THE GREEN HARP SWINDLE At AUCKLAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 235, 1 August 1872, Page 5

THE GREEN HARP SWINDLE At AUCKLAND.

" Gold-mining in the Province of Anck!aud is credited with rather an unusual development of unscrupulous tricks, but the biggest swindle that has ever disgraced this goldfield pales its ineffectual fires before the infamous glory of the Green Harp." These are the opening remarks of the Auckland Evening Star in referring to the a'^ove subject. There is to-day a panic on 'Change. And well there might at the stupendous villainy that has just been perpetrated. Rogues generally plunder strangers, and the safest house in a city is said to be that next door to the residence of the burglar. But the (ireen Harp robber* have robbed their nearest and most intimate friends ; and the poor and th« trusting have oeen sucked into the vortex of ruin. The original shareholders, with the exception of a few dupes left out in the cold, have all sold out at high prices, and the shares from LlO or £12, have falleu to-day to 17s 6d. Entrance to the mine had '.-.ecu denied to the public, and a few who had been admitted were apparently dazzled by a show specially prepared for thuir deception, and through them for deluding ihe public. It would appear that a common purse has been kept by the swindlers, and while one was prominently buying in the others were stealthly selling out, trading in a sytematized way on the gullibility of the public. One of the leading directors recently started with others who were innocent of the proceedings for Coremandel, and ere the boat had sTghtcd Kapanga every share had been in Auckland transferred from his name, and he appeared at the mine without one share being in his p>ssession. The great crushing was said to have yielded 1,730 ozs. of amalgam, and after eight or ten days additional crushing the result could be stated only as 2 000 ozs. ; and on directors going down from Auckland to see this amalgam, a sight of it wa3 refused by the manager and men in possession. The people of Auckland appear determined to make an example of the directors of ths Grem Harp Company. Th« public leadily subscribed the means required for the conduct of the prosecnion of the principle parties to the fraud whose names are — Thomas Howe, Engeii-> o'Reilly, William Walsh, Thomas Sheth:in, James Cummins, and James Gleeson. They have been admitted to bail, each in his own bond for L2OO, and to find two good sureties of LIOO each. The cake of metal, sup r osed to be retored cold, left at the Bank of New Zealand for amalgamation, has been assayed by Mr Rapson, with, the following result :—: — Base metals ... ... 61.9 Silver ... ... ... 9,4 Gold ... ... ... 28.7 100 The base metals consist of copper, with a trace of iron, and a little lead. The legal manager of the Green Harp Company has sent for the remainder of the metal, which has been deposited at the branch bank at Coromandel, and it is intended to have the whole tested in a similar manner. In connection of the above we may mention that the usual loss from Thames gold during the smelting process is about four per cent.