FAMOUS MIS-STEPS OF JUSTICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3972, 29 April 1930, Page 8

FAMOUS MIS-STEPS OF JUSTICE.

By

JOSEPH GOLLOMB

IV.—WHEN THE MAJESTY OF JUSTICE WAS JOLTED. British judges on the bench wear august wigs. The symbol, seems to say, * His Majesty, Justice, can do no wrong!” In the main, British justice has worn its crown firmly enough. But since the case of Adolf Beck the heads that wear those majestic wigs wear them just a bit more uneasily than before. And this is why: On an April morning some years back Louisa Leonard, a married woman who was not living with her husband, was strolling along the Strand near Charing Cross, London, when an exceedingly well-dressed, well-mannered man stopped her, and raised his high silk hat and exclaimed : “ Don’t you remember me, Lady Clyde? I’m Lord Willoughby!” Louisa was flustered. She had on her best clothes, but to be mistaken for a titled lady by a gentleman of such stylish appearance and high-sounding title was beyond dreaming. Louisa’s share of beauty was modest, and her station in life not exalted; as a matter of fact she was wondering where she would get her bread and butter in the near future. And now here was Prince Charming mistaking her for a member of the nobility! For a moment Louisa felt the glow of the implied compliment. “ I’m sorry’, sir, but I ain’t Lady 7 Clyde!” She was about to pass on, but the gentleman would not let her. He stared in well-bred astonishment at her. ‘lf you’re not Lady Clyde, then you’re her double! And I should know. Only four years ago I had hoped to marry her. Lord Clyde was the fortunate one. May I know who you are ?”

Still blushing and flustered at the bolt of romance out of the blue, Louisa gave her name and, at his insistence, her address. “ You must forget the liberty I take,” he pursued. “ Remember what Lady Clyde has meant to me—one doesn’t get over a love like mine in four years—and you will understand perhaps why I am bold enough to ask you to let me write to you.” Louisa understood and sympathised. She gave him her address; she did not expect him to make use of it, and blushed when she thought of his look should he see the shabby lodgings. But how could one refuse an address to a gentleman in such circumstances? “Thank you, Miss Leonard!” the gentleman said, raising his hat in farewell. “ Au revoir.” Louisa may have dreamed that night of the encounter, but when she awoke next morning she must have put the dream out of her mind; life had not encouraged her to indulge in dreams. To her amazement, there was a letter for her.

Quality 7 spoke in the very stationery. On the envelope and letter were embossed “ Army and Navy Club.” “ May I be accorded the privilege of calling on you next Thursday?” ran the note, signed Lord Willoughby. Louisa debated with herself, but since she had little enough in the world to lose, she shrugged defiance at the prospect of losing that little and w’rote to Lord Willoughby at the Army and Navy Club that he could call on Thursday, as he wished. To her surprise, he came. She had invited a friend, Emily Ashton, to be present. Even Emily’s heart beat faster when the knock on Louisa’s door at the appointed hour was followed by the entrance of the Prince Charming Louisa

had told her about. The gentleman must have been already warned of Louisa’s modest place in life by the neighbourhood in w’hich he found himself, for he did not look unduly surprised at the home of the woman he had mistaken for Lady Clyde. There was a subtle change in his manner toward Louisa, but nothing to hurt her feelings. Indeed, after he had put before Louisa his reason for coming there she was more thrilled than ever. He had not been able to get her out , of his mind, Lord Willoughby said. It was as if the past had come back to him. Now that he knew that Louisa was practically alone in the world he wanted to put to her a proposal difficult to make discreetly. Lord Willoughby had a house at St. John’s Wood, he said —Alpha Villa, Abbey road. He had recently dismissed his housekeeper and had been too moody to get another. “ But now I propose to you that yon come and take charge of Alpha Villa,” he said. “ I would put at your disposal a carriage and pony, a page to help you with it and as many servants as you think necessary for your comfort and mine. If the recompense should be generous, would you consider coming? ” Louisa said she would. “ Could you come at once ? ” Louisa thought it could be managed. “ Then will you. forgive me for seem-

(Copyright.—Fob the Otago Witness.)

ing to be a snob—though I assure you I am not —at least as far as you are concerned. But I should want you to feel at home among the people you will meet. Clothes make a difference to a woman’s feelings. And to mine, I must confess. I want to see you well dressed. Do you know .Howell and James?”

