Money in a Bottle

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 5618, 6 April 1931, Page 10

Money in a Bottle

BURIED AND THEN LOST. BOY. SCOUT’S FIND A sum of money was paid in gold to Herman Thiel, a German, at the Central Police Station, m Sydney recently. It represented the balance ol Thiel’s savings, amounting to which he buried at. Sirius Cove, Mosman, in 1914, and which he subsequently failed to locate. The money was found in 1929 by John Spam, a Boy Scout. Thiey was an employee at the zoo, and had an account at the Government Savings Bank at Mosman. On war. being declared, he withdrew his savings in°gold, placed 211 sovereigns and . 13 half-sovereigns in a bottle, and buried them at Sirius Cove. He then went away to work in Queensland, but in 1924 returned and having assured himself that the money was still where he had placed it, he withdrew a halfsovereign, replaced the bottle, and went back to Queensland. On arriving in Sydney a year later, Thiel went in search of his hoard, but improvements had been carried out in the meantime, the landscape had been changed, and he was unable to locate the money. He subsequently left Sydney on a visit to Germany. In October, 1929, the money was found by Spain, while cnagaged in a scout “treasure hunt.” A coroner’s inquiry was held to determine ownership, and the decision went in favour of Thiel, who promised to pay £SO to Spain. Correspondence followed between Thiel’s solicitor and the Crown Solicitor as to the form in which the money was to be paid to Thiel—in notes or in. gold. Eventually it was decided to pay him in gold. Spain received his reward in bank notes, and ‘Thiel received what was due to him, the gold pieces being counted into the original bottle and handed to him. The exact amount of the payment was not disclosed. According to a statement made to the coroner, the Government’s expenses alone amounted to £3O, so that after deducting this and other expenses and the amount of Spain’s reward, the amount received by Thiel probably was only half of the amount buried by him in 1914.