ROBBERY UNDER ARMS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3485, 7 September 1882, Page 4

ROBBERY UNDER ARMS.

(Sydney Town and Country Journal. August 12 ) A most daring robbery under arms took place on Thursday night at the residence of Mr J. W." Nixon, Fairfield. Mr Nixon is cashier to Messrs Inglis and Son, stock and station salesmen, Sydney. He was absent at the time the house was entered, which was shortly after nine o'clock. At that hour Mrs Nixon heard a knock at the front door, which she at once opened, thinking it was her husband, who was late that night in consequence of it being one of their sale days. As soon as she did so four men entered, each of them masked and carrying a revolver. One of them presented his weapon at her and ordered silence, at the same time closing tho front door behind him, threatening to shoot her if she gave the alarm. At this time her five children — two of whom are mere babies—came into the passage, hearing the noise, and they and their mother were placed in the front parlor, while three of the men went to the bedroom which thay turned upside down, making a thorough search from top to bottom, breaking open boxes, turning tha drawers inside out and even making an examination under the bedding. They had previously asked Mrs Nixon where her husband placed the money he was in the habit of bringing home. To which she replied that ho did not bring any home except what little he might have on him belonging to himself. They continued their search unavailingly for upwards of an hour. Finding they could not obtain tho money of which they were in search, they decamped, taking with them a watch, a ring, aud a brooch, value together about £5. They were evidently disappointed and in no very good temper. lb had been stated by one of them that one of the children had escaped to give information, when Ihe masked man who was guarding the bedroom door declared with an oath that he would shoot both the mother and the child through the head if this were so. He" made Mrs Nixon bring all the children out into the passage and count them, to see if they were all there, and finding they were, ho sent them back with a growl. When they first entered, they had turned tho lamps down, so that Mrs Nixon should not be able to examine them too closely ; but that lady thinks she would be able to identify some of them by their voices. One of them seemed to be quite a young man, and the others middle-aged. All were shabbily dressed, while one of them wore moleskin trousers and a soft felt hut. It need scarcely be said that Mrs Nixon and the children were in great terror while the visit of the robbers lasted, and that they remained in a state of alarm until the return of Mr Nixon, which was not until midnight. On being informed of what had occurred, ho would have at once have gone and given information to the police at Smithfield, but his wife desired him to remain in the house until tbe morning. Eairfield is IS miles from Sydney, on the southern line. It consists of a few scattered houses, and is distant from the township of Smithfield two miles, while Smithfield is two miles distant from the railway station at Granville. Early nexfc morning Mr Nixon gave information to Constable Goddard, stationed afc Smithfield, and inquiries then elicited the fact that about 4 o'clock in the morning four men had gone to the Granville Station and asked how long ifc would be before a train went to Newton, distant about 12 miles. One of these wore fustian trousers and a soft black felt cap, and they all answered the description generally of the men of the men who had robbed Mr Nixon's house. They waited for the mail train, which did not leave for some time afterwards, and which must have taken them direct to Sydney. In the afternoon police were sent up from Paramatta, and they traced the marks of hobnailed boots around the house of Mr Nixon. When the men left they made the remark that they had evidently been misinformed. It seems that on auction days, Mr Nixon is in the habit of taking the cash away from the Sydney office, bufc he secures ifc in a safe place in another one, and never conveys ifc to his private residence. The robbers, however, were evidently under the impression that he did, and moreover seemed to to hit the time when he usually arrives home on Thursday night. The matter has been placed in the hands of the police.