CONFIDENTIAL FILES FOUND ON RIVERBANK

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28794, 15 January 1959, Page 8

CONFIDENTIAL FILES FOUND ON RIVERBANK

The Health Department is determined to find ont why confidential flies came to be lying, half hidden in the grass, on the bank of the Mataura river, and a senior officer is now in Christchurch making a full investigation. The flies, which contain the case histories of servicemen who contracted venereal disease in Christchurch and nearby military establishments toward the end of the war, were found near the Mataura paper mills. They were apparently part of a consignment of waste paper sold to the mill for pulping and were dumped on the riverbank awaiting disposal. From their tattered condition they may have been lying there for several years. Legible Files But a number of them are quite legible. They contain the names of soldiers and airmen, details of their cases, and of their civilian contacts. Several are believed to have been removed already by passers-by. After the war the Health Department sold quite a lot of departmental files for scrap, because of the paper shortage. These may be some of them, and they could have been lying on the riverbank for up to 13 years. The works manager at the mill, Mr R. J. Luck, Is reported to have said that confidential material bought from banks and the Inland Revenue Department is held in sealed trucks until a representative calls to supervise the pulping After checking his company’s records back to 1955 he could find no instance of the mill buying waste paper directly from the Health Department, Mr Luck said. The files found on the riverbank could have been bought

through a waste paper merchant he said.

He would have the riverbank searched, he said, and any other files found would be destroyed immediately. On Tuesday this week, after the department had been told of the discovery of 12 of the files, Mr J. W. Waldron, an administrative assistant at the head office, in Wellington, arrived in Christchurch.

He is here now and the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. A. Douglas), said yesterday that his report would be ready in about a week.

“It is quite impossible for me to make any comment until the investigating officer has made his report," said Dr. Douglas, who would not give the man’s name for publication. “He is making a full investigation, with the co-operation of the local office.’’