"WILD CAT" MINING PROPERTIES.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 426, 25 April 1899, Page 2

"WILD CAT" MINING PROPERTIES.

A CHARGE OF FRAUD. COURT OF APPEAL CASE. (BY TELEGRAPH—-PRESS ASSOCIATION), Wellington, Last Night. Argument in support of the plaintiff company's mocion in the case, General Exploration Company, Limited, v. Purser, had not concluded when the Court of Appeal rose this afternoon.

The case made by the plaintiff Company is that the defendant combined with one Pielsticker and one Dencker, the agents of the company in New Zealand, to defraud the company by taking up worthless mining properties in the name of the defendant and making them over to the Company for large sums of money, which were subsequently divided between the defendants Pielsticker and Deucker. In all £36,000 is alleged to have been paid over to the defendant as the purchase monay of properties alleged to be valueless. Of this amount £BOOO is alleged to have been retained by the defendant, the balance of £2SOO having been refunded to Pielsticker and Dencker and divided between them, or otherwise disposed o\ The defence is that the defendant was dupei by the others concerned in the transactions in question, and had no knowledge that any fraud was being practiced on the company. The jury found in the defendant's favour. Mr Bell, for the plaintiff company, addressed the Court throughout th« day on the evidence, contending that,from the facts proved, no reasonable person could draw any other inference than that the defendant was a party to fraud and that the verdict of the jury ought, therefore, to be set aside.. - The case will be resumed to-morrow, The amount sued for is £30,000.