HOARD IN TINS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 10

HOARD IN TINS

£517 IN BANK NOTES

OLD-AGE PENSIONER’S MONEY

While there was £SOO in notes in an old tobacco tin near his bed, Adolphe Owston, aged 67 years, of Ormond, Melbourne, formerly an architect, died at his home recently. He was apparently undernourished. He and his sister had been drawing old-age pensions for a considerable period. , Having been summoned by Owston s sister, who lived alone with him, a constable entered the house and found Owston lying dead in the hall. He had died from heart disease. Unable to learn anything of the dead man’s relatives from the sister, the constable was searching for family papers in Owston’s bedroom when he found a pile of old tobacco tins near the head of the bed. Many of them were empty, and the constable _ was throwing them aside when he found in one of them a bundle comprising five £IOO notes, one £lO note, one £5 note, and two £1 notes. Other tins contained sixpences, threepences, pennies, and halfpennies rolled in pieces of brown paper. By further inquiry it was learned that the house apd land, worth £9OO, was owned by Owston, and that he had withdrawn an amount of about £SOO from a bank before he had applied for the old-age pension. After some persuasion the sister placed the money in the State Savings Bank. The house in which Owston lived has been an object of curiosity for many years. Occupants of the police station, which overlooks the rear of Owston’s house, had not seen Owston’s sister for four years. Owston w»as sometimes seen about dusk in the shopping area. He allowed nobody to enter his premises.