ALLEGED THEFT OF GOLD

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23946, 13 May 1943, Page 6

ALLEGED THEFT OF GOLD

CHARGE AGAINST METALLURGIST SUPREME COURT TRIAL In the Supreme Court, before his Honour Mr Justice Northcroft, Leo Edward Morland, aged 42, an Australian metallurgist, was charged with the theft of 36500z of alluvial gold valued at £21,496. the property of the Arahura Gold Dredging Company, Ltd. The case, which has created much interest, was opened in the Christchurch Magistrate's Court in March and the initial hearing occupied six days. Mr A. T. Donnelly, with him Mr A. W, Brown, appeared for the Crown. Morland was represented by Mr J. A. Scott, of Wellington, In outlining the case for the Crown to the jury, Mr Donnelly said the accused Morland had been charged with the theft of 36500z of gold, valued at £31,496 The case was important because of the circumstivees of the alleged theft as well as the great value of the gold involved. The accused had been employed by the Arahura Gold Dredging Company as a metallurgist on the company’s dredge from February to October, 1940. He then gave notice, stating he wished to start business in Canada, where prospects appeared to be blight. Accused left for Vancouver O" November a, 1940. taking with him I] large, heavy wooden cases, (ho weight in all being threc-c|iiartrrs ol a ton—n rather liberal allowance for personal belongings. in these boxes, it was contended, were 124 bars of gold, weighing approximately 2501b avoirdupois. On arrival dt Vancouver he commenced to sell gold on a black market, contrary to the regulations of Canada. He sold If) bars at 75 per cent, of the real value. Each bar, according to size, was worth from £259 to £3OO in Now Zealand currency. At Blaine, in the State of Washington, U.S.A., Morland had crossed to America. He passed through the Customs and said that he had nothing to declare. He started up his car. and was about to proceed when he was stopped by United States Customs officials and a search revealed 57 bars of gold hidden in different parts of the car. In a room at the hotel at which Morland was slaying in Canada another 54 bars were found; 10 bars had b n en sold, and throe were, found in the laboratory of a jeweller named Jacobie, who had bought gold from the accsuscd. Morland had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment for smuggling gold into the United States. Mr Donnelly said no inference should be taken from this sentence. for he would have been punished Just the same if it had been his own gold. Business Career Mr Donnelly then proceeded to relate the story of the life of the accused up to the time of joining the Arahura Gold Dredging Company. The working history was relative and important in deciding whether accused actually stole the gold or whether it had been secured honestly over a period of 15 years and rightly belonged to him. He had been educated In Sydney, and after leaving school in 1918 he joined a (inn of metallurgists, in 1924 he joined the firm of Harringtons as assayer at the laboratory. While at Harrington's he gradually acquired equipment. In 1931 he opened a gold-buying business known as Sheffield Assay, and this was managed by one girl. He then took over the management, but the business was not a success, and his bank account was overdrawn, while his income tax was not paid. Later he had sold refrigerating fittings on commission, and later still he had dealt in some breathpurifying concoction and a sheep-fly killing preparation. In 1938 he worked at a gold mine in Papua, receiving £37 a month, and he stayed there till the mine closed down. He returned to Sydney, and in 1940 commenced work at Arahura, His family life was not altogether happy and an order was made in favour of nis wife for maintenance at the rate of 25s a week. An application for an increase was opposed by the defendant, the reason being that he was without funds or resources. He was trying to get work :n his own line, but was willing to take any Job. He was destitute, and in common talk he was “broke.” He had not made much money at any stage, he had not earned £lO a week, and usually a good bit less. Accumulation of Gold In referring to the story of norland’s business life, Mr Donnelly said It wa.s Important in that a man who had a gold business staffed by one girl, with his banking account overdrawn, and unabla to pay his income tax, should have accumulated £30,000 worth of gold in a few years, and had all this money when, as he had sworn in the Magistrate’s Court, he was destitute. He arrived at Arahura with little money, few assets, and no property. In less than 12 months he was found in Canada with gold to the value of £30,000. The question was whether he secured this gold while he was at Arahura or whether he acquired it honestly. Mr Donnelly explained to the jury the process of mining the gold after dredging. The principal portion of the gold was trapped on tables, and the remainder on copper amalgam plates. Morland was in charge of the gold-mining process on the dredge. A man in his position was in a position of confidence, he was in sole