Howell and James, one of the smartest shops in London, was known to Louisa, but only as Buckingham Palace was known to her.

“ Very -well,” said Lord Willoughby, taking out a gold pencil. “ Let me make a list of the clothes you need at once. Let me see— —” Louisa’s eyes took in the list he was making out, dressing her from head to foot. Opposite each item he put down how much she should spend for it. The total came to £l3 10s. To Louisa the sum seemed indeed lordly to spend on but one change of clothing. Lord Willoughby then wrote out a cheque for £l3 10s, made out to the London Bank, No. 12 Lombard street. “ There, my dear,” he said, giving her the cheque. “ You’d better hurry to Lombard street and get it cashed before the bank closes. Then you can go over to Howell and James and get yourself clothed.”

He seemed about to leave when his eyes took in the plain gold marriage

ring. The earrings she wore were cheaper still, and obviously not related to gold. “ Will you think me presumptuous if I ask you to put away your jewellery while in my house?” he asked gently. Louise blushed for her jewellery. He seemed touched at her embarrassment.

“ Look here, do let me get other things in place of these, won’t you? It so happens that I’m on my way to my jeweller now. I should be only too happy to get you new rings and other earrings.” Louisa was overwhelmed with his generosity; what could she do but stammer out thanks?

“Do you know the size ring you wear?” he asked. Louisa did not know. Lord Willoughby looked disappointed, and for the first time a bit embarrassed. “ I have my heart set on seeing you in my villa at once. You can get the dresses, but I should want to get the rings and the earrings myself.” A heavy pause ensued. Louisa could almost read his thought. Were she already dressed in Howell and James garb he would have no hesitation in taking her to the jeweller’s; as it was, he preferred to go there alpne. “ Perhaps we can get your size with a bit of string or a slip of paper,” he suggested finally. They tried it, but without much success. “If a ring doesn’t fit exactly it becomes a nuisance,” J-iord Willoughby finally said. “ And I can’t trust these crude ""wasurements of ours. But I have an iaea. Does the ring you have fit you well?” “ Yes/”

“ Then would you care to lend it to me—or father to my jeweller? It’s perfectly safe with him, you know! ”

Louisa was so dazzled with it all, the glamour and munificence which had descended upon her, that it was an actual relief to be able to do something

for the charming prince, if only to make it easier to order the proper size of ring for her.

She gave him her wedding ring and he put it into a pocket of that magnificent white silk double-breasted waistcoat of his.

“ And your earrings are—not gold, are they?” he asked. Again Louisa blushed. “ No, but I like ’em.”

“ Then you shall have their exact replicas in gold! I’ll have old Penders himself copy them. Will you entrust me with them for a few days ? ”

Louisa took them from her ears and gave them to him. “Do you know the one-armed commissionnaire who delivers messages for the Army and Navy Club?” he went on. “He will return your ring and earrings to-morrow morning at 10 o’clock. By then you should have the clothing from Howell and James. I will send my carriage around for you by 11 o’clock. Will you be ready then, all packed?”

Louisa was sure she would be ready. “ Thank you. And now we must all hurry’, you to the bank, I to the jeweller.”

Lord Willoughby escorted Louisa and her friend to the street. Here a look of annovance came into his face.

