Large Sum Found In Box Hidden On Farm

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30041, 28 January 1963, Page 8

Large Sum Found In Box Hidden On Farm

The police are convinced that old trading bank notes and half-sovereigns with a face value of £1559 10s, discovered in a ho&ie-made box of heavy timber in a heap of boulders on the farm of Mr T. L. Withers, Springburn, belong to Mr Evan Leonard, who died in Reefton on January 17, 1959. The money was found about three weeks ago when a contracting firm Was carting boulders to place at the bottom of a well Mr Withers had dug about two chains from the house he built recently.

A bank deposit slip t or £2O for the Ashburton branch of the Bank of New South Wales, dated January 12, 1929, was found in the box. It was this slip which enabled the police to trace Mr Leonard to Reefton, where he lived for many years. Inquiries in Reefton have established that Mr Leonard was born in Llanarth, County Cardigan, on January 18, 1887, and it is believed he has a son John, and a daughter, Mary, still living. Correspondence received from them and written in Welsh, dated 1958, is in the possession of the police. Mr Leonard worked on the farm where the money was found in 1928 and at that time the farm was in the possession of Messrs J. and S. Reveley. Mr J. Reveley died in 1928, but Mr S. Reveley still lives in Ashburton. Mr Withers told “The Press” last evening that about half the bank notes were Australian. They were in good condition considering the time they were there. They were wet, but were able to be read quite clearly, A few had begun to crumble. The heap of boulders where the box was found was one of many on the 424acre farm, and was about a mile from the older house

which stood on the farm when Mr Witherspurchased f from Mr R A Hobbs, wfee is now retired and living a£l94 Otipua road, Timaru. Mr Hobbs owned the property for about 30 yCars. He said .last evening that Mr Leonard was working there as a farmhand in 1928 before he bought it. The hoard contained about four or five £5O notes, a proportion of £lO notes and many £1 notes and five or six half sovereigns and possibly one or two sovereigns, Mr Withers said. The mopey was handed over immediately to the Methven. police. The pile of boulders was about 6ft high, about 10ft by 10ft and the stones were larger than footballs. Trading bank notes, provided they could be identified, were redeemable, the manager of the Christchurch branch of the Reserve Bank (Mr E C. Robinson) said. But they could only be cashed with the Reserve ; Bank which took over New Zealand currency in 1934 and allowed 40 years for out- , standing notes to be cashed. The Reserve Bank still had i a list of the amounts repre- . sented by outstanding trad- ■ ing bank notes. Mr Robinson said. Half sovereigns were worth £1 9s.