DARING ROBBERY OF TEN THOU

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 342, 29 January 1861, Page 2

DARING ROBBERY OF TEN THOU

SAND POUNDS.

POLICE COURT.

Monday, January 28th, 1861. [Before j. Poyneer, Resident Magistrate, R. K. New-

come,and J.P.Robinson,Esqrs.] S. Walceford, engineer, G. Siddels, seaman, H. Levistan, 2nd engineer, and Thomas Scaife, purser, on board the I.R.M. Cos. steamer Airedale, were brought up the information of Captain Johns, acting for the Company, on suspicion of being concerned in the late robbery on board that vessel, either on the evening of Friday or early on Saturday morning la9t, of stealing two boxes of gold specie of the value of £10,000, the pioperty of the I.R M. Co. (limited.) The court throughout the investigation was den-ely crowded. Mr. Travers appeared for the Company. Francis Johns sworn: lam master of the steamship Airedale; arrived from Sydney in that ship on Thursday last between 6 and 7 a.m.; I left Sydney on the 17th instant; I know the persons at the bar; they were in my ship on that voyage—S. Levestan, second engineer; J. Wakeford, chief engineer; Thomas Scaife, purser; G. Siddel, mariner working his passage. I 1 shipped two boxes supposed to contain gold, in Sydney, libr this port; the boxes produced are those';. I was aware myself of the contents; I was at the bank und saw the gold weighed out, but did not see it put iu(;o the boxes; I left it to the manager of the bank. The following day the boxes were sent to me by a cab to the Grafton Wharf, and I ordered the second mate to send hands to stow them in the mail rooia. t I afterwards signed bill of lading for the gold. Bills of lading would have been signed by the purser, but on this occasipn ;there was an objection on the part of ths bank to <jhe purser doing so. One of the authorities connected with the company called my attention to signing the bills of lading; I did not see them stowed away; I left that to the second mate and purser: gold is generally kept in the mail room if in quantities. I did not see the gold from the time it was shipped till it was picked up. The purser; keeps the key of the mail room ; it is his duty to take qharge of the mails, &c.; I do not know of any do . parmre from that custom in this instance. On Saturday morning the robbery was reported to me by \ Wakefqrd and Scaife outside the Wakatu Hotel about ' 10 o'clock. The mail room is under the steward's pantry, on the port side of the ship; it is flbout four feet -by seven, and lined with zinc, and about six feet, high; the entrance is by a door, opening outwards, which is secured by a hasp, staple and padlock; the staple has a plate which is screwed on. The door of the room opens into the after hold, the access to which i« by a hatchway leading to the iwajn deck close to the engine bulkheads.. The hatchway is usually kept open; the opening into the after hold from the cabin floor is usually closed by two hatches ; which open, one to port, the other to starboard. The ' mail room door could be.opened if the hatches in the cabin floor were down; over, or resting on these hat- ; dies is a ladder communicatinij wi,th the main deck : ; the hatches cannot be opened without moving the: ladder; on each side of the hatchway,is a door, we i leading to the steward's pantry, the other to the i purser's cabin,; both these cabins communicate with the main saloon, so that the puner could have free access to the. hatchway at any time. Shortly after th£ .arrival of the vessel in Nelwn. the mm tfiMk m