“ How stupid of my T men! They 7 must have misunderstood me! I told them distinctly I should want my car. Now I shall have to travel in some shabby 7 public taxi! ” He felt in his pockets, with a smile of amused dismay. “ Bless my soul, if I’m not actually without a penny in my pockets! ” The situation seemed to strike him as a good joke on himself. Then he looked at his impressive gold W’atch. “ But we must hurry! I say, Mrs Leonard, have you any change with you, enough for my cab?”

Louisa showed him her purse w’ith 15s in it.

“May I take it?” he asked. “You can pay your cab when you cash y 7 our cheque at Lombard street.” Louisa gave him all she had and they 7 parted. In the bank at Lombard street where she presented the cheque the clerk looked sharply at it, asked her to wait, conferred with some superior, then came back. Instead of money, he handed her back the cheque. “ You’d better take it to the police, madam,” he said unfeelingly. “ It’s worthless, and it’s not the first of its kind this man has made out! ”

For a week poor Louisa’s life was even more drab than before. Her glamorous Prince Charming was a cheap, mean thief, and the only bit of ornament she owned had gone the way of her romance and her 15s.

Then on the eighth day as she was walking along Tottenham Court road she saw her gentleman, distinguished, debonair, but apparently without the least glimmer of recognition for the woman who was so strikingly like Lady Clyde. This time Louisa was not dazzled. Planting herself in front of him she demanded :

“ Where is my money and my 7 jewellery ? ”

Lord Willoughby drew’ himself up with truly lordly hauteur. “My good woman, I haven’t the slightest idea who you are nor interested in knowing. Be off or I’ll ask a policeman to take you into custody! ” “That suits me! ” Louisa said grimly, and looked about fox' a policemail herself.

So fax’ from helping her, Lord Willoughby jumped into a passing cab and tried to leave the scene. Louisa raised loud and effective objections. John Cook, a passerby, seized the cab horse by the bridle. Lord Willoughby called out to the cabby to use his whip on the man. Cabby, loyal to his fare, struck Cook with the whip, and Lord Willoughby tried to escape from the cab. The commotion brought Policeman Eliss SpurTell, who arrested the self-styled nobleman. Spurrell, who later rose in the ranks, had reason subsequently to remember his prisoner. Lord Willoughby made an effort to impress Policeman Spurrell. “ You must see how 7 embarrassing this scene is to me,” he said to the constable. / But if you will step into one of these houses where I can talk to you in private I will prove to your satisfaction my innocence—” Policeman Spurrell promised his Lordship a chance to prove his innocence before his superiors. At the stationhouse Inspector - Officer’ William Redstone searched the prisoner - and found five rings on his person. One ring was identified by Louisa Leonard, another’ by another woman, Louisa Howard. Miss Howard had a tale to tell that differed little from that of the other woman, except in unessential details. She, too, was mistaken for Lady Clyde by tire distinguished gentleman; she, too, was offered the post of housekeeper in the villa in St. John’s Wood. The same glamorous gifts were promised her; the same list of gorgeous apparel

to be bought by her at Howell and James, only that this time £4OO was to be spent on clothing. Again, he borrowed a ring—“ just to get the propersize.”

It was this ring that Miss Howard now identified among those which Inspector Redstone found in Lord Willoughby’s pocket. When the police authorities arraigned Lord Willoughby he gave his name as John Smith. Later he said he was William Augustus Wyatt, an Englishman educated at the University of Vienna, where he obtained two academic degrees. At the trial for defrauding Louisa Leonard and Louisa Howard of their jewellery, a third woman, Ada Wooding, came forward with the same story that the other two women told of Lord Willoughby. Her testimony, however, was not needed.

A month later William Augustus Wyatt, alias John Smith, alias Lord Willoughby, was found guilty of larceny and sentenced to five years penal servitude.

The letters and cheques he had written were kept as records of his case, purely as a formality and, of course, with no prevision of their importance in time to come.

John Smith —let us call him by the simplest of his aliases—never raised any protest that his conviction was unjust. His only petition addressed to the authorities was asking that the severity of his sentence be lessened. The authorities did not listen to his petition.

