STOLEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 69, 21 March 1940, Page 8

STOLEN.

TIME RECORDS. RAID DURING NIGHT. AFTER RELIEF JOB STOPPED. « GRAVE ALLEGATIONS. (By Tt'li'grraiih.—Wess Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Allegations were made by Mr. A. R. Blank to-day that after the relief works at the Waitikeri golf link.s had been closed down by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. Scrapie, on Tuesday, the foreman's office was raided and all the books and records and files relating to the operation of the ji>li were stolen. The raid took place after dark and the office was forcibly broken open. Other allegations made by Mr. Blank related to the destruction of tools and equipment, wilful damage to motor ' trucks and thefts of petrol. The loea to the club through tlbe activities of the men responsible ran into several hundred* of pounds, he declared. Interviewed to-day Mr. Blank eaid that on four different occasions the police had been called ill to investigate thefts of petrol. On one occasion a 40gallon drum of jvetrol was stolen, and altogether some hundreds of gallons had been unlawfully removed from the shed. On each occasion it had been found the doors of the shed had been forced open, and the job appeared* to have been done by men who knew the run of the ropes and the contents of the sheil. Wilful damage, he said, had been done to the trucks owned by the club. Three of these had been purchased and two were now permanently out of commission because of the damage that had been done to them. Just recently a crank handle was thrown into the radiator of the remaining truck, doing £13 in damage. A man when spoken to about this incident replied: "It is a pity it did not cost £20." In six months £80 had been spent in repairing damage.

Mr. Blank added that there had been constant trouble with the men, and when a man was threatened witli dismissal for unsatisfactory work go-slow methods were adopted by his mates. Recently eight men were warned for not pulling their weight and tlii* resulted in a stopwork meeting which lasted from 8 a.m. to 10.30 a.m.

A sensation was caused earlier in the week when Mr. Seniple dismissed 57 men engaged on the job, alleging that they were not "playing the game."