THEFT ON AN AUSTRALIAN LINER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11485, 27 March 1899, Page 1

THEFT ON AN AUSTRALIAN LINER.

HOW A £1000 NOTE WAS STOLEN

AND CASHED

A CURIOUS STORY.

The expectation that the balance of £20,000 in bank notes stolen from P.urs Bank would presently bo returned, 'like the £40,000 worth, has not 'so far beeu fulfilled, nor does there appear any ground for tho statement in certain evening papers that one ot the bank cashiers is under suspicion. The allegation published was -that the directors had declined to raise" a certain clerk's salary and that in revenge In had walked off with the bundle of notes. His wife discovered (lie robbery aud managed to return £10,000. Before, however, she could rescue the balance her bus band burnt them. His grievances have made him mad, and he bit on his ingenious expedient for annoying his employe! s, not, of course, intending to put sixpence to his own uses. Tho story is a beauty, but unfortunately Parr's folk repudiate it utterly. The return of the £1000 notes is, in the opinion of exports, far less remarkable ti.an the theft. To negotiate a stolen note of this value seems practically impossible nowadays ; in fact, it has only beeu successfully . managed once. The story is this : An eminei.fc member of the Stock Exchange, whom we will call Mr Smith, had tho singular fad of always carrying a £1000 note in Lis trousers pocket. He died during a tour in Egj'pt, whither he had duly carried it. A relative, who went out to bring home the deceased and bis effects, duly possessed Himself of the note oiid was returning on a P. and O. steamer. Of course it got talked about on board, and the precautions taken for the safety of such a valuable possession were discussed. Despite these, one fine morning the note was gone. There was a hue and cry after the thief ; the captain was applied to ; many things were proposed, and amongst others that all the - passengers and their cabin luggage should be searched.' But the ship was full of Indian officers and civilians on furlough, and some of them objected. It so happened that among the passengers were two detectives returning from an unsuccessful man hunt in the Antipodes, aud the matter ' was put into their hands. They quickly fixed on a second-class passenger calling himself an American as the thief. He gave some common name — say Jones— and produced a nearly exhausted letter &f credit on Monroe's. He said, of course, that he had no idea who the thief was, but at the same time declared that be had no objection — indeed, would rather like — to be searched. Accordingly his effects, contained in 'an unlined portmanteau, and 'his clothes were rummaged, but nothing was found. His signature- was however obtaiued in this way. A testimonial, to the captain was got up, and Jones was asked to sign it, but a loose piece of paper having been, laid on the place for signature he signed on the loose paper, which was subsequently carried ofl, and finally reached the Bank of England. On arriving at Brindisi the suspected passenger landed, but the Italian police having been in" formed by their English congeners that the recorery of the note maant 1000 lire for themselves, he was quickly run in, stripped and searched, but again nothing came of it. He departed by the railway, vowing vengeance againsfc the Italian Government, his victim going on to Venice and Lon- ' don. The note was duly stopped, of course, and for some weeks nothing was heard of it. Suddenly news came that it had been presented—by the Alliance Bank; The representatives of t^e deceased rushed to Thread-needle street, and there, sure enough, was the £1000 note, with th • signature, undisguised, of the passenger that got off at Brindsi on the back of it. .This was interesting, but did not make the note.unmerchantable. The Alliance, in perfect innocence, had taken it for cash 'from Smiths, Smiths had it from .Rothschild with or without some intermediary who took.it from M. Blanc, who gave value for it, so there was nothing to do but to pay it. Nor was it ever discovered >iow it was stolen. A certain light was, however, thrown on its * hiding place by the discovery maoy month's afterwards, of the possession by a gentleman, then in trouble (snpposed to be identical with Jones) of a portmanteau, the sides of which, for the purpose of concealment, were formed of two thin pieces of plain leather, making up together a normal It is therefote probable that the unlined portmanteau which- the detectives examined in vaiu on board ship was at that moment of examination lined with, that identical £1000 note.