Five years after Lord Willoughby had dazzled Louisa Leonard and the other women he came out of prison, no longer the plump, sauve, elegantly dressed '* nobleman,” but now grown lean and looking the labourer which his ticket of leave described him to be. He told his prison friends he was going to join his parents in Germany. Then he disappeared.

Thirteen years later, in the early part of December, Fanny Nutt, widow of a corporal major in the Life Guards, dressed in mourning, was accosted in Bond street by an elegantly dressed gentle-

man, wearing a silk top hat. His hair w - as slightly gray, his skin rosy, his voice urbane.

“ Aren’t you rather young for a widow ? ” he asked, sympathetically. The widow admitted she was only 21. The gentleman was sympathetic indeed. He asked what she was doing tq

support herself. The widow told him of her dependence on a meagre pension and what she could earn as a sort of genteel domestic. “ Then you’re just the woman I’rq looking for!” He told her practically the same story Johif Smith had told the woman he had met in times long past. He had a villa in St. John’s Wood; had just sent his housekeeper away because, although she had received gifts of jewellery from him to the value of £BOOO, she proved to be an untrustworthy charact ter. So he was without a housekeeper: now, and would Mrs Nutt accept the

position ? He asked her to consider the matter: for a day or two, after which he would call on her.

Mrs Nutt had all the rigid respecta: bility of the woman who has little more than her good name to help her through life. As she put it, she was “ not in the habit of receiving gentlemen.” But in view of the distinguished appearance of this particular gentleman and the munificent offer he was making, she de: cided he should be made an exception, and gave him her address. She received a letter next day, the stationery being that of the Grand Hotel, London. It apprised her that her new acquaintance would call oq Tuesday - , between 1 and 2. An 4 promptly on Tuesday he came. His nxaner was a blend of dignity and that friendly familiarity that seemed tq forecast a successful relation between a, generous employer and his housekeeper. He asked if £5 a week would be fair: pay, her estimation; if not, he waq ready to consider a rise if she proved satisfactory. She was so taken with his generosity that he seemed prompted to show still more of it. Then came the offer that she go at once to the most stylish shop in London—this time Redfern’s—and buy at his expense clothes that would be worthy of the woman who should bq -—well, practically hostess at the villa, in St. John’s Wood.

The offer was accompanied by a, cheque w-ritten out for 15gns on the Union Bank, Belgrade Mansions. Followed also the interest in the lady’s jewellery. Again the rings were not considered worthy of the station she was to occupy, and the gentleman announced that he would that very afternoon buy for her other rings. And, of course, the lady’s rings had to be borrowed to get the proper size, A one-armed commissionnaire would return them, the gentleman said. When the lady’s back w 7 as turned, a brooch worth about a pound found its way into the gentleman's pocket. Then he left. Mrs Nutt found the cheque worthless. She told her brother of the fraud, asking him to report it to the police. “No use!”'he said. “They’ll never get that fellow! ” But several weeks later he brought her a copy of the Evening Standard with an account in it of the arrest of a man for just such a fraud as had been practiced on her. Various women—Evelyn Miller, Alice St. Clair, Juliette Ninth, an actress, Minnie Lewis, Kate Brakefield, Marion Taylor, Ethel Townsend, Daisy Grant, and Ottilie Meissonnier, had all met the affable, richly dressed, richly promising gentleman who was so free with bogus cheques, but had to borrow ladies’ rings and other jewellery. His capture subsequently became historical. Miss Meissonnier was responsible for it. She was a German who had lived in France, was now also thoroughly 7 at home in England and was more intelligent and better situated than any of the other women who had been victimised. She had enough means to keep a servant. Lady Egerton. A friendly conversation The stranger said he mistook her for followed, and when she told him that she had just come from the chrysanthemum show, he offered to match, from his own gardens on his estate in Lincolnshire, anything she had seen at the flower show. To prove it he begged to be allowed to send her some of his chrysanthemums. She gave him her address. The chrysanthemums did not come but the

