A YOUTHFUL IMPOSTOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 258, 10 March 1911, Page 4

A YOUTHFUL IMPOSTOR.

BROUGHT TO BOOK. PSEUDO SCION OF ARISTOCRACY IN AUCKLAND. Auckland, March 8. The very young man who was able to make several people in Auckland believu that he was the Hon. Evelyn V. Kitson, second son of Lord Airedale, was before the Police Court to-day charged on three counts with false pretences, also with haying attempted suicide by taking morphia. He is a very tall and very narrow youth, with a small head, weak features and big, eager eyes, and he does not look clever enough to deceive anybody. However, he had credentials of sorts from somewhere, and he put up at a good hotel in Auckland. There he met sundry people, treated them to much wine, it is said, at the landlord's expense, went to the races and had beta, and did all things which foolish youths who have a great deal too much money are said to do. He had arranged a little supper, too, at which there were to be lots of things to eat and drink, and mayhap a little paroxide, but it was discovered in the meantime that the boy was not really a lord, and he had left in a hurry. The party arrived on time, but the host had left. The young man's methods were of the simplest, and so ohvious that they escaped question. He talked in the most foolish way about ( the thousands of acres worth thousands of pounds, which lie proposed to buy, nnd, on the strength of these foolish boasts and a fairly good address, he was able to give himself no end of a goo,d time at no expense. None of these things got him into trouble, however. FORGERY OP CHEQUES. What did lead to exposure was writing things down—otherwise, forgery. He signed the name of Evelyn V. Kitson to two cheques—one for €2O, which he exchanged for gold at the establishment of G. Fowlds, Ltd., and one for £6, which he cashed at an hotel at Papsknra. He also signed the name of Mr. A. M. Myers, M.P., to another cheque for £7, and duly obtained cash for it. He was arrested eventually, after having first swallowed morphia in an endeavor > to take his life. Finally, after his removal from the hospital to the gaol, he admitted to Detective Quartcrmain that his name was not Kitson. that he was not a scion of any noble house, that his real name was Oordon Palmer, and that he had done this sort of thin? before. He was charged under the name of Albert Gibbs, otherwise Kitson, with the offences alrcadv mentioned, H« pleaded gniltv to all the charts, and was sent to the Supreme Court for sentence.