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Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13333, 23 March 1911, Page 7

Strange tilings have been done in the name of religion, but to steal .£26,000 in order to help a mission must rank among the strangest. Tlris was the offence to which William Finch, lately manager to a wealthy firm of copper merchants,'pleaded guilty in January at the Old Bailey. He was charged with embezzling £11,562, the property of his employers, and counsel stated that the total defalcations were £20,610. The money had been devoted to Christian work in the East End of London. For years, it seems,' the prisoner had devoted his time and his money to mission work among the young men of the East End He began the work when only 18 years of ago and it grew upon him. Ho was appalled by the poverty he saw around him, and lie devoted his leisure hours to the service of the victims of poverty. He stinted himself in various ways to help others. For years his dinner consisted of bread and cheese, which he ate in a dark corner of thb Royal Exchange, and with the money saved ho started and ran the boys’ club. Many lads who are now doing well in the world owed their start in life to William Finch. He himself led an exemplary life, and did not benefit by the funds he misappropriated to the extent of a single penny, said counsel for the prosecution When Finch found that more, money was needed for his mission work, he took to speculating. The markets went against him, although he prayed nightly for a change of luck. Tins had gone on since 1907. His firm had such perfect confidence in his integrity that £ was not until ho cabled to it ,u confession of his wrongdoing that the defalcations wore discovered. The firm, while seeking a conviction against the prisoner, asked the court to treat him leniently. Finch sold his house for £BOO after the prosecution and wished to hand this over to his employers, but the latter settled the money on Finch’s young wife and child. In iniposiug a sentence of twelve months in the second division, a very lenient sentence in view, of the amount involved and the length of time over which the defalcations were spread, the Recorder took a very charitable view of the case, Finch, he said, had evidently allowed his mission werk .so to obsess his mind that he would not recognise the wrong he was doing. His mental balance had been disturbed and his moral outlook obscured iu consequence.