A GOLD-STEALER'S CONFESSIONS.

NZ Truth, Issue 72, 3 November 1906, Page 8

A GOLD-STEALER'S CONFESSIONS.

REMARKABLE REVELATIONSe

Fortunes Filched from Mines and Mills.

t ■ ■' ft little over twelve" months the Brisbane and Perth editions of *'Truth" printed a series of articles, specially written for those papers 1 relative to gold stealing. "Truth's" correspondent happened to get hold of a man who had worked both as v a miner and manager on Charters Towers, the principal gold field m Queensland, and who, having '*left the field, was not averse to telling what he considered to be the truth m connection with the gold-stealing that had been perpetrated there. His remarks, it is held, apply more or less to '

EVERY GOLDFIELD IN AUSTRALIA,

bnd m view of the gold-stealing inquiry which is now, twelve months later, taking .place m West Australia, the Queensland inaiiager-s statements ought to *prove very interesting fead.ing to ••Truth's" New Zealand headers. Moreover, if a comparison is made between what "Truth" was able to publish so long ago through its informant, and what is being disclosed m West Australia at the present moment, it Will be seen that the sworn statements of the inquiry all go to Corroborate his remarks. T?he manager's'♦confessions"—for that is what they are— are given below m his own words. ....-•. ..■ ,-■■ :

li Yb\x want to know how it is done, the extent to which it is carried on, and all the rest of, it ? Well, I will tell you. But I would not do so if I were still on the Towers. I would be taking too many risks. Miners are a hasty, hot-headed lot, and-rwell, 1 am not, prepared to put up with the -consequences. Nqt that what ;I am going to tell you is untrue. As a matter of fact, for those concerned it is only too true.

"I put m between 20 and 25 yeacs on the Towers. I worked, first as a miner, and afterwards, as a manager. Straight away I am prepared to admit that -I did a little • gold-stealing myself.'. But I was pretty fortunate m my soripping— that is, >m my investments—and it was really m this way that I was able, some years ago, to knock off wprk, and some months hack to leave the field for good. First of all I suppose I better tell you something about the Brilliant P, C. You can put m the name, because nobody can deny the truth of my statements. The Brilliant itself had

A SENSATIONAL HISTORY. It was floated m London. Fora long time all the mining people on the fie^d' considered it ■ a dead cat— that is, something very much worse than even a wild cat. The promoters got hold of some of the men m London who had -made their money out of the Day Dawn P. C. | another mine ion the field, and shares were, given to,anunv- ( her of townspeople for the use of their names on the directorate. A certain member of the Queensland Legislative Council at , the present time got the shares he held m (the mine m this way.. - ,

"The company when formed went down to a depth of 900 ft. It was then found that the London shareholders, beginning to realise that they had been had, were not disposed to shell out any further. At 700 ft the shaft cut a little bit of a f ormaticrn, and as a last resort it was decided, with the money still m hand, to go back and see what this -formation, was worth. But even here, by those who considered they knew the run of the ■field, it was not thought, that anything would be got. What was the result ? They had not gone m 12ft from the shaft when the reef opened up to 6ft, and the best description I can give you of what was then struck is to liken it to a jeweller's window.

THERE WAS GOLD EVERYWHERE,

and of a phenomenally rich character,

too. Ks illustrating* the subsequent wealth of the mine, I may mention that it has paid, I believe, over 150 dividends. / Indeed from the day* it opened out. m the manner indicated, it has never ceased turning out pay-, able stone, and it ; is ' still; in a fairly strong . position to-day. . I was working at this mine m- its very earliest and palmiest days. I suppose this would be from 12 to 14 years ago. There were then about 200 men there, and the stealing that went on established, I am pretty safe m saying, one,, of the records put up m the goldpurlbining annals of the field.

"How many examples, individual and collective, might I give you m support of this Statement!: Of course, you know that there;;is*a.iiumber of truckers' on each shift. At the change of shifts, m the time of which I am speaking, these had to go down first to do such preliminary or preparatory work as ringing-up the miners and other hands to get ready for the change. I was very friendly with one of these truckers, and through him I heard of some

< PARTICULARLY CHOICE •DOINGS. One night he was on the 12 o'clock shift— that is he had to start at 12 o'clock. Before going down, lie noticed the .manager, who very rarely returned to the mine after leaving it m- the. afternoon, step out from the dark, into the changing-room. Naturally enough he concluded that there tVas something up. So, knowing what usually went oh down below, he decided to give the men there the tip. There were 13 waiting at the particular .>plat, where he had to get out. He told jthese/ about the manager, adding, 'If any of you fellows have anything on you, you had better put it out. of the way^ 1

