UNDER SUSPICION.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2058, 26 October 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNDER SUSPICION.

A CELEBRATED GOLD ROBBERY,

fc- Melbourne 'Argus/ * p, A sensational gold robbery, which for |l. some time furnished Australia with one j» of its mysteries of crime, is recalled by

i- news of the death at Felixtowe, England, f. of Mr R. B. Ellistwi. In August, 1877, r• steamer Avoca, of which Mr Elliston f' was chief officer, arrived from Sydney, 4 -bringing a shipment of sovereigns for 5." transfer to the P. and 0. steamship ,* China. The gold was placed aboard the -; liner in Melbourne, without suspicion that any of it was missing until the China • reached Galle, then the port of call for

- mail steamers at Ceylon. There it was found that 5000 sovereigns had been taken ■'from two boxes consigned to Ceylon, and nothing but the sawdust packing remained. Mr Elliston was invalided home some time afterwards, suffering from • blood-poisoning. He was one of the best known of the younger officers in the P. and 0. service, for he had decided musical gifts, and quiet exceptional skill in conjuring tricks, which he had picked up amongst the natives of the East. He married in Sydney, andswas about to settle down in his native town, when one day he was stopped in the street by two London detectives, and, on the strength of a cable

message from Australia, where a warrant had been issued, charged with the theft of the Avoca gold. Although he was unaware of it, the real thief had been arrested in Australia, and, knowing that Mr Elliston had gone to England an invalid, possibly dying, had cunningly charged him with instigating and assisting in the crime. Mr Elliston appeared

at Bow Street, and was remanded on bail

to await evidence from Australia, where events connected with the gold robbery were taking a more sensational turn. A curious superstition of the Cingalese was in a large measure responsible for the detection of the real gold-robber. The sovereigns taken from the Avoca had been specially minted in Sydney for circulation in Ceylon; but, as the natives disliked the St. George and Dragon stamp, these were stamped with a wreath pat tern. After a time those wreath sovereigns of 1877 Sydney mintage were found to be in circulation in Victoria, and the detectives turned their attention to Martin Weiberg, who had been carpenter of the Avoca at the time of the robbery and had left the ship a few months afterwards to take up a selection on the Tarwin River, in Gippsland. A servant girl employed by Weiberg, in cutting a bar of soap, found it packed inside with sovereigns, and in this way, it was believed, suspicion was first directed to Weiberg, who, it was found, paid for everything in gold, and always with wreath sovereigns of 1877. The. detectives travelled down to Gippsland, disguised as selectors in search of land; but the first man they met riding up the bush track from the Tarwin was Martin Weiberg. They promptly arrested him, and found a purse, with -10 wreath sovereigns. "Why, these are the very sovereigns taken from the Avoca," they said, and Weiberg answered, "Yes, Some of them." Two of the detectives went on to search his hut on the Tarwin, where they found 60 of the 1 sovereigns in an old . carpenter's plane, which had been bored with an augur, in which the coin was neatly packed. Another plant was fouv.d under a log. Weiberg had many plants in most unlikely places. When arrested, he, after a day's reflection, made a confession, when he said that Mr Elliston planned the robbery, and that he merely acted on his instructions, and only received c£3(lo of the spoil. It was upon the strength of this confession that the warrant was issued for Mr Elliston's arrest. The confession was varied later. The police were keen to discover the whereabouts of the missing gold, and often interviewed Weiberg in gaol. These interviews at length suggested to him a plan of escape. Pretending to make a clean breast of it, he said that he had buried 2300 sovereigns in a tin kettle on th e bank of the Tarwin River, at a point indicated by two large gum trees growing close together on the bank, and he offered to take the police to the spot. He was in charge of an escort of three armed detectives, one of them (now Inspecting Superintendent Mahony) a famous runner; but Martin Weiberg was not a man to be baffled by risks, and waited his chance, 'i'lie party went down to the Tarwin, got a boat, and rowed to the spot indicated by the gold robber, where the bank was very steep. Two of the police got down the bank into the bout. One of them stood near Weiberg, who was not at that moment handcuffed, and who, of a sudden, dealt the- detective a tremendous blow in the pit of the stomach, which doubled him up and disabled him for a moment. In as instant Weiberg, who was both powerful and speedy, dashed into the tliici' scrub and escaped.

