NAPIER BOROUGH ROBBERY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 71, 8 March 1912, Page 5

NAPIER BOROUGH ROBBERY.

RECOVERY OF THE MONEY. I’ol ND UNDERNEATH THE COH Pt IRATION OFFICES. There was something of a sens.: I ion caused in the Supreme Court a: N'apit r this morning by the :uinoimcement that the missing bor i ugh money had been found. It b also somewhat of a coincidence that this money should be found upon tht very day <;f Donaldson s trial. It will be remembered that Alfred Donald son was charged with the theft ol this money, but the magistrate dismissed the charge against him. H' was. however, committed for trial upon two other charges and it was while giving evidence in these eases this" morning that Detective-Ser-geant Cassells made the announce inent that the missing money had been found. Had it not been for the dignity of the Supreme Court the detective would have been taken as joking, but the statement was made in all seriousness. It appears that search for the missing money had not been abandoned despite the lapse of time, and acting under ii: struenons M r - Henderson, sanitaryinspector. and Mr. Pinder, custodian of the Athenaeum, made a thorough search under the Council Chambers. The task was bv no means a pleasant one. No person had been beneath the building for months and it was thick with cobwebs and dust and in places so low that the searchers had to crawl on their stomachs. But they dressed for the occasion and armed with a lantern commenced their hunt. Then their reward came. Underneath the Mayor’s room they came upon a large envelope upon which a large piece of drain pipe had been rolled. Rolling aside the pipe they inspected the contents and found the missing inonrv.

Leaving the envelope exactly rs they found it they summoned Deice tive-Sergeant Cassels, who went under the building and took charge of the cash and it is now in his pos session at the Police Station.

The money had apparently been under the chamber from the time of the robbery as the envelope and gome of the notes were rat eaten. There is still about £9O missing.

The envelope in which the money was found is one of large size used by the corporation. The council is to be congratulated upon the recovery of its property and the detective upon the success which has terminal ed his long search.