THE BURGLARS AND COINERS IN MELBOURNE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1249, 7 October 1884, Page 3

THE BURGLARS AND COINERS IN MELBOURNE.

It was announced by telegram the other day (hat an arrest had been made in Melbourne of a French burglar, and that furtlnT discoveries were likely to bo made. Since then other captures have been effected, and the existence has been disclosed of a largo gang of French burglars and coiners, who have been apparently carrying on their nefarious operations with astonishing impudence and impunity fur a considerable time past. Three French convicts, lately from New Caledonia, have been arrested, and two others of (lie gang “are wanted.” The three men would not disclose their hiding place on any consideration ; but after a careful search Detectives O’Donnell ami Lomaine succeeded in discovering the nest, a shabby oblong two-roomed cottage, .standing hack from the footpath in a narrow, dark little right-of-way, off Bon verb-street, Carlton, where their villainies were concocted. The cottage contained one ct the most complete and extraordinary assortments of burglars’ and enmrs’ t f "-Is ever discovered in the Colony. Th ■ [dace was slocked with a supply of wines, beers, spirits, groceries, haras, butter, eggs, and preserves of every description, sufficient to maintain the gang for fully six months. The whole of the plunder is valued at from £l5O to £2OO. The officers discovered beneath the oven several ingots of tin and lead, together with a number of complete plaster-of-paris castes used for coining sovereigns, half-sovereigns, half-crowns, and other coins. A number of dies, three newlycoined spurious florins, and a spurious three-penny hit were also found. The cast and dies were works of art, and the spurious coins were so perfectly formed in every detail that it would be almost impossible, without minute examination, to discover the fraud. in another portion ot the place an electric battery, used for gilding and silvering coins, was discovered, as well as a set of crucibles, a quantity of charcoal, and a quantity of chemicals, the exact names of which have not yet been ascertained. By way of experiment the detectives dropped a penny-piece into one of the jars of chemicals, and to their infinite amazement it was immediately reduced to nearly a . Another coin dropped into another jar was in a few seconds gilded, so as to resemble a genuine sovereign. About 30 jars of different chemicals were discovered in the place, and a recipe written in the French language for coining, gilding, and reducing jewellery to ingots. In the course of the investigation the floor was pulled up, and a most elaborate assortment of skeleton and other keys, “jemmies,” small-saws, safe-opening 1 drills, and other implements numbering about 300 were discovered. Among the things found was a complete kit of about 30 small drills, of the most finished workmanship, for opening strong safes. A small bench was fitted up in one of tele rooms for making skeleton and other keys, and all the necessary tools of trade were secreted about the nooks and crannies of the place in every direction.