MORLAND TRIAL

Grey River Argus, 13 May 1943, Page 3

MORLAND TRIAL

Alleged Heft of Gold SUPREME COURT HEARING

CHRISTCHURCH, May 12. Leo Edward Morland stood ius trial before Mr. Justice Northcroft and a jurv, in the Supreme Court, to-day, charged with the theft of 3650 ounces of gold valued at £31,496, the property, of the Arahura Gold Dredging company. Mr. Donnelly, with him Mr. A vV. Brown, prosecuted, and Mr. J. A. Scott (Wellington) appeared lor Morland. Addressing the jury, Mr. Domiell) said that Morland had worked on the dredge from January to October, 1940. He left voluntarily, stating that he wished to go to Canada to start a business. Morland left New Zealand in November, 1940, taking 11 lajrge heavy, cases, or chests, weighing over three-quarters of a ton as personal luggage. On his arrival in Canada, he had begun -lo sell gold on the “black market.” Mr. Donnelly submitted: (1) that Morland was destitute, before his employment in Bapua in 1938, and at Arahura in 1940; (2) that, as metallurgist, he had exclusive control of the gold treatment plant and the gold won on the dredge; (3) that he was secretly engaged in retorting and smelting gold in a hut at Hokitika' during his employment at Arahura; (4) that the secret circumstance of his ‘taking gold from Hokitika to Canada bore the badge of dishonesty; (5.) that the evidence of the assays strongly supported the theory that the gold came from Arahura; and (6) that his story of the acquisition of the gold by honest trade in Australia was plainly untrue. Evidence on the same lines as in the Lower Court was given by William John Ellis, manager of the Arahura Gold Dredging Company Limited, at Greymouth, who detailed the work of recovering gold and described Morland’s duties. Other witnesses who gave evidence as in the previous hearing were: Richard Bryce, chief metallurgist to the Arahura Dredging; Company;, William Silcock, truck-driver, formerly clean-up man on the dredge; Harold Cyril Rowe, Collector of Customs, Hokitika; Walter McNabb, storeman, Arahura Dredno; Baut Renton, hardware manager,''Hokitika; William Cunningham, timber mill yardman; William Murray Fraser and Frank Grey Bird, Mining Registrars; Fred Neale, hotelkeeper, Hokitika; Edward Charles Langoon, shipping clerk; Andrew James Cummings, police constable attached to the detective staff in Auckland; John Vine • Hall, secondhand dealer, Hokitika; DetectiveSergeant Hamilton Davis; Bruce Newton Thompson, cadet, Wellington; Elizabeth Catherine McEwan, laboratory’ clerk, Wellington; Chief Detective" Herbert Edward Knight, Greymou'th; Detective-Sergeant William'Robert Murray, Hamilton. The case will resume at 10 a.m. to-morrow. '