A CURIOS-CASE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IX, Issue 549, 22 March 1876, Page 3

A CURIOS-CASE.

•' At invercargill, on Thursday, William Forrester, j a carpenter, was' chargecl with obtaiuiug money \>y, i fraudulent 1 representations. Prom the evidence it appeared that tbe accused, while living in Dunudin, j opened on account in the Sayings Bank here.' Ou 1 tne 2uth of May, 1875, lie withdrew t c sum of L 3 '103." This was duly entered in the '■withdrawal f column of thedepdsit book. At some subseciuout • period the entry in the withdrawal column was . erased, and tbe sum of L 3 10s placed in the deposit •column, but this' was not noticed, it not beiiig 'usual to examine depositors' books "minutely until application is made to withdraw the whole of (the money standing to their credit. The accused afterwards went* to live at Invercargill. There he .presented his depositor's book, and asked to withdraw the amount standing .to his credit at the Dun.edin^Bonk. In. reality he had only LBss to with-, 'draw on the 10th January, 1876, DUt- owing to the i alteration mentioned the amount was made to ap- ! pe&r LI Of ss: • The accused stated that this amount 'was standing to This credit, and signed a statement •to that eSect. In his defence .before tbo imneistrates he mode the following statement:— , " On the 10th of January, 1876, 1 did not know that !my book had been tampered with. It was not till, 'sometime afterwards, that I questioned my wife, and 'she confessed she had tampered with it. l t s questioned her, because "of the delay which had' "taken . place in getting the acconnt ■transferred! When I a3ked her why she bad douo i it, she said she thought the young nian in the oiflco ' had'made a mistake. About ten days or a fortnight 'after that I saii-tfr Atkinson (the clerk in the Post Office) that there was some mistake ml the' book, wishing, to shield my wife, from the cpnscpuqnces ttja't i might result l fron> v the, committal" of auji offeii^' was'oonuaitted for trial, -' ■"'