EXTENSIVE GOLD ROBBERY AT

West Coast Times, Issue 222, 5 June 1866, Page 2

EXTENSIVE GOLD ROBBERY AT

OKARITA.

.Another of those extensive gold robberies has taken place, this time ai

Okarita, of which the Bank of New. Zealand have again been the sufferers'. The circumstances attendant on the loss wo are in possession of, but who the robber or robbers,' if more than one was concerned in it, is yet a'complete mystery. Our information is, that on the morning of Tuesday tho 22nd ultimo, the manager of tho bank Mr. Allen, deposited in the bank safe one bag and one bar of- gold, and locked it before he went out,probably to breakfast, as this happened at about halfpast nine o'clook. Tyhen ho returned, which took place in twenty minutes afterwards, ,he missed tliß'key of the, safe. What became of it during the interval '• lie> is unable exactly to say. The safe, however, was locked and apparently the contents secure for the time being. To add double security to the drawer, in case the key should by some mischance have fallen into dishonest hands, a seal was placed on the safe. On the return of the Bruce from this port last, Sunday, Mr. Allen received a duplicate key, with which, after breaking the seal ho had placed, he opened the safe to find, however, the wholo of the gold missing/ The parcel consisted of ono bag of alluvial gold, and one bar smelted— valued in all at £2500. Active inquiries are heing instituted by the police to discover the thief or thieves, as the case may prove. All comments we forbear for the present, as no carlessness is apparent anywhere, nor suspicion we believe for the present resting on any one. We » hope such a well-planed audacious ' robbery shall not remain so long a mystery, as too many of such wholesale plunders have done in the past history of Hokitika.