"Of the 13 as many as 12 had to retire to unload. At least four of the number who were thus placed under an obligation to the trucker are on the Towers .to-day, and when they read these lines they will smile— or, it may be, short— at the. publicity their doings that night afce now receiving. As it happened, the manager had merely been 'up. the town' drinking v and was visiting the mine at so unusual an hour for no particular purpose at all. Among 'those to whom my friend, the trucker, related his experience' was another trucker. The latter, it happened; was one of THE MOST NIMBLE-FINGERED individuals m the mine, and he forthwith decided to ; turn ' the incident to his own advantage. So, two or three nights later, .he said to my friend, "Let me ; get out there to-night instead of you. " ■ , My friend agreed to let him.; When, he got out lie met the same body of men there, spun them a yarii of a slightly different kand, and ,sq scared them into again planting their gold, with the result thaitV the moment they were out of 'sight he secured it all for himself.

"Of course, there was great -'gnash--ine of Runason-the part of the men when they di sco vered the tri ck that had been played them, and after this they were ; all the more reluctant to part with. any treasure bnce they got their hands on it. I suppose I ought to explain, here, so as to make everything clear, the manneir, m whiph

THE STEALING ITSELF is done. At the time of which I am. speaking, the most of it was taken by secreting the stone containing the gold m a little. bag, strapped up well between the legs—to the rear rather titan to the fore, of course. Do you follow me? I could illustrate it to you easily enough. All the gold taken •was m the stone, and .the value 'of every theft, therefore, was determined by the richness of the particular

piece of stone the appropriator was able to get his hands on. .

"Roughly speaking, I would say that a man with a bag m the position indicated could take up from the shaft with him anything .from £5 to £100. worth at a time^ Of course, there were three watchmen, one on 1 each shift,' and you will naturally want to know how the men when they came up were able to elude "these. It is 'in the changing-room that, the watchman, for the time being, is stationed, and there he remains the whole time the men are changing the clothes they >wear to work for the ones they are to go down the mine m, as well as the clothes they come ur from below m for the ones they are to wear home. . .

SUCH A PRECAUTION,

m . the interests of the shareholders, would seem enough for anything. . But it is not— by. a long way. Have you ever noticed the length. of an ordinary flannel shir,t? It comes down to about your loins. The ' flannels worn by those m the game, however, reach almost to the knees— that is, the flannels worn to and from the mine. With such an arrangement; as this it was very easy to beat the watchmen. For example, a man, after finishing his shift comes into the chang-ing-ropm, and -there takes off his short —ordinary ■ ' flannel . ■ s Then .he - puts, .on his long flannel. By • means of this the bag between his legs is hidden while he changes his working trousers for those he. uses .m! coming to and returning , from his work , ' and thus the object of the watchman is ' completely defeated. '■. .■',.'

"But .why .doesn't the watchman make a closer search ?' you will ask. Simply because the. miners,^particularly those of them who' have reason to fear such a search , , would ■ not stand it. I will give you an , Instance of this. A trucker— the 'one,' by the way, already referred to as doing a number of miners out of the gold they themselves were going to steal— once went into the room with a very good load aboard. He was chancing his clotKes when, suddenly, the watchman appeared' to move over m his direction, with the result that he thought he was about to be searched. He grew ; very excited, clenched his fists, and openly threatened that if the watchman came a step nearer he would throw him out of the window. THE WATCHMAN WAS TERRIFIED. As it happened, he was a cafreful, cleanly sort of fellow," and, all he wished to do was to take the trucker's trousers, which he believed the wearer was about to throw to the floor of the: room. Of course, the watchman knew what was the matter. But he didn't make any noise over it, and the ; ; ' trucker/ went " on working as if nothing m the world had ever occurred to excite the least

"For another , thing, it must he remembered that ' watchmen, for the most part, are either -old or injured men ;, and with this 'disability against them, combined with the fear inspired by the men* it is easy ;,tq- understand that -there isn't .anything, lilie: the difficulty^ iiv ;the way 6* <the> -goldr!istealer;:iso:" 'fax ,|as, %afehmeh.^re jboncerned, thart' the outsideir'^si^a^tr '■'■■ ifco ■imaf?inei -^->pf;\,ppAirse4^.'t^re-,a^eV-p.um- :- bers of -other ways off ■-;-' ;■

GETTING A Y AVITH^ THE ; : i G^OLD ;:

but at the, time of which I am speaking the, b^ag idea was the arrangement "by which most of the business was done. Of the other processes by which the precious stone disappeared I shall have something to say later on. Naturally, there; wei-e occasions where the watGhman . did aot, and where a little stir up, so to speak/ resulted accordingly. 1 remember a case- where the watchman one night tried to get hold v of\ a ' man. The latter had been coming it too 'stronp; altppether, and this particular night he had so much stone m his bag that he could not walk straight.