gentleman did. Miss Meissonnier testified later how minutely 7 she had observed him. When she entered he was reading a German newspaper. His hands, she noticed, had still creases in them left by the seams of the tight gloves he had taken off. When he wrote out the cheque she saw that he held his pen between two fingers, and not as most people do between forefinger and thumb. The usual fraud was perpetrated on Miss Meissonnier, with even a bolder bid. It was no longer the post of housekeeper that was in question, but would Ottilie Meissonnier share his estate in Lincolnshire, a yacht, a villa on the Riviera, and other delightful prospects with him? Evidently 7 Miss Meisonnier found tho prospects alluring. For the gentleman at once proceeded to the now familiar list of lavish gowns and jewellery 7 ho wanted her to get at once at his. expence. The borrowing of the lady’s rings fol-

lowed, with the sequel we have learned to expect.

Miss Meissonnier reported the swindle to the police, but with an understandable lack of faith in men decided to keep an eye open herself for the swindler.

Three weeks later she was walking along Victoria street when she suddenly stopped before a familiar-looking, well-: dressed gentleman.

“You are the man who swindled me out pf my jewellery! ” she cried. It was a cry that was destined to reverberate far beyond her* expectations. The man stared at her, tlien became furious.

“ I, don’t know you, and I don’t want to know you!” He walked angrily away from the scene.

But Ottilie Meissonnier was angry, too. She followed him, accusing him repeatedly of fraud and theft. Near Vauxhall Bridge they saw a policeman. The man turned on her. “ If you don’t stop annoying me I’ll have vou arrested!”

Miss Meissonnier did not stop annoying him, but made it clear that she would speak to the policeman. The other, hoping to head off her charge, hurried forward and was the first to make a. complaint, saying Miss Meissonnier had accosted him and had refused to be shaken off.

Miss Meissonnier in her turn "charged the man with fraud and theft. The policeman took both to the station. Here the officer in charge entered Miss Meissonnier’s accusation, and, dismissing the man’s, held him foi- investigation and trial. The prisoner gave his name as Adolf Beck.

The recurrent swindle had been attracting attention in the newspapers, and the arrest of Beck was read with wide interest.

That evening Mary Harvey, servant to Ottilie Meissonnier, came to the police station and was asked if she had ever seen Beck before. Without hesitation she said:

“ He is the man who swindled my mis tress!”

Daisy Grant, another victim of the same thief, whoever he was, also identified Beck as the guilty man. “ But I should want to see him with his hat off before I could be sure.”

She was asked to turn her back, and six other men were placed on line with Beck when he took his hat off. Daisy

Grant identified Beck at once. Beek was then held without bail for trial.

The publicity brought a number of women forward who had been victimised and wanted to get a look at the arrested man.

Minnie Lewis identified Beck as the man who had defrauded her.

A Mrs Lester, another victim, also accused him.

Fanny Nutt, Marion Taylor, Evelyn Miller, Alice St. Clair, Ethel Townsend, Juliette Khlth, Kate Brakefield—all these were so sure that Beck was the same man who had stolen their rings that their accusations were the charges on which Beck was tried, together with those by Daisy Grant and Ottilie Meissonnier.

In the course of the trial some newspaper- reader wrote to the police pointing out that the crimes with which Beck W’as charged were identical in character with those for which “John Smith,” nearly a score of years before, was given five years penal servitude. .

Whereupon the police, becoming interested, brought out from retirement for-mer-policeman Ellis Spurrell, who had arrested John Smith, and Inspector Redstone who took charge of the prisoner at the police station.

Both the former policemen now took a look a Beck and declared on oath that he was “ John Smith.”

