MYSTERY OF EARLY NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9059, 7 April 1908, Page 3

MYSTERY OF EARLY NEW ZEALAND.

In ita resume of the history of Otago, on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of the province, the "Otago Daily Times" recalls the Customhoupe robbery of 1855. During a dark and rainy night a piece was cut out oft he wall of the Customhouse at Port Chalmers by burglars, and the safe, containing £1,400 in notes and gold, and many valuable documents, removed bodily through the opening. Such a loss of money was considerable in the early days of the settlement, but the loss of the books and papers ■was considered even more seriour. It was observed that in sawing the piece out of the wall a four inch nail had been cut through, and it occured to someone with a bent toward detective work that here was a valuable clue. An ingenious but laborious plan of investigation was conceived. It was that: the harbour should be circumnavigated, from Port Chalmers down the north aide, up past the Kaik to Portobello, that every house should be called at, and an examination made of every saw in the district. The idea in the minds of the authorities was that a golid piece <\f iron could not oe cut through without leaving its effects on the face of the saw. A boat's crew started off on the strange errand. No explanation was given to the a.tonished owners of saws, who probably thought they were dealing with a party of harmless lunatics. As the boat was passing Pulling Point the look-out man aaw the safe I 3 ing unopened, the tbieve3 having evidently left it tliyre with the intention of opening at night. Investigation showed that the thieves had been very careful. The safe had not been allowed to leave telltale marks on the gunwale of the boat. It had been rested on planks, and had been heaved. They were, no doubt, equally clever with ragard to the saw, for the tool was never found. The whole populace was summoned, and questioned by the magistrate, but no clue was obtained, and the robbery has come down to us among the mysteries of early New Zealand.