For five months this daring gold-rubber was a fugitive in the scrubs about Anderson's Inlet, living chiefly in the hut- < f kangaroo hunters. whose imagination wis;, dazzled by his deeds, and rho barbm-d him, partly as y ecltfbniy, and mainly because hi? was "T.'i i to pnv f their ho--pit alit>. m hav-'w l ! 1 r»I so Y\ -i! i<* :■/ Inched, ho had plenty of vreatfi coin. He arranged a plan of escape with one of these men, who went up to .Melbourne with 800 sovereigns to buy and provision a small craff, the Petrel, in which Weiberg hoped to make his escape. The emissary muddled his mission, was robbed by people sharper than himself and more unscrupulous, so that both he and the gold were soon in the hands of the police, who recovered in all about 100 sovereigns. Detective Eggleston and Mounted-#on• stable iaylor, who knew a good deal about the locality, thought that they would capture Martin AVeiberg, and spent an unpleasant fortnight in the scrubs in th>> month of May, 1878. They were encouraged by finding footprints leading at one point from the inlet to the scrub, and returning to the water at another pointthough the robber, on the whole, was cautious, and when he walked along the sand always did so at low water, so that th • rising tide would obliterate his footprints. Concluding their man was accustomed ' o swim in the inlet—though over a mile Vide, and in summer infested with sharks —the police rode round 30 miles to Cape Patterson, on the outer shore, where, after watching for some time, thev one day saw Weiberg walking towards them. :The moment ho sighted the police he dashed off like a deer into the water, and would probably have escaped again hut that Taylor took the risks in jumping down a cliff to intercept him. Aftsr two shots had been fired—one bullet striking the water just in front of the fugitiv.he threw up his arms The whole plan of the Avoca mystery was then, revealed, for Weiberg bad given many men his confidence, la repain.'ig the lock of the bullion-room door he had managed to take a print of the key in wax, had made a trapdoor entrance to the bullion-room hatch from another part of the ship, and on the trip down from Sydney removed the £old, melting the was o-i the seals of the boxes with a hot knife, and after removal of the gold restored the boxes to as nearly as possible their original condition. The robbery must have teen discovered in Melbourne, where the '

goldS>oxes were transferred to the liner, but that the lasoars who did the work were too stupid or too indifferent to no tics the difference in the weights, though ilit natives in Ceylon who handled the bos s at once drew attention i:. :

Weiberg, who finally exonerated Mr Bl« liston from all knowledge of the crime, was tried, and sentenced to five yearshard labor. He served his sentence, and a few days after being released was arrested in the city for drunkenness, and with rare audacity paid his fine with a Sydney wreath sovereign. He afterward# bought a small cutter, the Sea Queen, which was one day found drifting iu Baas Straits with her sails set. That was the last heard of the notorious gold-robber, who was believed to have been drowned at sea. In the meantime Mr Elliston had son solace for the pain of mind both he and his friends endured. The charge was pressed 'against him when there was no longer evidence to .support it, so on Icing acquitted he took action against the I "and O. Company and others. His innocence had been so completely demonstrated by the developments in Weiber.?'s career that no defence was offered, and the cases were all settled out of court by apology and payment of damages, fin Victorian Government held out for some time, but, finding that Mr Elliston was less concerned about loot than the re'nstatement of his character, it finally voted him a sum of .i'soo, and passed a resolution of the House in honorable and generous terms, expressing public regret that an innocent man should have been so deeply wronged. The P. and O. Company did not stop at compensation. It offered Mr Elliston a responsible post in its serand when lipyefused paid him a pension until de;\th. A remarkable faith in the ultimate triumph of innocence marked Mr Elliston's conduct while under suspicion. Incidents in his early life at sea made a deep impression upon the mind which luul naturally a religious bent. On one .occasion he was washed overboard from his ship, Heroes of Alma, off the coast of Madagascar. He was swimming in a rough sea nearly an hour, for the volunteer crew which lowered a boat in the hope of rescue could neither see him nor hear his calls. He had a few minutes of supreme suspense when he saw the ship signal the boat to return, and then, when hope seemed o;one, was luckily seen and rescued. There are many old Australian voyagers who, even after the lapse of years, will hear with regret of the death of this Suffolk sailor, who until the end maintained his touch with the sea by taking charge of the coast signals on the cliffs fronting his native town.