THE DRUCE CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8985, 20 November 1907, Page 5

THE DRUCE CASE.

A CLOSELY-GUARDED GRAVE. TITLED LADIES HAVE SEATS ON BENCH. Received ,November 19, 8.20 a.m. LONDON, November 18. A thousand people inspected the closely-guarded Druce grave in Highgate cemetery. Many ladies of title have seats on the bench at Cierkenwell, to where the hearing of the case has been transferred. CALDWELL'S EVIDENCE CONTINUED. Received November 19,10.8 a.m. LONDON, November 18. At the htarinp of the charge of perjury against Herbert Druce, RobertgCaldwell, of New York, who was called on behalf of George Hollamby Druce, the claimant to the Di'kedom of Portland, continued his evidence. He stoutly denied his identity with a brother, who had been accused of embezzlement. He said he was positive that he had passed through a partly-made tunnel between Welbeck Abbey and Druce's workshop. That was in 1864. He denied that he was ever defendant in a police court, and swore positively that he / had never lived in Londonderry with his wife.

, SEARCHING QUESTIONS. MISS ROBINSON'S EVIDENCE. Received November 19, 10.22 p.m. LONDON, November 19. Caldwell, continuing his evidence, denied that he and his brother held a leasehold property in Londonderry in 1868. and denied assigning to Christy in 1871 an insurance policy on Robert Caldwell's life. His brother might have told him that he made an assignment. Mr Plowden, the magistrate, put a series of searching questions to Caldwell, and remarked that some people believed that Druce was the real person who died. Did any of these ever ask to see the corpse before the burial? Caldwell: No. They wer~ unaware that he was dead until the funeral was over. Mr Plowden did not permit the production of the diary on the ground that it was made by a third party. Another witness, named Miss Robinson, stated that she also copied it. Mr Plowden said that possibly a copy was unnecessary. Miss Robinson testified that she knew Druce in 1861 and again as Druce at Welbeck Abbey in 1868, when she was introduced by the late Charles Dickens, whom she met at Boston, America, and at whose instance she became engaged in Druce's employ and received at the workshop letters for Druce in the name of Madame Tussaud. Mr Avory's remarks, objecting to the copy, showed that the date of the manufacture of the paper whereon the original was written was questioned during its custody in London.

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