UNDER SUSPICION. A CELEBRATED GOLD ROBBERY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2736, 22 August 1906, Page 15

UNDER SUS PICION. A CELEBRATED GOLD ROBBERY.

(Melbourne Argus.)

A sensational gold robbery, which for some time furnished Australia with one o* it"? mysteries in crime, is recalled by news of the death at Felixlowe, 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 for. transfer to the P. and O. 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 consif-ed to Ceylon, and nothing but the saw isfc 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 O. service, for he had decided musical gifts, and quite exceptional skill in conjuring tricks, which he had 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 he was stopped in the street by two London detectives, and, on the strength of a cable message from Australia, where a warrant had been issued, charged with the theft of the Avoca erold. 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, possibly dying, had cunningly charged him with instigating and assisting in the crime. Mr Elliston appeared at Bow street, and was remanded on bail to await evidence from Australia, where events connected with the Avoca gold robbery were taking a more sensational turn. A curious superstition of the Cingalese was in a large measure responsible for the detection of the real gold-robber. The sovereigns taken from the Avoca had been specially minted in Sydney for circulation in Ceylon ; but, as the natives disliked the St. George and Dragon stamp, these were stamped with a wreath pattern. After a time tho.ee 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, and had left the ship a few monthes afterwards to take up a selection on the Tarwin River, in^ Gippsland. 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 t^elled down to Gippsland, disguised as selectors, in search of land; but the first man they met riding up the bush track from the Tarwin was Martin Weiberg. They promptly arrested him, and found a purse, with 40 wreath soereigna. " 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 carpenter's plane, which had been bored with an augur, in which the coin was neatly packed. Another plant was found under a losr. Weiberg had many plants in most unlikely places. When arrested, he, after a day's reflection, made a confession, when he said that Mr Elliston planned the robbery, and thaf lie meiely arteil on his instructions, and only received £300 of the fepoil. It was upon the sliength of this confession that the warrant was issued for Mr Elh-ton's arrest.

The cenfo-oion wa>3 varied laior. The police woio keen to discover tli" whereabouts of the missing gold, and often interviewed Woiberg in gaol. T' e=e interviews at longth «ugeoKt<jd to him a plan of osrap 1 . Pretetidinor to mak<! a clean !>rea-,t of it. he said that l.c had buried 2300 sovore'gns in a tin kettle on the bank* of the Tarwin River, at a point indicated by two larpre Ri;m trees, growincr clo=o together on the. batik, and ho offered to take tlic police to the spot. ll** wan in charge of an c-tort of three armed dotccthes. one of them (now Inspecting Superintendent Mahony) a famou-> nmn^r ; but Martin Weiberg wa> not a n;an to be baffled by risk=, and waited Lia chance The party went down to tlie Tarwin, got a boat, and rouod to tho spot indicated by the goldrobber, vberc tlio bank w;n very etocp. Two of the police got clown tlio bank into the boat. One of them ?tood near Wcibcrg, who was not al the moment handcuffed, and who. of a sudden, dealt the detective a tremendous blow m the pit of the stomach, which doubled him up, and disabled him for a moment. In an instant Weiberg, who wae both powerful and speedy, dashed into the thick ecrub. and escaped

I 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, whose imagination was dazzled by his deeds, and who harboured him, partly as a celebrity, and mainly because ho was able to pay for their hospitality. Whatever else Woiberg lacked, he had plenty of wreath coin. He arranged a plan of escape with one of these men, who went up to Melbourne with 800 sovereigns to buy and provision a email craft, the Petrel, in M'hich Weiberg hoped to make his escape. The emissary muddled hia mission, was robbed by people sharper than himself and more unscrupulous, co tiiat both he and the gold were soon in the hands of the police, who recovered in all about 1000 sovereigns. Detectivo Eggleston and Mountedconstable Taylor, who knew a good deal about tho locality, thought that they could capture Martin Weiberg, and spent an unpleasant fortnight in the scrubs in the month of May, 1878. They were en- ' couraged by finding footprints leading at one point from tho inlet to tho scrub, and returning fo the water at another pomt — though the robber, on tlj© whole, was cautious, and when he walked along the sands alwaye, did co at low water, •*& that the rising tide would obliterate his footprints. Concluding their man was accustomed to swim in the inlet — though ovor a mile wide, and in fumtner infected with fcharks— the polico rode round 30 miles to Cape Patler*on, on the outer shore, where, after watching for some time, they one day saw Wciberg walking towards tliem. The moment he lighted tho police he clashed 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 — he threw up his arnie and surrendered. The whole plan of the Avoca mystery was then revealed, for Weiberg had given many men his confidence. In repairing the lock of the 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 the ship, and on the trip down from Sydney removed the gold, melting tho wax on the seala of the bo\«»s with a hot knife, and after the remo\al of the gold restored the boxes to as nearly as possible their original condition. Tho robbery must have been discovered in ZVlolbourno when the gold boxes were transferred to t.he liner, but that the lascars who did Ihe work were too stupid or too indifferent to notice the difference in the weights, though the natives in Cejloii who handled Ihe 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 daj-s after being released was arrested in the city for drunkenness, and with rare audacity paid his fine with a Sydney wreath tovoreign. H<: afterwards bought a small cutter, tho Soa Queen, which was one rlay found drifting in Bass Straits with her sails set. That was tho la>t heard of the notorious gold robber, who was believed to have been drowned at gra. In the meantime IkJr Klli-ton had tonic ?olaco for the pain of mind both he and hi? friends endured. The charge was pressed against him when there was no longer evidence to support it, «o on being acquitted ho took actions again&t the P. and O. Company ai-d other*. His innocence had been so completely demonstrated by the developments in Weiberg's career that no defence was offered, and the ca c eg were all settled out of court b}' apology and payment of damages. The Victorian Government held out for some time, but, finding that Mr Elliston was less concerned about loot than tlie rei istatement of his character, it finally voted him a sum of £500, and parsed a resolution of the House in honourable and generous t< rms, expressing public regret that an ltiiiocent man should have I>ecii s-o deeply vwonged. The- P. and O. Company did not .'top at compensation. It offered Mr Eilifeton a responsible post in its scr\ice, an<l when he refused paid him a pension uniil hia death. A remarkable faith in the ultimate triumph of innocence marked M r Ellifctons conduct while under ftuspicion. Incidents in bis e*rly life at cc» made a deep impression upon a mind which had naturally a religious bent. On one occasion he was washed overboard from his ship. Heroes of Alma, off the coast of Madagascar. He was swimming fn a rough sea nearly an hour, for the volunteer crew which lowered a boat in the hope of rescue could neither see him nor hear his calls. He had a few minutes of eupre».ie suspense when he saw the ship signal the boat to return, and then, when hope seemed gone, was luckily seen and rescued. There acre many old Australian voyagera who, even *It«r the lapso of rears, will bear 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 nativ« town.