A GOLD-STEALER'S CONFESSIONS.

NZ Truth, Issue 73, 10 November 1906, Page 8

A GOLD-STEALER'S CONFESSIONS.

REMARKABLE ' REVELATIONS.

Fortunes Filched from Mines and Mills.

Late one night, between' 20 arid 25 years ago, the residents of the Towers, who then numbered about 10,000, iwere startled by the report of a very sensational robbery m connection .with what was then known as the Day Dawn mill. The same mill was after : wards called the Excelsior mill. Beyond those at work at the place, the iirst to hear of the affair was Mr Pfeifter, the then chairman of directors of the company, and who m his time— for he is now. dead— was one of the test-liked mining; men m North Queensland. Mr Pfeiffer, when told of the robbery, of so gigantic a character was it, remarked "Hab dcy left de tarn mill ?" Mr Pfeiffer was one of the many who" did exceedingly well out of mining on the Towers, with the result that his /two sons, who recently came of age, are now

ENJOYING- A FORTUNE worth to each of • them at least £100,000. The two of them still put m most of their time on the Towers. Because of the wealth they are able to splash about m. all directions they are voted ' wonderfully good fellows— of course ! One of them has recently sent over from America a magnificent Selection of music to the Towers Liedertafel, making the latter's library of music the most up-to-date m Australia. But— to , return to the mill robbery. At that time, some very rich stone was being put through, giving soz and 6oz to the ; ton}-, and the haul amounted to the carrying off,' holus bolus, of a retort containing, it is estimated, anything from 2500z ■to 500oz of gold.

I must tell you how the stone is (treated at the mill. Unless I did 'this, you would find it very difficult vto understand how the robbery was effected. A quantity of "silver"—

—quicksilver, that is— is spread over the inclined metal plates down which •the crushed fit one runs' or- flows. The

idea is to catcti m the silver , all the gold, and to thus retain it and let the waste pass away. Silver when it is thus saturated with gold is called amalgam. The amalgam is then squeezed to get all the water and other stuff out of it, and is then put into what .is called a retort. Here the amalgam— which, by the way, is very weighty stuff— is subjected to

A VERY INTENSE HEAT, and m this way the gold is extracted'from the amalgam itself. The retort resembles two inverted cups. These fit into one another when the amalgam is being treated, and are bolted together. Through the upper cup, so to speak, there is a pips to carry off the vaporised silver, and m the lower cup, when the fire beneath has done its work, remains the gold residue.

The robbery took place early m the night. The mill was at work as usual, with the customary number of hands about, and nothing was known as to what transpired until the discovery was suddenly made that the pipe from the upper cup had been removed, and the two cups, with the treasure m them, had

ENTIRELY DISAPPEARED. Of course it was supposed by many that some of 'the mill-hands must have been m league with the thieves. Buj;, later on, it was ' found that this was not the case. The thieves had merely watched for the moment when the hands, one and all, were either engaged elsewhere or out of the way, and then, with a promptitude and precision which m its way did them infinite credit, they effected their great coup.

A great commotion ensued. Besides informing the chairman of directors and the police and taking Other steps to recover the missing gold, the whistles were blown, the residents generally being thus appris-

ed that something extraordinary had happened, and the whole place before long was

STARTLED AND ASTIR

The people streamed m the direction of the mill, and right into the morning; hundreds remained m groups of their own discussing the development that had brought them together. As a matter of fact; practically no-body went to work, either at the mill itself or the mines m the vicinity of it, for a week afterwards.

I might add, m case there is a suspicion about this being a true bill, that there was no such thing" m those days as a man being out of work. When a manager wanted a man he had to go up the street on a Saturday night to look for one. All the same wages were no better then than th% are at the present time. They were nearly all single nfen there then. Married men were 'the exception rather than the rule, and men with -large families were

RATHER A RARITY. The- explanation of this is simple enough. Men with encumbrances usually leave the proving of gold rushes to single men, and then put m an appearance themselves later on. The police had a number of trackers at work; but these, -because of the stampede that had taken place all around, were unable to do anything. Some time the following morning, however, the retort itself was found m the mill darn, about 100 yards distant from the mill.

I ought to mention that the retort with its contends must h&ve weighed something like scwt, and that when taken from the mill it was red hot. At the dam it was seen that the thieves had first of a ll plunged the retort into the water to cool it, and that they had then removed the top cup— that is, the cover— and extracted the gold. To many it is

STILL A MYSTERY why the thing, when it came/in .contact with the water, did not explode. Of course, the gold was not m a pure state. For this it had not been on the fire long enough, and there was still a. good deal of amalgam— that is, a good deal of the gold-saturated silver-T-in it. The next thing was to get the thieves, winch was quite a different matter from finding the shell from which the gold had been extracted.

