MANIA FOR MANSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12818, 18 March 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

MANIA FOR MANSIONS.

REMARKABLE STORY QF ALLEGED FRAUD IX IRELAND. A wklt.-dkks.si;i> couple stood in Court at Armagh recently. ami were accused bv the Crown solicitor of gambling in mansions. Their names were given us James Adams, alias P. J. Adams," and Elizabeth Ruth | Adams, and the story toM to the magis- ! trates of how Ihe j occupied lour or live houses successively without any cost to j themselves was so remarkable as to be i scarcely credible. "They have been traced ?iom Qucer.s----i town. County Cork," said the Crown soliciI tor, '" where they tool; a mansion for seven I years. They furnished it handsomely on credit, and lived in good .style. After writing to tradesmen that they might go to tho house and lake back their goods Mr. j and airs. Adams made a 'moonlight Hit.' ''At Dublin (hey took another large house for six months. Here, also, no rent was paid. (Shortly afterwards, under the name of P. J. Adams, a magnificent house was taken at Lisburn on a seven year*' lease. Repairs were carried out, but not paid fur. '"A few clays later the couple tonic Ballyards House, in County' Armagh, under a lease for twenty-eight years. Mr. Adams j informed Mr. Kilpatrick, with whom lie completed the transaction, that he was an American lawyer. "Do said he was looking for a first-class j mansion with a farm of 600 acres, and that Ballyarcrs House would suit him. In fact, lie was dealing in estates us if they were half-pence, lie took Ballvards House for twenty-eight years at a big rent. " Extensive decorations were carried out, and orders for goods were sccUered broadI cast, but no money was forthcoming." It was in connection with the Rallyards House transaction, alleged to be fraudulent, that the couple were arrested' at Harrogate. They were remanded.