GIFFORD ALIAS LAWSON.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3133, 13 August 1892, Page 2

GIFFORD ALIAS LAWSON.

In last issue we referred to the arrest of the young gentleman, who bad been palming iiims ilf off upon the Waikato public as an artist, etc., on suspicion that he was wanted by the Wellington police for passing a valueless cheque. Although we were in poisession of a Rood deal more information at the time we could scarcely make use of it as the police were not absolutely certain about his identification as the particulars supplied from Auckland were necessarily vague from tho very fact that the accused had been seen by so few people there during the short interval between the arrival of the steamer and his departure for Waikato. The difficulty has been since set at rest by the accused admitting that he was the necessary Herbert Wilfred Lawson, late temperance lecturer and artist. That the gentleman is an artiet in his own particular lino, there can be no question, as he is a most consummate liar and dissembler :is will he seen. For some time after his arrest he stoutly denied being the parly wanted, but after a few hours' incarceration he appeared to I'elent and made a full confession that he was the individual H. W. Lawson who had committed himself in Wellington. At the same time he expressed a hope that as little publicity as possible should be given to it in the hope that it might not much the ears of his father, Sir W. Lawson, in England. He expressed groat contrition at the position he was in, informing a Hamilton resident who had befriended him to some extent, that he .had only arrived in Wellington about two months ago, with a considerable sum of money which he had soon squandered in betting and riotous living and altogether he had bean a bad lot and had caused his friends at home much trouble. It will bo a surprise to his friends to learn that this was all a pure fabrication, as from the telegram below received from Auckland 1 ist night it will be seen that he is an incorrigible rascal baring a number of aliases and according to the Police Gazettee he has already served Her Majesty in the Lyclelton gaol as far back as 1890 for ft>-<;ery. It is needless, almost, to say that a.l socalled letters of introduction that ho carried upon careful examination are found to have been written by himself. In connection with this matter, we were considerably amused with the account of the arrest, &c., appearing in yesterday's Herald, describing in a very graphic manner the success which had attended the efforts of Chief Detective ICirby in bringing the prisoner to earth. There is not the vestage of truth in it. To Constable Murray, of Hamilton, is due the entire credit of the arrest, arrived at, we must admit, by a very slender clue, and as a mutter of fact, the accused was a prisoner before the authorities in Auckland knew a tiling about it. We do not deny but that Chief Detective ICirby ought perhaps to have given some intimation to the authorities at Hamilton to ba on the alert when the so-called Lawson vanished from Auckt land, but it evidently (lid not occur to them to do so, and the authorities and the public have to thank the astuteness of the police in Hamilton for securing clever scoundi-el, whose plausibility and address but for thoiu might have enabled him to victimise the unsophisticated people in Waikato to a pretty considerable extent. (jjY TELEGRAPH.—OWN enmtESPQNDBNT.) Auckland. Last Night. Bv the Waikato train to-day theso-cnlled H. T. Gilford arrived in charge of Constable Brennan. At the police station he admitted to Inspector Broham that he was the person known as Wilfred Lawson, and ho likewise acknowledged that he had been known as Frederick Clapham at Clivistchurch. That individual is entered m t!?o police record as Frederick Clapham, nlias Herbert Clapham, alias Frederick Chuliis, ' alias Rhodes, and has had a varied career. 1