HIS MOTHER’S HOARD.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15184, 9 March 1923, Page 5

HIS MOTHER’S HOARD.

THEFT BY A SON. SOVEREIGNS IN A SAUCEPAN^ By Telegraph.—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday. With ..that eccentric distrust of bankers and vaults that sometimes comes with old age, Mary Donaldson, an'aged jnother, placed her little pile of golden sovereigns and 20 £i notes—safely in a handleless and buried it safely at the foot of an apple tree in the quiet of her garden. That was a month ago. Yesterday she discovered the saucepan in a fork of the tree minus its golden hoard. Then she remembered her son had pottered about the weeds, but be knew nothing of her treasure. She in-, fqrmed the police, and to-day the secret of tile quiet garden was told to Mr Widdowson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, when the son, Robert Alexander Donaldson, aged 49, was. charged with having stolen the money.

Mrs Donaldson said her son came home in December, and Had only done two and a-half days’ work since. A detective said the accused, when interviewed, denied the theft. He was searched and IQ3 sovereigns, some silver, and a £5 note were found in his pockets. About £25 was missing. When asked what he had to say, accused said he took the money, but did not know it was stealing. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.