A STRANGE STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 458, 24 April 1875, Page 2

A STRANGE STORY.

The " Bpndigo Advertiser "reports that the City Police Court, on Thursday, a man named Williams whs brought up on remand, charged with the theft of a retorting tank lid, and, as no owner could be found was again remanded till Saturday, to give the police an opportunity of tracing the owner. On the same day his wife appeared in his absence to answer a charge of not having complied with the compulsory clauses of the Education Act. The woman was clean, well-ordered to alt. appearances, an d SA id she was poverty-stricken ; tne^cnan, «s he had been seen in the dock on his first appearance, was a drunken, dirty, dissipated sot. Williams in the year 1875 was employed by the late Mrßallerstedt as a miner, at a wage of £1 per day, in the first claim that gentleman held on the Victoria Reef — the claim which, indeed, wns the foundation of the fortune. There were two otter man also in hi 3 employ named Roberts and Frost, and Williams — became possessed of the knowledge that Mr Ballerstedt, instead of holding 12 miners' rights, the number of 12ft. claims he had taken up, held positively only 10. Thereupon the three juiL.ped 24ft. at the north end of his claim. The case was heard in the Law Courts, and verdicts given against Mr Ballerstedt. From that piece of ground in less than 12 months the jumpers netted, it is generally believed, over £30,000 ; but as, after their first crushing, they erected a small machine of their own, and kept their doings quiet, little was really known of the extent of th ir gains. With the peculiar madness of the time, the partners rushed into the wildest dissipation. The first thing done was to get wives and they all married women who, if not in good position monetarily, were in decent positions. At each wedding there were congregations of every sort and description, and the hilt side was ablaze with bonfires, and the valley of the happy family ran with rum and brandy. Time passed on, and Roberts got into another golden claim lower down the reef, out of which he came with £20,000 at least to his credit. His story may be soon told. He took his wife to Melbourne, bought some property there, and killed her by his conduct in six months. Bit by bit his possessions went from him, and three years ago he was engaged as a shoe-black in Bourke-street. Frost took his money home to Ireland, where he bought a farm, but did, not settle on it for long, his career ending in a workhouse, where he is believed to have died unknown and uncared for. The third partner in the act of dishonesty which may be believed robbed Mr Billcrstedt of nearly £80,000, as we have said, appeared at the Police Court yesterday morning, a broken, hardened man. There was something piteous in the wife's appeal to the Bench — «* I had a bright time lor the first year of my married life ; but it faded quickly, and my husband is a confirmed, hopeless drunkard."