BURIED TREASURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16985, 8 March 1923, Page 7

BURIED TREASURE.

SON STEALS HOARD OF SOVEREIGNS. DUG UP UNDER APPLE TREE Virtue has its own reward, some say. and yesterday Robert Alexander Donaldson might have agreed with them. He was digging the garden at his mother’s home when beneath a sturdy apple tree his spade encountered something metallic. He investigated further. and found a saucepan. On taking off the lid . his amazed eyes saw a store of sovereigns such as few eyes see in these paper currency days. The gold was companioned by notes of high and low degree. Discoveries such as these, he had probably read about in hie boyhood days, and it seemed then, no doubt, the idlest of dreams that he should be the chosen one to find a hidden treasure. | It was an occasion for celebration, ! and he celebrated in the city, but on returning home things had developed rapidlv and to-day he appeared at the 1 Magistrate's Court to answer the charge “ That on March 7, at Christchurch. he stole £l4O. the property of Mary Donaldson, bis mother.” The complainant, an aged woman, said thnt about a. month ago she placed £l4O in an iron saucepan and buried it at the foot of an apple tree. Yesterday she fancied apples for her dinner. but when she went to the tree she found her saucepan unearthed and the money gone. Tlie accused, who had been living at homo since December last, had been cleaning up the garden. He had been out of work practically all that time and bad no money of his own. He had no authority to take the money, and he. did not even know she had saved it. Detective J. Bickerdike said that yesterday afternoon he interviewed the accused and told him that he was making inquiries about the missing money. He replied. “ I haven’t got the money.” On searching the accused he Found a purse containing 103 J, sovereigns and £2 12s -Id in silver and f copper. Two £5 notes he found in the pocket of a pair of trousers the accused had been wearing that day. ! Donaldson pleaded guilty anil was I committed to the Supreme Court for