The "Miner," which was then edited by Thaddeus O'Kane, who had the reputation of writing his leaders with, a firestick on a sheet of baric, came out with a hair-raising article m regard to the theft. Mr Buckland was then the general manager of thqf company that had lost the gold. Amon"- other things Mr O'Kane declared that the trackers, had

TRACKED THE GOLD right up' to' Mr Buckland's house, where the police that were with theiri said, "You no go m there. No gold sit down there." The trackers, the article continued, replied, "Yes ! My word !• Plurry gold sit down there!" Mr BucklandVas also m the butchering business at that time, and Mr O'Kane went further by declaring that the gold had been despatched to Great Britain m a cask of tallow.

Mr Buckland was very indignant at these imputations of dishonesty, if not .of his being directly at the bottom of the robbery. He sued Mr O'Kane for libel, and succeeded m getting damages against him. But the case, it was well known, did not cost the paper much. Mr Pfeiffer was

A- VERY GREAT FRIEND of Mr o 'Kane's— in fact he was always behind him— and it is still believed that m t-he present instance he both instigated the article and "stood Sam" for everything it represented to Mr O'Kane m the way of a monetary outlay. Mr O'Kane must have' put up something m the way of a, record for libel actions.

. I am sure he had to defend at least a dozen m connection with the "Miner." But the miners, to a man, were behind him, and it was almost impossible t o get a conviction against him. Indeed, he fell m on only two occasions. One of these was the case m which he was pinched by Mr Buckland* Some time later

TWO ARRESTS WERE MADE m regard to the robbery. The charge, however, could not be sustained, with the result that it would be unfair for me to give anything m the way of names. The popularly accepted theory with respect to the theft is that it was worked by three persons. The one who planned it, .so the yarn goes, afterwards stood discreetly aside, and left the other two to" execute it.

Indeed, this much is known for a fact, and it is also known that the planning was done m one of the sit-ting-rooma of a hotel then run by the father of a very prominent viine and spirit merchant on the field /at the present (time. Even the particulars already given— the mill being at work, the "''retort, red hot, and weighing something like scwt— do not convey a full idea of the

VERY DARING CHARACTER ■ of the robbery. After the two men, however they managed it, got £he retort to the dam tney must have put m fully half an hour cooling it, opening it, and making good their escape. What became of the gold itself was pretty well known. The original idea was to divide it equally among the three parties to the robbery. But this was never done.

Of course, when it was taken out of the retort it was all m one hard, solid lump. About a third of it was chiselled off, and it was arranged that the two who executed the theft were to hold this, m the way of providing for their immediate requirements and as a sort of deposit, while the planner of the business took to Sydney the other piece, or two-thirds of it, to have it 'treated there. As might be already inferred, the planner was

A VERY CUTE. CUSTOMER, and it will excite very little surprise when I say that with his departure for the south the last was seen of him and the gold by those ho left behind him. A story of some interest is related m connection with the

planner, his wife, and one of the others m the steal.

The last-indicated individual had been carrying on with the woman to his heart's content, and, m getting off with the bulk of the haul, the planner was guilty of little more than a move m the way of getting quits— at any rate, so far as the person who had invaded his marital rights was concerned. The one-third, held by the remaining two, was the means for a brief period of these two individuals and their "friends" enjoying ' SOME GAY REVELS,

the two predominant features m which were women-' and wine. Beyond saying this much it would not be safe for me to go further with regard to those who had the ons-third share of the plunder or the manner, m which it was disposed of, for the reason that the theft was never legally 'sheeted home to anybody.

All I may add, with truth and safety, is that beyond the two arrests, of which nothing came, the police were unable to do anything at all, that absolutely none of the stolen gold was ever recovered, and that at least one of the men directly implicated m the affair is on the field today. Thus was a move, worth anything from £1 000 to £2000, skilfully planned, daringly executed, and successfully carried through.

. WHAT ELSE have I got t 0 tell you ? So far I have not even alluded to the mills— I mean the smaller and continuous thefts that have been taking place m regard to them for years and years. This is undoubtedly the channel through which by far most of the gold stolen had been taken, and a form of appropriation m .which all conditions of employees, from managers to boys, have been known to participate—in many cases, to the extent of accumulating individual fortunes. I will give examples of the stealing that has been done m this direction which will -make the hair of many of those concerned, when they read, the intimation I am now giving them of what I intend doinsc, stand out from their head like porcupine-quills. The utter inability of the police to effect arrests— or, to get a conviction where, m the very rare instances, they have been able to do this much —is a matter about, which I shall also have something to say. (To be continued.)