T. H. Gurron, a handwriting expert whom the Government had called in to testify in important cases, was asked to look at the handwriting on the letters and the worthless cheques in the batch of old-date frauds and to compare them with the recent ones. He declared the handwriting the same on both sets. He was then asked to compare them with Adolf Beck’s handwriting. Without hesitation he gave it as his opinion that Beck’s was only a disguise of the handwriting on the other exhibits in the ease.

A man who had acted as Beck’s secretary also testified that the handwriting of his former employer seemed to be only disguised on the bogus cheques. Summing up briefly the evidence in the case against Adolf Beck, we find 11 women, victims of the later series of frauds, testifying that Beck was the man who had swindled them. Two former police officers identified Beck as the John Smith.who, years before, had been convicted of the same kind of trick. The handwriting expert and the former secretary of the prisoner gave their opinion that Beck’s hand must have written the fake cheques and the letters to the victims.

In the face of all this, what other alternative had the jury but to convict Adolf Beck for misdemeanour on ten counts ?

In vain he protested and tried to prove that on the earlier date involved he was in Peru; that he knew nothing

of either set of frauds; that until the day of his arrest he had never set eyes on any of the women who charged him with theft.

Disregarding his protestations of innocence as the feeble resistance to be expected of any guilty man, the judge sentenced Adolf Beck to seven years’ penal servitude.

He was assigned the letter and number D. W. 523, the W indicating that he was being committed as the John Smith who had been previously convicted. Still strenuously protesting that he was neither John Smith nor the man who had defrauded the women who testified against him, Beck was sent to Wormwood Scrubs and later to Portland Prison, where he began his long term. Mr T. D. Dutton, , who had defended Beck at the trial, sent a petition to the Government protesting that an innocent man had been convicted. The petition was not answered.

Beck himself sent a petition, with no better result.

Mr Dutton then applied to the commissioner of police asking leave to inspect the records of John Smith. His application was refused. Tie applied to the Home Office of the British Government for an interview wherein to explain certain aspects of

the Beck case that would tend to clear him. This application too was refused. Finally at the insistence of a growing group of people who believed Beck to be innocent the prison authorities were moyed to do a little investigating. They were startled to learn something which the complacence of the authorities had hitherto prevented from coming to light. From the prison record of John Smith it was ascertained that there was an ineradicable body mark on John Smith which could not be found on Adolf Beck. The governor of Portland Prison thought this discovery important enough to communicate it to the Home Office.

The Home Office communicated it to the judge who tried Adolf Beck. Mr Dutton was sure now that he saw justice dawning for his client. The Home Secretary, however, wrote him saying that he could do nothing to interfere with Mr Beck’s sentence. One thing could be done, and was done. The letter W which indicated that. Beck was in prison for a second offence, was removed from his indentification number.

With only this change in the verdict of justice to console him, Beck spent the rest of his term in prison, ever clamouring that he was innocent. But from the moment of his arrest to the time he came out of prison there were no more frauds perpetrated of the kind for which he and John Smith had been convicted.

Immediately after Adolf Beck was released on license from Bentonville Prison, he and his friends began an agitation in the press and elsewhere to establish his innocence of the crimes for which he had suffered. The agitation attracted some notice but had no definite resfilt, and after a year or two the ripple it caused died out.

Then, two years after Beck left prison, Bose Reece, a housekeeper out of work, was accosted in Bond, street by the welldressed stranger we have met in our account, and .the stereotyped story was re-enacted. The villa in St. John’s Wood, the offer of the post of house-

keeper, the generous draft on a bank to pay the eost of a stylish feminine outfit, the business of the ring—all these were repeated. And, like her sister victims of former years, Rose Reece believed and was deceived.

The following March the same old fraud was repeated with Pauline Scott, a servant, as the victim.

Miss Scott went to the police with her story. They took her to Store street, Tottenham Court roqd, near Adolf Beck’s new lodgings in South crescent. After several hours’ waiting, Adolf Beck, resplendent in high silk hat, correct in dress to the very tips of his shoes, came out of his house. At once Miss Scott identified him as the man who had stolen her jewellery and money.