he was going to town to the po3t office; wo brought the usual English mails with us; I saw the mail boxes beina; brought on deck before we got to the wharf; it is usual to do so in order to expedite delivery. I give: no orders with regard to the specie being engaged on the bridge; no one asked me anything with respect to what was to be done with it; ] think the second and third, mates were engaged getting up the mail; it is generally the place of the ee.cond mute to do that duty; lam not sure about the third mate being presmit; it is usually left to the purser and second mate to arrange about the delivery of the mail; I did not sue the mail leave the ship; When I heard of the robbery I went immediately to Mr. Poynter, accompanied by Judge Johnson. After seeing Mr. Poynter, I saw Mr. Coleman, and we both went down to the ship. The first person I spoke to about it I believe was the chief officer. I went down into the mail-room, and examined it.... L found' the staple had been prized ofty and a chisel was shown to me by the chief mate, which was found on the water tank—this was between 10 and 12 o'clock. The plate did not appear to me to be damaged. 1 believe there - were some mail bags in the mail room when I went in, there was cargo still in the after hold. It was the duty of the second and third mates to discharge cargo under the direction of the first mate. There was cargo in the forehold also; I think some dour was discharged from the after hold on Thursday; I was on boardfrequently during that day up to near 5 o'clock"; 1 cannot say which of the mates were engaged at the afterhold ; usually the second mate h»B charge of it; there was nothing in the circumstance of the cargo to alter the usual practice. The forehold is usually under the charge of the first and third mates;' the. stores, such as ropes, &c, are generally in charge of the second mate; I was on the, ship on Friday; I went down about 10, and remained uutil 3or 4 o'clock. I think there was cargo discharged from the after-hold on Friday. The ladder or lower hatches are usually hauled on to the main deck when cargo is being disr charged from the after-hold; the mail room door can then be plainly seen from the purser's cabin and the hold, without any artificial light. The stores of rope we generally kept forward; I know the rope upon box marked A; the lead upon the rope I affixed myself and is part of the ship's stores; I used the rope and lead for a patent log-line; I believe I got the lead from the carpenter, the piece on. the other box I think I saw on the carpenter's beach on Thursday last; the rope on A was used for lashing the horse-stall on deck shortly after we left Sydney; t can't remember last time I saw it; lam almost positive that the rope on B came out of the ship's stores; the rope on box B appears to be knotted in a nautical fashion; those on A are more carelessly done, but are also sailor fashion; after leaving the vessel on Thursday afternoon I came up to town, going first to West's to be shaved, and afterwards went to Lewthwait's; saw Mr. Co'eman several times that night; slept at Lewthwait's, and went to bed about 2 o'clock, was with Mr. Coleman best part of the time; I slept at Lewthwaite's on Thursday and Friday nijjbts, it was a single-bedded room. On Thursday night Mr. Coleman and i went to bed at the same time; ; believe that Lewthwaite and Captain, Dixon were there at the time we returned;' It was between 10 and 12 on Friday noon when I went to.the ship; she was to have sailed on Saturday. . The gold was for Taranaki • it was not requisite that the gold should come to town before being sent to Taranaki. Treasure has been brought up to town, arid placed in the Bank for security when a delay of two or three days was expected. The Lord Ashley was expected, every hour; she arrived on Friday morning. I saw Captain Kennedy that day; I had no conversation with him about the specie; I gave no orders for tran-hipment that day; it is not my province to do so, that is a duty which rests with the* purser, who generally speaks to the Captain about transhipment"; but. he said nothing about it; I never mentioned to any person about the gold being on board. By the Bench: The purser did not speak to me about the transhipment or anything else5 besides the gold.

■ Mr. Coleman: I went to bed on Friday night about 3 o'clock; on the day I received information of the robbery I ordered a search to be made by the chief engineer with police officers; the chief mate at that time was about the deck working cargo, the second and third, mates were also on board engaged about the ship; I believe there was some sugar remaining oh Siturday undischarged. Mates are supposed to Bleep on board if unmarried, the chief and second mates were married, but their wives are not in Nelson; the third mate is a single man; the chief engineer (Wakeford)' and Seddels are married men; Scaife andfLevestan are single. This was the first-voyage of the chief mate, he joined, us in Sydney from-the ateaimhip Victory recently arrived from England; the second mate came from.the Manukau, is named M'Taggart, he had been lightering there, he has been with us 6 or 7 months; I had a chief officer of the name of Quauce, he was transferred to tho Lord Ashley on the 12th, he had come out from England with me. There have been several robberies committed iri my; ship within the last six months; the first was a few months ago, when the cabin of Mr. Quance wa3 broken into and £H) or £50 taken from it; all the robberies oc-^ curred after the second mate joined ;■:-. two robberi||i were committed, in Sydrey. There is a sail-roolg in the after hold opposite the mail room, I ] dorlM? think there was any rope kept'there: the signals are kept in the signal-box, sometimes in the) sWo^f and sometimes in a spare bed-place; I canno'tfi^ where they were kept last trip; we did not signal any vessels coming down,; nor in coming, into the ha bor. I used a patent log on leaving Sydney, but finding it incorrect 1 ordered it to be taken in, that log is usually in the charge of the second and third mates, there is no particular place for it. On the search which was made the ship was carefully examined right through; Mr. Edwards and Mr. Hough called my attention to some marks on a post of the wharf, and the latter,-said he would get some fish-hooks, and 1 gave; orders to any of the officers to do so. Mr. Hough could not get the small fishing line far enough under the piles; I don't know how long he tried; I did not order any drags to be used. Mr. Akersten examined the whole of the crew in the Saloon. The proceedings; having! gone so far, Captain Johns then said that he .objected' to the form of the information, he acted under the orders of Mr. Coleman, rather than any suspicions that he himself entertained against the parties at the bar. • ' . ■" y- '■" ■': :■_:,;■

