ROBBED THE PIPER

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 197, 21 August 1930, Page 10

ROBBED THE PIPER

WHILE PIPES SKIRLED.

THEFT FROM HUT.

SUM OF £60 MISSING.

PUREWA WORKER'S LOSS.

Early last evening, while the hills echoed the skirl of bagpipes played by George Henry Mist, a man employed on the waterfront road work at Purewa Camp, near / Kohimarama, someone entered his hut and stole £60.

Tho robbery was a mean and despicable one, for Mr. Mist, a-young man, has worked hard at the camp for the past three years. The money stolen included £17 odd which he received only last evening as wages.

"X had £42 in notes for the past week," he told a "Star" reporter -at tho camp this morning. "Most of this money belonged to my father, who is at present working in the far North. He sent some money down for me to bank, as he is not near a bank where lie is employed. This money, together with my own, v totalled £42. Yesterday was pay day, and after I knocked off last evening I had two envelopes containing i£l7 in notes and a quantity of silver. I usually walk over the hills playing my bagpipes after tea at night, and last evening, about half-past six, I took the pipes off the wall "and went out of my hut. Before going I placed tho £42 and the £17 odd on the top of a small trunk lying under my bed. I did not take the money with me because it was so bulky. I left the hut and closed tho door. 1 was only_ away about an hour playing the pipes in fact I did not go very far from my hut— and some time after I returned I looked at the trunk, and was shocked to find that all the money had gone."

Mr. Mist added that his room showed no signs of having been ransacked, or even disturbed- The small trunk was lyinf in the same position under the bed "as when he left. With the exception of almost a pound's worth of silver, the money stolen was made up of one £10 note and a number of £5 and £1 notes. He had intended to bank the money before, hut did' not have time to go to town. . . . This morning detectives visited tlie camp, where 150 men are employed, and made inquiries'.