ALLEGED FORGERY

Press, Volume L, Issue 15017, 11 July 1914, Page 14

ALLEGED FORGERY

Before Mr T. A. B. Bailoy, S.M., in tne Magistrate's Court yesterday, Francis Charles A. Atkinson (Mr Donnelly) was charged that on or about May loth, 1914, knowing a school certificate to be forged, he attempted to cause th- General Manager of the New" Zealand Railways to act upon It as if it were genuine. Chief-Detective Bishop prosecuted. Francis McGoverin, railway officer, said he know Atkinson as a casual, painter employed in the Railway Department. Accused and others 'wero notified that if they wished to become permanent hands they should apply on applications forms furnished by the Department. Accused had filled in the form, and attached a school certificate purporting to state that ho had passed the Fifth Standard. Cn_i_topher Thomas Aschman, headmaster of the Normal School, produced school records which showed that Henry Berry had passed Standard IV. in 1890, but had f-tiled the next year to pasStandard V. On the certificate produced Atkinson's name had been written over Berry's, and in handwriting purporting. to be that of Mr J. C. Adams, it was set out that Standard V_ had been passed by Atkinson. John Charles Adams, at present chairman of the Board of Governors,. Canterbury College, but headmaster of the Normal School in 1890, said that the signature on the certificate with reference to Standard V. was very like his handwriting, but he would .state absolutely that it was not his signature. It was an attempt at copying the genuine signature attached to Standard IV. The alteration in the name had been made by himself. Detective Ward, who interviewed the accused about the case, said that Atkinson said ho was reared by relatives named Berry, and attended the school under that name. He sat for the fifth standard examination, and believed he passed, because they put him in the sixth standard for six months. Two or three years after he left school, he tried to join the Railway Department, and wrote to the headmaster of the Normal School, receiving the certificate in its presont form. He did not alter it in any way. The certificate had been in tb_ Railway Department's hands .on several "occasions, but had never been questioned before. Accused had nothing to say, pleaded i not guilty, and reserved his defence. j He was committed for trial to the Supreme Court. Bail was allowed, in one Burcrty of £25.