ROBBING THE RAILWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1926, Page 12

ROBBING THE RAILWAYS.

A VARIETY OF TRICKS.

TICKET COLLECTOR'S WORRIES

WORK OF THE BING BOYS.

Ticket examiners in New South Wales detect on an average some 40,000 irregularities on the railways every month. And they return to .the department something like £2000 every month which passengers pay in excess fares or through divers irregularities. That (says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph") is the department's reply to those people who suggest that there are too many examiners employed, and that tickets are examined too often. In one month checked in detail they lighted upon 30,500 passenggers travelling witnout tickets, 3600 travelling past their rightful destination, 3500 travelling in first-class carriages on second-class tickets, 1300 children without tickets, 250 workmen travelling on unauthorised trains, 180 passengers travelling on expired tickets, and 25 persons over 18 years travelling on children's tickets.

Why should honest people have to •pay more because dishonest people cheat? That question, suggested by the Railway Department, is answered in a fashion by the "sealers" themselves. If the examiners catch a dozen people "putting it over" the department, it is always a certainty that a dozen others •will be caught on information received — those caught see no reason why others should be allowed to carry on undetected!

"When I retire from this job," said a ticket examiner recently, "I am going to write a nice little book about my experiences. I shall commence with a little about my woes and joys as a porter —not a great deal in that—and then I shall swing into stories of my experiences as a 'Bing Boy!'

"'Bing Boy 1 ! You've never heard that? Well, you should be on hand when we relieve the regular staff at barriers in order to check weekly and other tickets. At once the cry goes up, 'Look out, the Bing Boys are here! Give, us your ticket, Gert!' The Elusive Female. "I can tell you right away, and every examiner will tell you the same, that for every man who puts jokes across the railways there are ten women. And the women are twenty times worse to deal with. If j. man stands up to you you know what .to say and what to do. But what are you going to do with a woman who either stands heavily on her dignity or tells you very definitely to go to some other climate?

"By far the greatest number of o_enders who cause serious trouble in the metropolitan area are those fullfledged passengers who pose as being under '18. Most of these are women, j and they give you the ..evil's own job. Whereas a man will give in after a while and make some more or less plausible excuse, a woman will argue for !hoiirs if you let her. She is always 17, "ahd- she will invent every excuse on the earth to back her cl_im. Never lost for words—not a bit of it! And never lost for an address—:any~~ old. address does. One 'girl 5 of 17 turned out to be _ married >vomac with two children, who had 'jinked' the department for something like £21. Another had got (a..ay with it so long that she had saved £40 on the deal through travelling j under age.

, "Another point is that you can usually recognise a man who has caused trouble, and watch for a repeated ofience. Not so with the girls. They seem to change their spots!

"I tell you," said the examiner, with something like revivalistic fervour, "you can't beat 'em. They will argue it out right up to the doorstep of the court. And then they stand up and plead guilty! There isn't ten per cent of accused persons who plead not guilty, and : there isn't one per cent who are not convicted." • . Where the "Sealer" Scores. A sore point with the examiners, and presumably also with the Raihvav Department, is that the laws under which they work operate in favour of the "sealer," who makes a sizable "save." The maximum fine is only £2, and as there is no provision for the payment of the fare • evaded, it is worth while paying the fine, or even "taking it out" for seven days.

"Take the case of a man who has 'scaled' from Albury to Sydney," said the examiner. "He should pay about £4 in fare. He hides under a seat or in a lavatory, and isn't picked up till the train reaches Strathfield. Then, if he can't brazen it out, he is arrested —not ■by us, but by the police—gets a free breakfast and is fined £2 or seven days. Isn't that an improvement on paving £4?

"Another 'catch' on the distance tripsis for a crowd to get in together, say, at Goulburn, and buy one ticket short.. When the collecter shows up one man fenders him the whole of the tickets. Then an argument starts about the one short. Presently the holder of the tickets affects a rage, and throws the lot on the floor. The only thing for the checker to do then is to pick Ihem up and ask the holder to hand each man his ticket—and the unlucky one left out has to pay or be prosecuted! "Yet another dodge is for four men to buy three tickets and get in together, and for two to disappear into the lavatory when the collector comes alon°\ They hand out three tickets and one man says, 'My wife's in the lavatory.' That dodge worked for quite a lonf time.

"Then there are the thoughtful souls who alter the dates on their periodical tickets. Women often do this, and when challenged they will even describe the office and the clerk where they 'bought' them. ■

"More striking still was the case of the man who carefully filled in the year on his expired metaf yearly badge "and stamped the current year on it. He escaped until an examiner looked a little closely at his badge, and saw that it had been 'worked.' That finished the ■*vickster; he grew timid at once and gave the show away."