GOODS SHEDS PILFERING.

NZ Truth, Issue 59, 4 August 1906, Page 6

GOODS SHEDS PILFERING.

Lashins and Lavins Ay Grog.

Tragic Sequel to a Painful Discovery*

One of the most difficult forms of theft that occur m this damnably diphonest world is that which takes place at railway goods? sheds. No matter how strict. the supervision exercised— and if. is said to ho never lax—pilfering is the order of the day, from week to week, month to month, and year to year. Those who engage m the nefarious business work m with each other, and when a consignee reports to the police that his cases have been tampered with, and some of the contents stolen, the detectives stroll along to make investigations, with very little prospect of snaring the thief or thieves, because they know from many long years' experience that the purloining is done so adroitly as to give them little hope. Of course m a great many instances blame isn't levelled at the men engaged at the sheds, because importers know from bitter experience that a good deal of stealing goes on on shipboard on the way out to the colony. In other cases they can't say where they were robbed, on sea or on shore ; but it is devilishly annoying wherever it happens. At any rate (railway men, or .at least those employed about the sheds, are often under suspicion, and chat suspicion is well fbunded is too 'well known m commercial circles; the trouble is to lay the culprits hv the heels. Grog consignments, are more FREQUENTLY TAMPERED WITH than any other class of stuff, arid Mr H. Shand, of the firm of Shand and Co., wine and spirit- merchants, of Christchurch, stated m Court the other day that few shipments caipc along that weren't tampered with. His appearance m Court was brought siboiit m a curir-u:; way. 1-1 if: ov/n employe?, a man ol 012, named Wil-

liam Henry Whale, who had been with the firm for as long as 30 years, was arrested at the goods shed by Tecs. Bishop ami Ward for stealing three American axes from a case lodged there belonging to Craddoclc and Orr. Shand and C 0. ,( like other merchants who do a similar line of 'business, have a man employed at the sheds all the time, and there are a number of lockers for their use into which sample bottles of spirits, taken from the bulk, are temporarily stored. For over 20 years had Whale looked after the interests of his firm at those sheds, and he was recognised as a man of probity and integrity. But when the tecs went looking for the three missing axes:, the other clay Tihey found one m one of Whale's iocker;-;, which are always kept locked. So they charged him with theft.. As they saw that he had also 28 bottles of assorted spirits, and 50 bottles of bulk stuff stowed there they charged, him with stealing that 'little lot also. Th.; Shand people were quite surprised. The ASSORTMENT OF GROGwas produced m Court, and Manager Morris said that the lockers were provided for the stowage of samples taken from the bulk whi6h could be removed as convenient. All capsuled lkiuor was to be sent to the store right away, or as soon as possible. He knew cases arrived short m contents, and there were breakages, and that Whale made the casss good, but the capsuled stuff wasn't supposed to' be kept there at all. Whale bore a' splendid character ; he -didn't suggest that he ha>d stolen the stuff or Kept it* purposely, but would say; that it was a grave breach of duty. One bottle ■ of sin m Court must have been m the, locker for four years. Tec's. Bishop and Ward said that 'WHALE'S EXCUSE was that he always got two or three dozen bottles of -stuff from the firm at 'Christmas .-trine,, and he kept it iirthe ■ lockers'. Lawyer Russell' made a good defence and. pointed .out that the golice hadn't shown that .'Whale' had sold the grog ; -also it was m Shand.'s own possession, as it was m their own lockers. The, 'bench i-d-jsmissied the case, but on the- second/charge, . that of stealing the axe,. jfmed him 40s. ■■ His explanation Was 1 that, a temporary, hand had asked him to. keep the axe m his locker fox .him ; he. •didn't know the man. nor could he 'identify him'; This looked altogether too thin. Mr H, Shand £aye his old- employee a; "character" before judgment was pronounced, but it availed not. He admitted that he had sacked Whale when he heard of his arrest for theft. A TRAGIC SEQUEL. : '.'Truth's" representative hears of a very sad afiair inconnectioh with the investigations at these goods , sheds. An employee of another big firm m Christchurch incidentally hart his lockers overhauled, and a quantity of bottles of spirits were discovered therein ; it was a very small amount compared to that mentioned m the case above, but still those bottles shouldn't have been there ; the warehouse of the firm was their proper abode. The firm got to hear of it and INCONTINENTLY SACKED HIM.' He is a man of very sensitive feelings, and "took his abrupt dismissal very much, to heart, so much- so that ho took to drink. The police weren't preferring any charge against him at all, ami he was quite free. One night, however,' he was picked up m a state of helpless drunkenness, and was so bad as the result of his foolish debauch that on the morning following he was remanded for medical treatment m the gaol hospital. He' got all right, and was brought back to the police station on the eve of nis appearance at Court, when he would have been treated as a first offender because there was nothing a.?ain»t him previously. But the unfortunate fellow had been brooding and was despondent ; incarceration induces PROFOUND MELANCHOLIA m some people, especially when recovering from a "drunk," and after tea he suddenly developed symptoms of insanity, and weut raving mad. He tore all his clothes tq ribbons m maniacal fury, and assistance was at once at hand to give him necessary attention to prevent him doing him-' self harm by dashing his. brain 5 ? out. against the walls of his cell as other prisoners have done before him. A doctor was sent for, and the man watched all night. Next morning the charge of drunkenness was withdrawn at the Police Court, and the unfortunate was taken out to the Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum.