exception of the vessel named above, no foreign-going or intercolonial trader has visited Port William for upwards of three months.