AUCKLAND BURGLARY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11866, 27 February 1913, Page 4

AUCKLAND BURGLARY.

(Per Prkss Association*.) Auckland. February 20. Evidence shows that the Grand Hotel thieves gained ii!«f S w the rooms by means of the ii.ft- escape, entering through the windows. i The" total losses oi" money and jeweilerv are about £6OO. , ilr Niblo. in a room near .Mr Clarke's, had'over .-£SOO. which the thief overlooked, and which the o»v ner promptlv banked this morning. Mr Hall. Mr Fisher's private secretary, lost a gold watch and chain. The dor.r oi Mr Clarke's room was locked and the lock was tampered with, but every one of the other gnoses who were victims or _ the midnight nuvrituclor emitted this- preca ULlOll. Care o; his property, was taken by lit' Hall, who is private secretary to the Minister of Customs. He placed his sovereign case, containing £S. in the pocket of his pyjamas suit, and it was safe in the morning. Ili-s room was ransacked from end to end. Several sui : s were taken from the .wardrobe and .scattered on the fioor. but nothing ivas secured r'ronr them. The burglar appropriated his watch and chain, together with a n:oi*iaed quartz pendant which was hung from hisv.est. which was iving at the bedside. He also tooic away* some correspondence and °fh er papers, amour; them a diary in v.'mr-.i Mr. Hall had notes or the Ministers engagements for some days ahead. Ti:e exact amount of Mr Russell's loss :s not known, as he left Auckland early this morning. but it is believed that-he vras robbed of about £lO. The methods en which the burglar worked are a matter of conjecture, for no clue has been discovered that will give anv indication'of the man's identity. Apparently he commence:! on the first floor o£ tlie hotel, visiting fivf rooms, and concluded his visit wsih the virli find in Mr Clarke'- room. Tt seems reasonable io suppr.-e that the bursrlar had some knov.dr-dg - oi t'r.e hotel, ko that he was able to seler-' a favorable opportunity for the execution of his design.

INTERVIEW WITH MR CLARKE

GET-RICH-QUICK METHODS

(Lyttelton Times Correspondent.) Auckland.- February 26.

31 r Harry Corson Clarke, wlio lost most heavily in the raid, tells an inter-esting'stopy-of the thief or thieves. He says: "The thief must have got through the open window" leading from the hall on to the balcony, and then 'quietly entered my bedroom. The doors Were open, and the-screen only came.down three parts of the way. All he had to do was to come in under the screen, creep round my wife's bed, then round mine (after first. -trying my coat pockets), and Mien explore my trousers pockets. No doubt 2580 dollars in one sc-oop was enough for him. because lie did not bother, fortunately, with rny vest pockets, which contained my watch and two rings, in- one of which, as yoy. can see, is a narticularlv good diamond, and it is worth £2OO. A 1 v wife also had . under her pillow jewellery t'] ! £'3ooo, and you c-an imagine what, kind of a jewellery clean-up there would have been if he had got that. - ' "My money," added: Mr Clarke, "has crone of course. I'm never likely to see it again. The thief, who was probably a slick A meric-an crook, can post the four £'loo notes to himself at Sydney or Melbourne Post Office and cash the two £"■ so New Zealand notes here. •\0 TUSKS IX THE BURGLAR LINE." "Do I know the numbers of the notes r" said Mr Clarke. "Say. don'tspring that joke on me. \\ hoever thinks of lroking at the number of a baiik-iioU- in his possession? "Wiiy do I carry so much money about with me? For one thing. Americans oil lour are in the habit of carrying wads; and. for another, there is so much red tape about intercolonial "banking that wc- cut it right out. No doubt, too. we became too trustful. This country seemed so terribly honest that by the time we" reached Auckland we calculated that there were just about no risks ii! the burglar line. In lots oi the hotels we have stayed at ihere were not even locks on the doors: and- when we got here, we didn't even bother to ask the hotel proprietor for the use oi j the hotel safe."

There is not lacking an element of humor about Mr Clarke's loss. Night after night, as one of the principals in "Get-Rich-Quick Yv allingford," he plays the part of an American crook whose business is to "trim the boohs.'' ill- Clarke's expression. "We've been trimmed." no doubt '-anie naturally this morning when he discovered that l:e had changed place?, arid instead of being the stage ."crook"' had become a real "boob." A TOUCH OF IRONY.

Yet another iouch of irony lies hi the fact that Mr Clarke yestreday paid 2.1 per cent, income tax on the money of which he has been robbed. - tax which Mr Clarke, in common with most visiting actors, regards as a most disagreeable imposition. He "takes his leys; philosophically enough, however, agreeing with Mrs Clarke that it might have been worse, and that in the event oi their waking up while the thief was in the room they might very easily have made the acquaintance of the regulation length of ga> iron pining or something worse in the shape of cold lead.

Mr Xihiivs rotfin was mere inaccessible. and his door was Incized, otherwise the th:e' might hav«\th«Mv> got an equally fine haul, as Niblo had considerably over £SOO in his po=-essiim. This sum. it is understood, was banked at 10 o'clock sharp this morning.