Ami once more Adolf Beck was arrested for the old familiar fraud. Once again the newspapers recorded the arrest; and still other victims came to look at Beck.

Rose Reece identified him, and so testified at the trial. Lily King, another victim, identified him. So did Caroline Singer and Grace Campbell. With a verdict compelled by these identifications, Beck was once more found guilty.

But now the clamour of innocence raised by Beck and his friends became so formidable that Judge Grantham, before whom Beck was tried and found guilty, felt there still must be something behind the whole business that needed looking into. He suspended sentence in the case of Beck. It wa. the utmost he could do. For immediately on Beck’s arrest these peculiar frauds ceased.

And there the matter would have perhaps rested to the end of time had not a bit of human carelessness come to rectify the scries of enormous blunders which justice had blindly committed. About the time that the latest of the swindles was being perpetrated, Nellie O’Neill and Evelyn Edwards were added to the now long list of women defrauded by a well-dressed stranger who promised them opulence and stole their rings. They did not hear of Beck’s arrest and trial.

Then on July 7 Violet and Beulah Turner, actresses out of work, were also swindled of their rings in the same way. Later that day a pawnbroker by the name of Lawley quietly sent a clerk out for a policeman. “ There’s a man pawning some rings in my master’s shop,” the man said, “ and Mr Lawley would like to have you come and look him over. There’s been a lot in the newspapers about ladies’ rings of late, you know.” The policeman went with the clerk and questioned the elderly well dressed man who was trying to pawn several rings such as only women wear. The man gave his name as William Thomas. His explanation did not satisfy the policeman who arrested him.

The Turner sisters came and identified the rings as theirs and the man as the thief. Nellie O’Neill and Evelyn Edwards also identified him as the man who had defrauded them. On the basis of their charges and evidence William Thomas was tried and convicted.

He was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude. Then he confessed that he was the John Smith who had perpetrated the bygone frauds and crimes of which Adolf Beck had twice been found guilty. And among the spectators at the trial and sentence was Adolf Beck himself!

* then it was that the Beck ease demonstrated to the eyes of all present what a heavy blow had been dealt to the importance which courts of law have placed upon identification by eye-wit-nesses. Although almost a score of men and women had identified Beck as Wyatt, alias Smith, alias Thomas, there was nothing in common between the guilty man and the innocent, except a bit of stoutness in their appearance.

The Government granted free pardons to Beck for his two convictions. But the august crown on the head of British justice, as I have said, sits a bit less easily than before his mishap.

Comment upon the delay of the Government in publishing the findings of the Rehabilitation Commission is made in tlie annual report of the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association. “ Unfortunately,” states the report, “ the findings have not been released for publication. although they were presented to the Government in January. . . . The executive is placing great hopes in this commission, but •it is well to remember that the findings of the commission and the carrying of those findings into effect, are totally different things.” The report makes an appeal for the support of more returned men to aid the effort to put the finding into practice.

ing to repletion on heaps of refuse. According to sailors, it will attack a drowning man and begin its horrible meal on him before he is dead. An exploring party in the Antarctic shot some penguins, which were devoured by a Nelly before there was time to row a boat Vw? unc a ffi ece rock to pick them up. When sealers in southern latitudes cut up a seal Nellies hover over them and devour the carcass as soon as it is left. Albatrosses, although members of the same er zi! u ! cl as big as Nellies, never do this, lhe flight of an albatross is a poet’s inspiration. The Nelly’s flight is heavy and laboured. There seems to be nothing to say in favour of this big sea bird, except that it is a bird, and for that reason alone appeals to many people.