charge, and the only man In possession of a key of the gold-room. He was in charge until gold and amalgam were put InThe safe. The next process in the recovery of the gold from the amalgam was first retorting and second, smelting, carried out in the company’s mine store a mile away. From the time the goldbearing material was secured accused had been in sole charge and the only explanation of the possession of so much gold was that he had stolen it while so employed. Accused, unknown to anyone else, it was contended, was engaged in smelting gold in a little shack In Hokitika. Great heat was needed, but costly gear was not required. Shortly after his arrival at Hokitika accused rented a hut and his father had sent from Sydney aU his metallurgical equipment. Accused also secured a new stove, in which was a receptacle in which a crucible could be put, and enough heat to smelt gold could be generated in the stove. The landlord had visited the hut and had said the heat was tremendous. Accused had purchased asbestos cloth which was placed round the stove, and an asbestos plate on which anything could be placed. Knowing that some of the gold or other mineral might adhere to the stove, accused had dumped the stove in some unknown spot and put the old one back In Its place. His explanation as to why he had the stove was that he wanted heat when building the boxes and cases. Previously the hut had never been used for the purpose suggested: but there were Indications in the sweepings of the purpose for which it was rented. Photographs of the boxes would be produced, besides one of the boxes showing the cavities in which the gold was carried. Accused had set off for Canada taking all the war-time risks with his valuable cargo. He then proceeded to sell in an illegal way the gold he had brought from New Zealand, and went thence to the United Stales with 57 bars, which was now in the keeping of an American Court in Seattle, and the remainder in Ottawa. Statements made by Morland on oath and others not on oath would be given by visiting officers, and a very long document that would have to be read to tiro jury concerned statements made in a District Court of the United States, He made another sot of statements when Jacobic was prosecuted by tire Canadian authorities, and accused had given evidence. He said that he had kept the gold for 15 \ears, but on arrival in Canada lie straightway proceeded to get rid of it. Gold from different parts differed materially, and an assay was to decide tlie percentage of gold in each sample. There was an unmisfakeable similarity of the gold in the possession of accused to that won in Arahura. Accused had given evidence as to how he Rot the gold, and always maintained it was the result of trading. He had bought all sorts of gold, and had processed it and refined it in his father's house in Sydney. Not even his wife knew that he was doing this. When he went to Papua he left this valuable consignment lying about. He later found that his employers’ gold was the same as his own. He could not give the names of anybody outside n few dealers, who had supplied‘him with Feld, Where, in his financial position, did he get money to buy £30,0(10 worth ol gold? For accused to bp in possession of so much gold, he must have had a big banking capital and lie did not seem the type of man who would refuse to pay a week towards the upkeep of his wife. The gold was not jn>urod, and tniKht have stolen without his having any redress It was a matin' ot common knowledge that there had been restrictions on traffic of cold trorp one counlrv to another. Mr iJnnneliv said. In taking the gold from Australia to New Zealand, to Canada, and to the United States, he was always rumung the risk of having it confiscated, Mr Donnelly submitted that Morland was destitute in Papua in 1938, came to Aralyra in 1940. and had exclusive control Ft gold von on the dredge at Arahura; he had secretly engaged n hut at Hokltma; the mcthoc of transport bore the badge ol dishonesty; the cold recovered and Inc Arahura gold came from the same p,ape; his story of how he came by the t’okl was untrue. Evidence on the same lines as that submitted in the Lower Court was given bv the following; William John Ellis, eornpany maiiaaer, Gi eymoutli; Hicliaul l.iype, chief I to the Arahura JJi edging Company; William Silpock Uirk-flnvor, formerly clean-up man on the dredge: Harold Cyril Rowe. Collector Ol t "s|o, m at Hokitika; Waller McNahb, f " le ™ l ' l , at Arahura Dredge; Paul Renmn. hardware manager, Hokitika; Wil-

liam Cunningham, timber-mill yardman; William Murray Fraser and Frank Grey Bird, mining registrars; Fred Neale, hotelkeeper, Hokitika: Edward Charles Langdon, shipping clerk; Andrew James Cummings, police constable attached to detective staff in Auckland; John Vine Hall, second-hand dealer, Hokitika; De-tective-Sergeant Hamilton Davis; Bruce Newton Thompson, cadet, Wellington; Elizabeth Catherine McEwan. laboratory cleric, Wellington; Senior-Sergeant Herbert Edward Knight, Greymouth; Detec-tive-Sergeant William Robert Murray, Hamilton, The case will be resumed at 10 a.m, to-day.