THE TICHBORNE CASE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 October 1924, Page 9

THE TICHBORNE CASE.

OLD STORY RECALLED. When Roger Charles Tiehborne, eldest son ol" the tenth baronet, stepped aboard the good ship Bella at Rio de Janeiro in 1854, probably nothing was farther from his thoughts than' that his action was to be the prelude to one of the most remarkable actions of its kind ever brought in an English law court. Even to-day it is still pixv vidiiig its sensations. The Leila foundered at sea with all hands., and later on the Tichborne family estate in Hampshire' passed to Alfred Joseph, brother of Roger. But clinging to a forlorn hope, Lady Tichborne advertised' for the lost heir. A butcher in Australia replied, and succeeded in convincing the infatuated mother that he was really her son. Arthur Orton, he said, had been his assumed name, but his claim was disputed on behalf of the son of Sir Allied, and the case was commenced on May 11, 1871. It- was concluded 103 days later, when Orton was nonsuited and arrested on charges of perjury and forgery. He himself had been unde>r examination for 22 days, and the speech of counsel. Sir John (afterwards Lord) Coleridge, had occupied no less than 26 days. The trial of Orton opened on February 28, 1874, and after 188 days lie was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment. He was released on tickct-ol’-leave in 1884, and some years later made a written confession of his guilt. The estAe in dispute iop-resented an income of .-£24,000 a year, but the legal proceedings bad mulcted it in a sum ‘of over £00.000., part of the total cost of the two trials, estimated at '£200,000! But the matter did not. rest there, for after his release Orton went on a lecturing tour with bis daughter. Since then she seems to Irjve been intent on carrying on the feud, and in 1913 she was tried for the attempted murder of a member of the Tichborne family.. Net content with that exploit, in 1923 she sent, a threatening letter to Sir George lewis, a weli-known solicitor. For this she received a sentence of twelve months, and now, on the completion -of the term, she provides another sensation. According to a cable message published on Tuesday, she wrote tp the Home Office tevealV'r her father’s alleged secret, confided to her in 1835. She had decided to divulge it because she believed she was dying in uaol. This secret was the statement: “I am Roger Tichborne. Arthur Orton, whom I am supposed to be. was my confederate in many exploits in Australia. 1 shot him dead at Wagga in 1860 during a quarrel in which he threatened to expose me.” Theresa Doughty Tichborne, as she cells herself, is ol years of age. What will lie the next, startling development of this 50-veais-old argument? Did Lady Tichborne really find her son. and were the judgments of t)v> counts wrong, or is this just another of a long series of 'false statements ?