HEARTLESS FRAUD. A NEW ZEALAND BROTHER.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 46, 23 August 1904, Page 6

HEARTLESS FRAUD. A NEW ZEALAND BROTHER.

■ (From Our Own 'Correspondent.) LONDON, Bth July. One night this week a young man called at a shop in Edinburgh and enquired if there was any person living in the neighbourhood who had a son at sea, about whom nothii/g had been heard for several years. The nanto of a neighbour being given, tho stranger said that waa tire person he was seeking, and he thought that if he had nn interview with the lady of the house he would bo better able to disclone his identity m well as to give her some news. A boy went to the'hOuee to ask the woman,, to come and se© the mdi' vidual in question. Tho lady of the house woe not in, but her daughter, on hearing that a stranger hud information to give regarding her brother, at once went to the fihop. 'the young man then asked her if sho had a brothor atPort Lyttelton, in Now Zealand. She replied that she had. On being naked if she had a photograph of her brother, tho young lady invited the stronger to see ono in the house. When he flaw the photograph he shook hi» head sadly. The young lady at once concluled that her brother was dead, and tearfully asked her informant if that was so. He eaid ifc was the case, aa her brother had been fatally injured through falling from tho fivo-masted sailing ship the City of New York, of which his father wn» the captain. The accident, he said, happened on tho 18th March last in Ne^' York Harbour, after a voyage, and the young lady's brother died in lib arm». Before he died he requested the stranger to undertake the work of removing his effects ' to hi* mother in Edinburgh. Tho brother, lie said, bad aaved, £366, and the money, together with his belongings, wero in his box at Portsmouth. By the time this story had been related to the daughter the mother enmo in, and to her the mime tale was narrated. Both mother and daughter wept piteously, and the narrator of tho story also gave way to sorrow. An advertisement of tbo death was then inserted by tho relatives in ono of the evening papers, and intimation of the sad occurrence wns forwarded to a number of tho friends in town and country. To several of the relations the story was repeated, but to ono of tho sons who was a seafaring man the story did not appear very Jlauaiblo. Ultimately it was agreed that >aVis, tho strange visitor, should stay at the house of a friend. Just, however, when matters acomod all right for him, he was unmasked. The aon already referred to, who had been dubious of the stranger's account of his brother's death, had information sont to the'po'.ice, who, on hearing the story and obtaining a description of the man, concluded that he was the individual wanted for similar acts of fraud in different parts of tho country. Detective* wero thereupon instructed to make enquiries. They were successful in arresting Davis on Tuesday in the houws in which resided the parents of the young man whom Davis had said was dead. Tho officers were in the house when tho ac« cused arrived in company of ono of the friends. When arrested be smiled, and remarked that he had been pretty smart. The indignation of the people in the house at that point knew no bounds, and a brother of the supposed dead relative with difficulty refrained from assaulting the accused man. As he left the house Davis turned round to the son and smiling remarked, "Good-bye, frisky." It seem* that Davis is "wantcJ" for similar acts of fraud in Dundee, Fifesbire, and Lanarkshire. His aliases are numerous, and include "Albert Davis," "John Jones," and "Arthur Wilson."