From information Mr Guest supplies, it seems that albatrosses which nest on tlie rorty-fours. off the coast of the Ghatham Islands, are royal albatrosses, JJiomedia regia, not wandering albatrosses, Diomedea exulans. Mr Guest writes: Reading between the lines of your notes in the first week of February, I gather that you regret the taking of albatrosses by the Maoris here, or are indignant. 1 also feel that it is a pity. You state that many years ago 700 were taken on one occasion, and 2000 on another occasion. You describe the birds being killed wringing their necks. I cannot sav anything about those times; but when I went to the Forty-fours with a party .waddies were used. One blow on the head was enough. About a dozen waddies, or patus, were made before starting. 'LI ev were about 18 inches long made of heart ot ake-ake, carved, and very neatly. Trips to the I'orty-fours are not annual affairs, they are made about every fourth or fifth year.” .

The previous notes referred to the Maori conquest of the Chathams by Poinare and his Ngati-Awa tribesmen, and the slaughter of tlie Morioris. Dealing with this chapter of history, Mr Guest states: — “I have spoken to Maoris about it. but not recently, as those who remembered these things told them by their fathers and grandfathers are dead. In spite of much reticence on their part, I gathered that Pomare and his people were terrified of Rauparaha. and that they came to the Chathams to seek refuge. The impression I received was that extinction of the Morioris was not contemplated. The Morioris were under the protection of the British Crown, a fact of which the Maoris were well aware. The Ngati-Awas, impelled by threat of extermination by other Maori tribes in New Zealand, sailed for the Chathams and brought with them one of their most highly treasured possessions, the potato, for food and for planting. They went to much trouble in making the bush gardens and in planting the vegetable.

“We can imagine that they enlisted Moriori labour, using coercion or paying in kind. The Morioris were an inferior race to the Maoris, in the Maoris’ opinion at least. The present Chatham Island Maoris describe them as greedy, thievish, lazy, and stupid. The Maori conquerors gave them a few potatoes for planting, instructing them in the proper methods and showing them by example. Instead of planting these potatoes, the Morioris used them for food. They then began to rob the Maori gardens with deprivation unless they took, drastic measures against the Morioris. These, apparently, were of the obvious sort, and slaughter ensued. It is reasonable to believe that the Maoris came to the Chathams for refuge only. These islands had little to offer otherwise'. There were no timbers, no harbours, no big rivers, and fewer species of birds than they had on the mainland. On the other hand, there were stormy seas, isolation, and other disadvantages. In the march of progress, so called, it has always been peoples like the Morioris who have gone down.”

The Morioris were closely related to the Maoris, with somewhat similar legends, but with inferior artistic faculties, and with no warlike spirit. They shared the Maoris’ belief that their ancestors came from an unknown fatherland. Hawaiki, crossing the ocean in canoes. Life on the Chathams was easy. Food was sufficiently plentiful. The Morioris had no enemies, beast or human. They lost not only the love of warfare, which characterised the Maoris, but also the art of defence. Idlers in a lotus-land, they became lazy. They degenerated. Th; v failed to resist the Maori invaders, crafty, warlike, and ferocious. The invaders are believed to have been about 900 strong. The Moriori population, at the time of the invasion. 95 years ago. is estimated at about 2000. If the Morioris presented an advanced front to the invaders, they, with the numbers in their favour, should have offered effective resistance. As it is, the Morioris were easily subdued. Now they are blotted out. Natural selection favoured the more virile race, as it has favoured virile races of lower animals, all along the line of the passing ages, and has extirpated those that neglected to progress.

A large number of people from all parts of the district assembled at Te Puna last week, when a memorial tablet was unveiled by Mr C. E. Macmillan. M.P., to the memory of the late Tu Tangitu, a notable Rugby football player, who had represented the Tauranga and Bay of Plenty Unions, and played for the New Zealand Native team from 1919 to 1929. Tributes to the manly and sporting qualities’of the late Tu Tangitu were paid by Mr Macmillan and several other representative speakers. A large photograph of the deceased was also unveiled. The function was a striking tribute to a notable sportsman and an outstanding member of the Maori race.