Mr. Travers said in that case it seemed that he had been misinstructed. Captain Johns ought* to have made himself clear upon the position involved.; He would, however, beg that the Court might be adjourned for half an hour iii order to confer with the agent of the company.

Adjourned accordingly. •...'."., Upon reassembling, Mr. Travers said that in consequence of Captain Johns objecting to the previous proceedings, no further prosecution of the case on his part couid be taken. Mr. Connell held that nothing had been elicited to implicate his clients, and The Resident Magistrate concurring, said the defendants must be discharged. f ■'•'-■ s Case dismissed accordingly. '

Mr. Travers said the boxes of gold woald be sent on to Taranaki without breaking them open as doing so might vitiate the insurance; the gold, however, could be taken out at Taranaki by making an opening in them, and the boxes and rope s could then be returned to Nelson in case, they should be wanted for any further proceedings that might be taken.

The Court then broke up, after an examination of about three hours. The case attracted a very numerous attendance of persons, and the day being a close one, the wretchedly, narrow limits of the Court-house were plainly and unpleasantly obvious in the warm faces and cramped positions of most of those whose business or curiosity led them there.

Shortly afterwards a warrant was issued agtipsfc Captain Johns, who was taken into custody upon a similar charge. ..■••..■

RECOVERY OP THE GOLD.

It appears that the gold was searched for by a person named Qarrard, under the direction of the Nelson agent, who seemed to think that the harbor should be the first place where an attempt ought be made to find the missing treaiure. This happily led to the discovery of one of the boxes in close proximity to the wharf on Sunday last, and shortly after, during the temporary absence of (Jarrard, a youth named Richards, left in charge *f the drags lighted npon the second box, thus both were luckily recovered. The boxes having been produced at Court, were afterwards sent to the Union Bank previous to their transmission to Tar*n»ki by the Lord Ashley, on board of which vessel they were conveyed last night for their destination. ■ = ■ : .'

Waimea ELEeijoN.-^We remind our country readers (who arc doubtless so busily engaged at the present season that forgetfulness of political ,ev,eots would got be surprising) that the nomination of candidates for the Waimeas will take place thjia day *t the Schoo^Quse, Bjq^njoiid. and the

CORONERS INQUEST/

An inquest was held on Saturday last tiifbtt J. Connell, Esq., Coroner, at the house of WilHatr, Small,, at Stoke, oh the body of his son Waring Small, a boy of about four years old. ~ From tho evidence given, it appeared that the child, with the children of Mr. Sutton, were playing together in the barn. of the latter farm, from whence they wandered into the adjoining' paddock belonging to Mr. James Robotham, where after some time a bullock belonging to Mr. Robotham, which ato in the paddock, attacked tlie,deceased, and' with his horns tossed him into tH»Jair, and that iii the full the left side of the skui^waa bruised' in and depressed, producing compression of the brain, and. the left collar bone was also broken. The verdict was one of accidental death, resulting from those injuries. ' ■'' Evidence was also given showing that the bollock had previously attacked at least one other person, and that the paddock in which.he was, being insufficiently fenced, was nearly open to the road; but, inasmuch as the accident had occurred within the owner's paddock, and Mr. Robotham who attended, voluntarily undertook to have the bullock killed as soon as he could dispose of him, and in the meantime to have him safely kept, the jury did not append to the verdict any observation on that subject.