UNDER SUSPICION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13674, 17 August 1906, Page 8

UNDER SUSPICION.

A CELEBRATED GOLD ROBBERY. (Melbourne Argus.) A sensational gold robberj, which for some time furnished' Australia with one of its mysteries in crime, is recalled by news of the death at Fclixtowc, England, of Mr R, B. Elliston. In August. 1877, the steamer Avoca, of _ which Mr Elliston was chief officer, arrived from Sydney, bringing a shipment of sovereigns tor transfer to the P. and 0. steamship China. The gold was placed aboard the liner, in Melbourne, without suspicion that any of it was missing until the China reached Galle, then the port of call for mail steamers at Ceylon. There it was found that 5000 sovereigns had been taken from two boxes consigned to Ceylon, and nothing but the sawdust packing remained. Mr Elliston was invalided home some time afterwards, suffering from blood-poisoning. He was one of the best known of the younger officers in the P. and 0. service, for he had decided musical gifts, and quite exceptional skill in conjuring tricks, which he hwl picked up amongst the natives of the East. He married in Sydney, and was about •to settle down in his native town, when one day lie was stopped in the street by two London detectives, and. on the strength of a cable message from Australia, where a wan-ant had been issued. • charged with the theft nf the Avoca eold. Although he was unaware of it, the real thief had been arrested in Australia, and, knowing that Mr Elliston had gone to England, an invalid, nossihly dying, had cunningly charged him with instigating and assisting in the crime. Mr Ellieton appeared at Bow street, and was remanded on bail to await evidence from An«trali". where event-! conncctc3 with the Avon? robbery were taking a more sensational turn.