"Suspecting something, he steered clear of the changing-room,, disappearinK from the ' mine .m his working clothes, and never again returned to it. I am still speaking of the Brilliant. Well, m those days they had a

candle-box below, m which the best of • the specimens were collected. There was a lid to it and a lock and key. It usually took two or three days to fill it, and * sometimes the stone it contained was worth

ANYTHING UP TO £500. One day when the manager went to it he found that it had already "been opened and locked again, that all the specimens were taken, and the box then filled with mullock. -. Goodness only knows what those who rifled 'the box got out of it. But whoever it was, it was never sheeted home to anybody. At this time the shareholders, particularly those . who ■' formed the directorate, knew that a wonderful lot of gold was being stolen, aiidj from time to time, men were ueing sacked for the tendency they showed ■to 1 live up,vf roni; £10 to £30, a week w;hej(i - Jthey /were, supposed to fee eariK ;iii^:onlyr£^ ? a^wee'k;'v' i; : "V ; ; '■ i^J

■' '-'Fihally;' v there*were ; ; all; sorts of rumors about detectives, having been put. below, and the men; for a' time, were very careful. Here I wish to

state ; three : very interesting conclusions I have come to m regard to miners. Firstly, I do ipt consider that the average, miner is over-burd-ened with intelligence ; secondly, that they are very, loyal to one another - r and, thirdly! that they do not, m at least 95 cases out of 100, see anything wrong' m stealing gold. Of course, I do not mean to imply that NINETY-FIVE OUT OF EVERY

. 100 MINERS STEAL GOLD. Such a statement would be both fool-ish-and untrue. But what Ido say is, that out of every 100 miners there are 95 who, even if they do not care to take it themselves,- fail to see anything wrong m others taking it. Before I am through with all I havegot, to say, it will be found, too, that I ' have some very convincing facts to

advance m support of such a statement. • :

"I have heard miners argue very convincingly m favor of what they held to be the morality of their conduct m appropriating all the gold they could get their hands on. 'All commerce, all trade, all work,' was what their arguments amounted to, Ms robbery. ' The shareholders themselves ajre robbing us. Therefore, we are fully

JUSTIFIED IN ROBBING them so far as it is m our power to do so,' Personally, I am not m the least concerned with the morality or immorality of the business. About this others may dispute, if they care to. do so. I am merely interested m stating the case—on other words, m showing-, side by side with the stealing itself %hat, are the Views of the stealers m- regard to>. it. -As time went oh, it Was 'discovered that there was, no.ifo^ujdatioh for the reports respecting 'detectivei- an, the' Brilliant mine, .and the Vtheft of gold soon reerained its previous dimensions, if it did not actually' exceed them.

"All the company were ever able to do was to get rid of some of the hands from time to time. I remember one instance of this where the driver,, the • shift boss, aad the braceman were all sacked together without a word of explanation. I knew the circumstances of the .whole thing. The driver was living apart Ironi his wife, who, knowing, everything, ■

. BLEW THE SHOW on the three of them m her anger. Incidentally, I might tell you a 'little thing of interest in\ connection with this unfortunate" couple. Before they Sot into double harness she was a waitress at a certain hotel. Shortly after they were m their hew home she told him, to his horror, that without waiting for the customary clerical blessing she had performed the public service of adding, no less than , 'three children— one at a time— to the population,- and that she. intended, bringing the lot of them from their secTusive retreat to live- with her, a promise she duly fulfilled..

"The test shift for stealing is that from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight. Thousands and thousands' of pounds worth of cold, I know positively ■, were taken away every year from tlie Brilliant for a considerable time. Indeed, I suppose the same thing would have continued still if it had not been that the very rich stone worked out, and that with this the opportunities for individual enrichment correspondingly disappeared. Among other things I will ..give. you. .

r NEXT WEEK > will be the details of the biggest goldsteal ever brought, tiff on the Towers, a matter of many years ago,, and m which some of the then best-known men on the field were implicated. Before I am finished I shall also shed a few startling sidelights on the dynamite explosion at the Queen Cross Mill." : . .

(To be continued.) 1