TREASURE TROVE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12707, 9 March 1912, Page 3

TREASURE TROVE.

STRANGE SEQUKL TO' NAPIER ROBBERY.

MONEY FOUISTD PLANTED

(Special to the Herald.)

NAPIER, this day. J Quite a sensation Avas created in the Supreme Court yesterday morning at the trial of young Donaldson on the charge of embezzling the fiinds of the Rugby Union, when Detective Cassells stated, in the course of his evidence, that the money stolen from the borough strong-room in September last, in connection with which Donaldson had been tried and acquitted, had been found "planted" under the Council building. To be exact, the sum found is £424. and there is still £102 unaccounted for. The story of the discovery is more like fiction than sober fact. Shortly after the robbery the Daily Telegraph, in criticising the methods of those concerned in the endeavor to bring the robber to book, ridiculed the idea of digging up the ground in t\ie t back garden of Donaldson s residence^ and advised the authorities ,to look nearer the scene the rpbberyt This suggestion apparently did not appeal 'to tile searchers at the time, but yesterday morning the Town Clerk (Mr M. Murray) passed on the suggestion Mr Henderson, one of the borough employees, who, in company with another employee (Mr Pihder), made a thorough investigation. They were just about to abandon the search, when P.inder cried out, "I've got it," and as he lifted up a weighty paper bag its contents fell to the ground. No time was lost in bringing the money to the light of day, and a count revealed £424. The money was done up in envelopes, as it had been on the night before, the robbery, for payment of wages. ' The discovery has naturally set people talking and speculating as to the identity of the robber. Whether the bag in which the money was found will furnish the police with the proverbial clue is not at ■ present known, but it is rumored that there may be . developments.