THE GREEN HARP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 10

THE GREEN HARP.

FAMOUS MINING CASE. A COROMANDEL "BONANZA." DYING KICK OF THE FIELD. (By NEVILLE FORDER.) No doubt the young Aucklander of to-day is happily satisfied with the good luck that directed that he should be born and reared in the "Last, Loneliest, Loveliest" outpost of the glorious British Empire, on which the sun never sets, but it is extremely doubtful if he has anything like the fun and incident that fell to the lot of some here who are old enough to be his grandfather. The Thames goldfield had peopled the city with young adventurers o. both thew and intellect. Most of these fine breezy braves melted into the outer atmosphere when search for El Dorado proved vain. They had no profession or trade to fall back upon, and simply vanished so far as Auckland was concerned. A few stayed on and tried to make good as sharebrokers and the like. Splendid chaps, most of these, and "triers." Some of them, of good family and well introduced, were taken to the bosom of Society—some married well. Others simply hung on, existing somehow; a few being provided with easy— and useless —jobs by merchants and others to whom they had been consigned, so to speak. A few, again, sang themselves into acceptance. To have a voice and a knowledge of how to use it is often better than the most nattering letters of introduction in a strange— and particularly a new—country Goodness knows, Auckland was " new " in those dear dead days! But musical and kindly. One of the dying kicks of the Thames and Coromandel fields, one of the last efforts to work a wildcat on to the confiding public, was the attempt became famous as "The GreerJN Harp Swindle," and the funniest thing about it was that the attempt to put over a transparent but plausible "job" was the work of a small gang of young Irisn miners; feflow-s who didn't appear smart enough to steal a duck from a neighbour's yard at midnight. Yet they very nearly brought off a big coup by most audacious methods. The "Green Harp" gang gave it out that they had struck an absolute Bonanza in their claim at Coromandel—and bear in mind, you could get wonderful specimen stuff on the Peninsula those days. I have a bit myself, and have seen wonderful finds—in patches; always m patches. Having started the fire, they came up to Auckland to fan the names Their methods were crude, but just the thing to catch the small investor, particularly their romantic, imaginative impulsive fellow '.'exiles of Erin." They played the "Green Harrup" on a dominant note and forte! I well remember seeing the whole bunch, alone with a few simple recruits, male and female, pouring out of a Queen Street hotel, smothered in shamrocks, green and gold harps, and green and gold on the drags they all piled into, with much impressive show and ceremony, ere starting on a tearing drive around by Epsom, Remuera, Pakuranga, Otahuhu

and Mangere, with a brass band in the front drag, blaring out "St. Patrick's Day in the Mornin'" or wailing over "The Meetin' ay the Watbers," "The Harrup That Wuntze Troo Tara's Halls," and the like. Faith 'twas a sight and a sound well calculated to awaken the souls and loosen the purse strings of every Mick and Pat and Biddy and Norah in the whole province. It was doing it too, and the small investor was coming at it like kahawai at mullet bait, when "something went wrong with the works." Some coolblooded folk, who knew their Coromandel, burst the bubble and blew the gaff; and hardly had the emerald-bedecked gang got their shamrocks off and the fumes of their spree out of their would-be-shrewd heads than they found themselves under lock and key oa a charge of swindling. It was the cause celebre of the decade, and every man and woman from Manukau Heads to Cape Colville was avidly watching the case or the newspaper reports of it. If I remember rightly the whole comic opera crew were acquitted at the sessions. They all swore—and looked so verdantly green as they swore—that they were taken in themselves, and really believed in their shop-window Bonanza. It was considered that most of the publicity and all the cunning that was in evidence, was prompted by a well-known character who had an office in Auckland. He was up to his chin, "Dundrearies" and all. When the case came before the Court his evidence for the defence was more damaging than his silence would have been. Whether this nJ5n was charged with the others or merely called as a witness 1 do not remember, but I know he was most amusing when giving evidence. His bland simplicity and airy persivlage were delightful and calculated to cab i ill-feeling, even in the hearts of those he had helped to swindle. One thing is certain, he'escaped trouble as far as the "Green Harp" swindle was concerned, and, I heard died later in Australia in extreme poverty. There were some lively passages between this dandy and Captain Thomas Beckham, R.M., who was grim and irascible at all times, and who, never having heard of cosmetics, used, it was said, to stiffen his "side levers" with dripping.