A curious superstition of the Cingalcso was in a largo measure responsible for the detection of the real gold-robber. The sovereigns taken front the Avoca had been specially minted in Sydney for circulation in Ceylon; but. as tho natives disliked the St. (Seorge and Dragon stamp, these woro stamped with a wreath pattern. After a time those wreath sovereigns of 1877 Sydney mintage were found to be in circulation in Victoria, and the detectives turned their attention to Martin Weiberg. who had been carpenter of the Avoca at the time of the robbery, Mid had left the ship a few monlhes aftonvards to take up a selection on .the Tarwin Rirer, in Gippslaud. A servant girl employed by Weiberg, in cutting a bar of soap, found it packed inside with sovereigns, and in this way, it was believed, suspicion was first directed to Weiberg, who, it was found, paid for everything in gold, and always with wreath sovereigns of 1877. The detectives travelled down to Gippsiiuitl, disguised as selectors in search of land; but the first man they met riding up the bush track from '.he Tarwin was Martin Woibcrg. They promptly arrested him, and found a purse, with 40 wreath soereigns. "Why, those are the' very sovereigns taken from the Avoca," they said, and Weiberg, answered, " Yes; some of them." Two of the detectives went on to search his hut. on the Tarwin, where they found 60 of the sovereigns in an old earponter's plane, which had been bored with aii augur, in which the coin was neatly packed. Another plant was found under a log. Weiberg had many plants in most unlikely places". Whon arrested, he, after a day's reflection, niado a confession, when he said that Mr Elliston planned the robbery, and that ho merely acted on his instructions, and only received £< 7 ioo of tho spoil. It was upon the strength of this confession that the warrant was issuod for Mr_ Elliston's arrest. Tho confession was varied later. Tho police were keen to discover tho whereabouts of tho missing gold, and often interviewed Weiberg yi gaol. Those interviews at length euggosted to him a plan of eseapo. Pretending to makb a clean breast of it, he said that, ho had buried 2300 sovereigns in a tin kettle on tho banks of tho Tarwin River, at a point indicated by two large gum trees, growing close together on the'bank, and ho offered to take tho police to the spot. Ho was in chargo of an escort of tbreo armed detectives, one of them (now Inspecting Superintendent Mahony) a famous runner; but Martin Weiberg was not a man to bo baffled by risks, and waited his chance. Tho party went down to the Tarwin, got a boat, and rowed to tho spot indicated by tho goldrobber, where the bank was very stoop. Two of tho police got down the bank into tho boat. Ono of them stood near Weiberg, who was not at the moment handcuffed, and who, of a sudden, dealt the detective a tremendous blow in tho pit of the stomach, which doubled him up, and disabled him for a moment. In an instant Weiberg, who was both powerful and speedy, dashed into tho thick scrub, and escaped. For five months this daring gold-robber was a fugitive in tho scrubs about Anderson's Inlet, living chiefly in tho huts of kangaroo hunters, whoso imagination was dazzled by his deeds, and who harboured him, partly as a celebrity, and mainly beoaasa ho was able to pay for their hospitality. Whatever else Weiberg lacked, he had plenty of wreath coin. Ho arranged a plan of escape with one of these men, who went up to Melbourne with 800 sovereigns io buy and provision a small craft, the Petrel, in which Weiberg hoped to make his escape. Tho emissary muddled' his mission, was robbed by people sharper than himself and more unscrupulous, so that both he and tho gold were soon in tho hands of the police, who recovered in all about 1000 sovereigns. Detoctivo Egglestoii and Mountedconstablo Taylor, who knew a good deal about the locality, thought that they could capture Martin Weiberg, and spent an unpleasant fortnight in the scrubs in tho month of May, 1878. They were encouraged by finding footprints leading at ono point from tho inlet to tho scrub, and retorting fo the water at another point—though tho robbor, on the whole, was cautions, and when he walked along tho sands always did so at. low water, so that tho rising tide would obliterate his footprints, Conolnding their man was accustomed to swim in the inlet—though over a. milo wide, and in summer infested with sharks—the police rode round 30 miles to Capo Patterson, on tho outer shore, where, after watching for somo time, they ono day .saw "vVeiberg walking -towards them. Tho moment he sighted tho police he dashed off like a deer for the water, and would probably have escaped again but that Taylor took the risks in jumping down a cliff to intercept him. After two shots had been fired—one bullet striking the water just in front of the fugitive—ho threw up his arms and surrendered. Tho wholo plan of the Avoca mystery was then revealed, for Weiberg, had given many men his confidence. In repairing tho lock of tho bullion room door he had managed to take a print of the key in wax, had made a trapdoor entrance to the bullion room hatch from another part of tho ship, and on the trip down from Sydney removed the gold, melting the wax on the seals of the boxes with a hot knife, and after the removal of tho gold restored the boxes to as nearly as possible their original_ condition. The robbery must have been discovered in Melbourne when tho gold boxes were transferred to the liner, but. that the lascars who did the work were too stupid or too indifferent to notice the difference in the weights, though the natives in Ceylon who handled the boxes at once drew attention to it. Weiberg, who finally exonerated Mr Elliston from all knowledge of the crime, was tried, and sentenced to five years' hard labour. He. served his sentence," and a few days after being released was arrested in the city for drunkenness, and with rare audacity paid his fine with a Sydney wreath sovoreign. He afterwards bought a small cutter, the. Sea, Queen, which was one day found drifting in Bass Straits with her sails set. Tlat was the last heard of the notorious gokl robber, who was believed to have been drowned at sea.

In tho meantime Mr Elliston had some solace for the pain of mind both he and his friends endured. The charge was pressed against him wlien there was no longer evidence to support if, so on being acquitted he took actions against the P. and 0. Company and others. His iimoeenee had been so completely "demonstrated by the developments in Weibcrg's career that no defonce was offered, and the eases were all settled out of court by apology and payment of damages. Tho Victorian Government hold out for some time, but, finding that Mr Elliston was less concerned about loot than tho reinstatement of liis character, it finally voted him a. sum of £500, and passed a resolution of the House in honourable and generous terms, expressing pnblic regret that an innocent man should have been so deoply wronged. Tho P. ami O. Company did not stop at compensation. It offered Mr Elliston a responsible post in its service, and when ho refused paid him a pension until his death. A remarkable faith in the ultimate triumph of innocence marked M r Elliston's conduct while tinder 'suspicion. Incidents in his early life at soi made a deep impression upon a mind which had naturally a religious bent. On one occasion he was washed overlward from his ship. Heroes of Alma, off the coast of Madagascar. He was swimming in a rough sea nearly an hour, for tho volunteor crow which lowered a boat in the hope of rescue could neither see bim nor hear his calls. He had a' few minutes of supreme suspense when he saw the ship signal the hoat to return, and then, when lione seemed gone, was luckily seen and rescued. There aro many old Australian voyagers who, even after the lapse of years, will hear with regret of the death of this Suffolk sailor, who until. the end maintained his touch with the sea by taking charge of the coast signals on the cliffs fronting his native town.