WELLINGTON FRAUDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2008, 18 February 1907, Page 3

WELLINGTON FRAUDS.

ACQUITTAL OF ALLEGED ABETTOR OF A AV. PURVIS THE SECRET DISCOUNT SYSTEM. Press Association. WELLINGTON, last night. Sydney George Ingram, an employee of Te Aro House, a city drapery establishment, pleaded not o-uilty‘ to having aided and abetted \ W. Purvis, late secretary of the Wellington Benevolent Institution, ill frauds which Purvis perpetrated on the trustees of that body, for which he is now serving a term oi imprisonment. Tlie case for the Crown was that Ingram, at tlie request ol Purvis, made out .bogus invoices against the trustees, in which items which stood charged to Burn is private account were transferred as charges against' the trustees,and paid for by them. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty after half an hour’s retirement. . In summing up the evidence in tlie case against Sydney Ingram, Mr Justice Cooper said that the Te Aro House Company management had allowed Purvis 25 per cent, discount on all goods purchased privately by bim, simply because lie was the secretary to an institution from which 1 e Aro House Company had a contract te supply goods. It was a most improper thing, and deserved an expression of the strongest disapproval. The jury added a rider to their verdict, endorsing His Honor’s remarks.

FLOODS AT GREAT BARRIER. THREE AUSTRIANS MISSING. Press Association. AUCKLAND, last night. Information reached town by tlio s.s. Chelmsford on Friday night that, the Austrian camp at Great Barrier Island had boon washed away, and three of its occupants nro missing. A freshet undermined the camp, which without! warning was engulfed in tho swollen torrent. Four Austrians wore in the camp at the time, and all were precipitated into tho stream. Three wore carried away, and it is feared were drowned. ’The fourth managed with difficulty to reach tlio bank and struggle out' of tho water. Tho names of tho men are not available.