Disappearance of a Banker.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 95, 21 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

Disappearance of a Banker.

Alleged Heavy Defalcations.

Expected Staetlin© Revelations.

A Blyth correspondent cays much excitement has been occasioned at that town through the disappearance of a banker, Mr John Robinson, who for many years haa conducted the Blyth Deposit and Advance Bank. Defalcations are said to exist to the amount of £17,000, jind depositors ara anxious for information respecting their savings. * A warrant) was issued for the arreßt of the missing man, who held several public appointments. A cheque for £33 had been drawn by Robinson upon the bankers for the Blyth Local Board, and by the latter authority inquiries were instituted. Defalcations in the accounts of the Blybh Gas Company, of which he was secretary, are said to amounb to several hundred pounds. Robinson waa spoken oJ as the probable Liberal Uniomrt candidate for Morpeth in 1386, and was well known throughout the North of England, being a local preacher and pronounced advocate of temperance principles, assisting occasionally ab Salvation Army services. The Central Hall, Blyth, over which there has been much litigation, was his property, as was also the • Blyth Examiner, a newspaper of which he was editor for several years. Robinson was a man possesesed of great business capacity. He had personally conducted continental tours. . The Blyth correspondent of the Central News' telegraphs that the expectation thab some startling revelations will result from the absconding of John Robinson, banker, of Blvtb, is creating intense excitement in the North of England. Robinson s name, for the last half-century, has been almosb inseparable from that of the town of Blyth, and little credence was at first given to the rumour that he had absconded with money belonging to the Blyth Local Board, bafi all doubts ooncerning the matter were pub at rest on Monday evening when, aba meeting of the Blyth Local Board, it waa decided to issue a warrant for hia arrest. Ha was Secretary and manager of tho Blvth Deposit and Advance Bank, the depositors of which are said to be chiefly miners, agricultural labourers, artisans, and thrifty working people of nearly every part of Northumberland, who have been allure^ by the large'amounb of interest advertised on deposits. Anxious for the safety ot their bard-earned savings, depositors haye been flocking into Blyth, seeking eagerly for information respecting this money. 16 ia reported thab the books of the bank have been either removed or destroyed, and thab the exacb condition of affairs cannot be BB« certained.