REMARKABLE MINING SWINDLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 34, 9 February 1903, Page 5

REMARKABLE MINING SWINDLE.

TAIiSMAX DIRECTOR ABSCONDS.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON. January 2

The elite of the Westralian mining coterie in the city got a severe shock last Monday when they heard that the secretary of the Groat Fingall Consolidated mine. Mr. A. S. Rowe, who figures on the directorate of the Talisman Consolidated, and was also secretary to the London md New Zealand Exploration Company, Intel taken a hurried trip to the Continent, leaving behind him a confession that Jie had tried to pay off his Stock Exchange differences by forging certificates on the Great Fingall. Mr. Rowe Mas a partner in the well-known firm of mining engineers. Messrs. Bewick, Moreing e% Co.. having entered the linn a year ago on the retirement of Mr. Bewick and Mr. Hooper, and his partners had no notion that their colleague was in straits until the receipt of the letter acknowledging his guilt and giving the names of the gentlemen from whom he had borrowed on the forged certificates. The amount of the forgeries is variously estimated, the figures given reaching as high as £80.000. It is. however, understood that neither the shareholders or the public will suffer owing to .Mr. Howe's delinquencies. Proceedings are being taken to put the criminal law in motion against the absconding secretary, who is, however, only known to be "somewhere on the Continent." According to his, partners Rowe ruined and disgraced himself 1o save his friends, and did not make a penny piece by his roguery. Last spring, at the. time of the Kaffir collapse, Mr. Howe on dit assumed the obligations of some friends, aggregating 20,000 shares. Several months later, through the decline in Westralians. he became involved in difficulties, and stood to lose his entire fortune. At this time, when over £ 10.000 short, he began to forge share certificates on the Great Fingall, and by means of these certificates raised money to carry along his friends' shares. In emphasising the statement that Mr. Rowe gained nothing personally through his forgeries, one of his personal friends declared ihat he left England practically penniless, first giving his wife (who has five children) what money he had about him.