The Horsham BankRobbery.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 106, 13 June 1885, Page 6

The Horsham BankRobb ery.

There appears to be a prospect at last of solving the mystery which has so long surrounded the extensive robbery which was committed at the Horsham branch of the London Chartered Bank of Australia, on Saturday, the 1st of March, 18S4. On Saturday afternoon last, say3 the " Melbourne Daily Telegraph," senior-constable McArthur, stationed at Curanyalpa, and Senior-constable Bedinfield, stationed at Louth, arrested a young man named Alexander Ross, alias McPherson, who was formerly employed as a clerk at the Ararat branch of the London Chartered Bank, at Campadore, New South Wales, on a charge of having been implicated in the robbery at Horsham, and H, Milne Smith, who occupied the position of accountant in the bank at the time of the robbery, wr.s subsequently arrested at Brewarrina on a charge of having com mittod the oiFonce. At the time of the arrest Ross had £3 in his possession and a bank-book w Inch showed he had £390 to his credit at the Commercial Bank at Bourke. At the period of the robbory, Sub-Inspector Brown and Detcctivo Nixon, who were in charge of the case, suspected Smith of having committed the offence, but they were unable to obtain sufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution being preforrod against him, and he •was consequently brought down to Melbourne and employed in the head office, so a3 to keep him undor the surveillance of the police. After some delay, during which a reward of £1,000 failed to elicit the necessary information, Smith was dismissed, and lie at once proceeded to Horsham in company with Ross, and they commenced business as grain-buyers. As soon as the excitemeut occasioned by the robbery calmed down, and the police appeared not only to have failed in their efforts to bring the offender to justice, but to have given up the pursuit as hopeless, the partners proceeded to Bourke, in New South Wales, ostensibly to take up land, and opened a joint account in the Commercial Bank there for £400. They were kept constantly under the surveillance of the police, and Detective Nixon, who recently proceeded to Bourke for the purpose of continuing an investigation that has never been allowed to rest for a day since the robbery was discovered, has succeeded, after a very difficult and tedious pursuit, in completing a strong chain of circumstantial evidence against both prisoners. A large number of the notes which have been traced to the possession of the prisoners are stated to be identical with those stolen from the bank, and several of their deposits at the Bourke bank consisted of notes which bore marked traces of having been recently buried in the earth for a considerable timo. The police are, it ia stated, now in possession of evidence of a more criminating character, which they hope to be able to complete in time to present to the Court on the prosecution of th'e prisoners in Melbourne. It will be remembered that the robbery wa9 first discovered on Monday morning, the 3rd of March, 18S4, and as the bank was closed punctually at 12 o'clock on the previous Saturday the offence was supposed to have been committed in the meantime. The bank building, a small one- story wooden one, adioiningJosephFletcher's Commercial Hotel, in Wilson street, consisted of two rooms— the office and the manager's room. The safe, in which upwards of £6,000 in notes and gold was kept, was one of Hobbs's make, and was stationed in the furthermost corner from the office of the manager's room. When about to resume business on Monday morning, H. Milne Smith, the accountant, proceoded to open the safe, but found that the lock had been plugged up with pieces of wood The brass plate outside the lock had to be takon off, and the wooden plugs, which turned out to be pieces of a penholder, were extracted with some trouble. It was then ascertained that the treasury drawer and a small cashbox had been opened, and the whole of the contents, which consisted of £800 in £1 notes, £1,875 in £5 notes, £1,480 in £10 notes, £477 in gold, and £1,146 in notes of various kinds belonging to other banks, had been stolen. A sum of between £30 and £40 in silver, which was in the safe at the time, was left behind by the thieves, who disarranged but did not abstract any of the valuable papers in the place. The

keys of tWe drawer and thecashbox were kept by Mr B. J. Nicholis, the manager. Mr Stanton, a olerk in the bank,slept on the premises, and was about the whole of Sunday without noticing anything to arouse his suspicion. It was at first believed at the time that the rpbbery was committed from the outside during Mr Stanton's temporary absence on Saturday or Sunday evening, but it was subsequently ascertained beyond the question of a doubt that such was not the case. The whole of the evidence collected went to show that the offence was committed by some one employed in the bank who had access to the keys, and the police now believe that they will be able to sheet the charge home to Smith. The prisoners will be brought down to Melbourne during the next few days.