“COMMODORE" WEAVER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XIII, 31 March 1900, Page 609

“COMMODORE" WEAVER.

A PRINCE OF CONFIDENCE MEN. A On Monday next there is to be offered for sale, at Auckland, by order of the Supreme Court, the magnificent schooner yacht “Norna,” 90 tons register; and thereby hangs a tale. The vessel which is splendidly fitted up as a pleasure boat and equipped with * every modern convenience, sailed into ’Auckland Harbour a good many weeks •go. Her owner, Mr Nicholas Joseph .Weaver, was a man of gentlemanly address, and apparently, what he represented himself to be, a man of large means. He entertained and was entained in return, and, it is said, managed on the strength of appearances, to dip pretty deeply into the credit of the Aucklanders. He left New Zealand, it was supposed, on a short visit to Sydney, leaving the yacht in the Waitemata. When he was gone a Mrs Hattie Wallace, formerly of ’Frisco, appeared on the scene, and brought a case against Mr Weaver claiming 8000 dollars (£1,666 13/4). It appears that the yacht had been seized in September last in Honolulu under a bottomry bond, and the plaintiff was induced by Weaver to advance the necessary money to release the boat from the said seizure, and to secure this advance Weaver gave the bond now sued for. The yacht then left Honolulu and proceeded to the Friendly Islands, and then to Apia, in Samoa, which latter port she reached on or about 3rd December, 1899. The bond was therefore due on the 3rd January, 1900. Weaver said he would go to Sydney and pay all money due on the bond, instead of which he came to Auckland in the yacht early in January. The plaintiff on hearing' of the arrival of the yacht in Auckland came over from Sydney, and on 22nd January made formal demand for the amount of the bond. Weaver said he would settle in Sydney. The plaintiff then returned to Sydney, but Weaver did not settle, and she then came back to Auckland and took the present proceedings. His Honor gave judgment for the plaintiff for the six thousand dollars (£1.250) with costs, and an order for the sale of the Norna was granted.

Weaver, who Is now in Melbourne, has been interviewed by the police there and confronted with a record of his past career which the ’Frisco papers have published. He admits he is the man to whom the papers allude, but denies that he is in any sense a swindler. But his asseverations will need to have some better guarantee for their truth than he has been able to produce before he can hope to convince us that the San Francisco papers are entirely in the wrong. Weaver, says the San Francisco “Bulletin,” was a conundrum when he was soliciting for Harper’s and other magazines in the northwest, he was an enigma when he was a “New York Commodore” in Yokohama, and he received enough roasts in the Hawaiian Islands to do an ordinary man for several years. Yet he bobs up serenely at Auckland and is entertained by the American Consul and all the swells of the Antipodes. The Norna sailed from Japan under a cloud, she left Honolulu with several yards of hot newspaper stuff sizzling at her rudder, and now “Commodore Weaver” works the happy-go-lucky New Zealander in a manner that would cause a New York man, and a Seattle man. who knows all about him, to laugh his sides sore. The yacht Norna, a very beautiful craft, visited Yokohama and after she lefe there the “Japan Gazette” wrote about the shortcomings of the Commodore and said that he had left certain bills unpaid that an honourable man should not permit to remain in limbo. From Yokohama the Norna went to Honolulu, and there the Honolulu “Advertiser” took up the story and published a very unpleasant story about Weaver. Weaver resented. He threatened libel, but he never brought suit, as the paper in Japan was obdurate and promised to do plenty of business with the Commodore. The Norna left the Hawaiian Islands without the gay Mr Weaver going to court, and the “Advertiser” continued to pump a lot of truth about him into the public that made the Commodore perspire. Then the “Bulletin” took a hand.

It found out that a man named “W.” J. Weaver, a yachtsman and an agent for several of the Eastern magazines, had attempted to do a land office business on a small capital in the sound cities and had failed. Several of the magazines that he was reputed to have represented sent out word that no such man as Weaver was known to them. There was quite a scandal over the case, and Weaver left the north for San Francisco on the steamer Umatilla and came to San Francisco, where he remained trying to work advertising pipe dreams for some time. Then he disappeared. A New York special says:—Nicholas K. Weaver, whose title of commodorq was self-conferred, is known here. His picture is “Number 1796” in th<i Rogues’ Gallery at police headquarters. In the winter of 1895-96 he appeared at the Waldorf, spent money lavishly and talked of many enterprises. For one thing he represented himself a-s the agent of a Boston newspaper which proposed to publish an international edition in five languages. His greatest project, however, was the organisation of an expedition to explore unknown rivers and visit strange countries and peoples, and to furnish descriptive articles to a syndicate of publications. For this expedition he proposed to equip the schooner yacht Norna, and carry with him a number of writers, scientists and photographers. He asserted that Rudyard Kipling, because of previous engagements, refused an offer of 12,000 dollars a year to accompany the expedition. At the same time Weaver was soliciting advertisements for that international newspaper, and was said to have collected a large sum. He disappeared on February 28, 1896. saying he was going to Florida for his health. Then advertisers began to inquire about the international publication and, it is stated, found that a Boston paper mentioned by Weaver had no connection with it. The paper, however, investigated the matter and decided to pay Weaver's obligations. Weaver, returning here on June 20, 1896, was arrested by order of then Chief of Detectives O’Brien. He was known from the police records, which showed that Weaver, then Frank Wilson, alias James W. Clark and Ward,

had been arrested in 1888, charged with swindling a Chicago woollen firm, but had managed to escape punishment. The Boston paper said it would prosecute, and a Philadelphia newspaper, which said it had lost 6000 dollars through Weaver, also seemed anxious to do so. but after three days’ imprisonment he was released. After his release he continued the exploration scheme, and sailed on the Norna on November 2. 1896. Captain Morris commanded and had a crew of sixteen. With Weaver were five persons, all of whom are said to have left the before she entered the Mediterranean. The yacht carried the flag of the Atlantic Yacht Club of New York, of which Weaver was once a member. She had two steam launches for exploration and small arms and two rapid-fire guns to fight savages. She had been reported at a number of P1 At e one time Weaver returned home for his son. his wife having died here. Last March the Norna ' va ®,. r lost in the Red Sea, but she afterwards turned up all right at Colombo, Cey lon. Nothing of her s, ' b f e 9 l ' e "‘"™d derings was known until Honolulu, where it was r ®P°£ed she. was detained »» an . q in 2» n ow made by Walter Pe ' e ‘ vaS .’°? on a bottomry bond of 2ao dollars.