GOLD THEFT CHARGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21093, 13 May 1943, Page 4

GOLD THEFT CHARGE

METALLURGIST’S TRIAL OVER £31,000 INVOLVED t p.A.j .. .cHRisTGHti/ciL.^y.is, Leo Edward Morlapd, a metaUurgist, stood his:trial .befQre.Mia Northcroft .and a jury m the Sumeme Court yesterday, charged wd .the theft,of 3650 ounces of f°fe l - valjied at £31,496, the property of the Aiatuua Gold Dredging, Company. . . Mr. A. T. DOnrifelty, with him Mr. A W Brown,' Prosecuted,,ahcl Mr. J. a! Scott, of Wellington, appeared 101 Morland. , Addressing .the jury, Mr-, Dohnelly said that Morland, had worked on the dredge, .from January 1940. He left voluntarily, sthtirig that he wished to go to Canadato start a business. Morland left New Zea land in November, 1940, takirig 11 large, heavy eases or chests, weighing over three-quarters of a ton, as pelsonal luggage. Before leaving thb dredge at Hokitika, Morland had hidden 124 gold . bars. On his arrival in Canada he had begun to sell the gold on a black market. Mr. Donnelly, submitted: (U ; .TJCat Morland. was destitute before ins emplovmcut in , Papua in. ,uud , .it Arahlira in iHO; (21 that, kij a mctaffi lurgist,■. lie had .exclusive, control of Die gold treatment plai.it and the goiu won on the dredge; (3) that ho was secretly engaged in retorting, and smelting gold, in a hut at Hplvitika during, his. employment at Araliuia, C 4) the secret, circumstance ot ius taking, gold from Hokitika, to Canada boro the badge of dishonesty; (a) that the evidence of assays strongly supported the theory that the gold had come from Araluira; (6) his story of the acquisition of the gold by iionest trade in Australia was plainly oii Uio slime lines ds iH We Lower Court was given by William John Ellis, manager of .the.,Arahura Gold Dredging Company Limited at Greymouth, Richard -Bryce, chiei metallurgist Jo the Arahura Dredging Company, WilliaHi ,Sl icock, truck driver,.anti forhieffiy clean-up man on the drbclgb, Haholft. Cjfi'il .Rowe. Collector of Customs .at Hokitjka,,Waltei McNabb. ktdrftmaii of .the ~A kaliurn dredge Paul Reiitoji .Jiardward, manager' at; Hokitika. William.,, Cirnning. ham. timber mil! yardman,, .William Murray Fraser. and,Fr;ihk Grey .Bird, mining registrars, Fred Ne.ale. hotelkeeper, Hokitika. Edward Charles Langeon. shipping ...clerk,. Andrew James Cummings, police constable attached. to the,detective staff in, Auckland, John .Vine Ha.k,, ..second-hand dealer. Hokitika, betectivfe-Sergcant Hamilton, Davis, . .Bruce Newton Thomnson. cadet, Wellington. Elizabeth Catherine McEwan, laboratory clerk Wellington. Senior-Sergeant Herbert Edward Knight.. Greymou'h. Detective-Sergeant William Robert; Murray. Hamilton. The case will resume to-day.