Mercury Came From Drains – Accused

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32379, 19 August 1970, Page 28

Mercury Came From Drains - Accused

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, August 18. Edward William James King, of Tokoroa, today took the stand to give evidence in the charges against him in the Hamilton Supreme Court.

King, defending himself before Mr Justice Moller and jury, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of theft and two of receiving. He is charged with the theft between December, 1968, and March, 1970, of 16481 b of mercury, valued at $7255, from N.Z. Forest Products, and with receiving 16481 b of mercury between the same dates, knowing it to be stolen. King is further charged with stealing between March and April, 1970, 6841 b of mercury valued at $3082.50, and with receiving 6841 b of mercury, knowing it to be stolen King received $l4OO in cash for 3111 b of mercury he sold to Morris and Watson, Ltd, Auckland, on December 5. 1969, Murray Bruce Watson told the Court Mr Watson, an accountant and secretary for the firm which refined precious metals and mercury, said he saw King on five occasions

when mercury was sold to the firm. King received a total of $5967 for 13251 b of mercury which he sold to the firm, Mr Watson said. King told him he had leukaemia and bad taken the job of cleaning old tanks at NE. Forest Products’ Enleith mill, said Mr Watson. He said -he gained the mercury from the old tanks and was entitled to it Peter John McCarthy, a sales supervisor for the Auckland firm Mathey and Garrett, said King had returned $4OO which be had been overpaid for mercury he sold to the firm on March 2, 1970. Some 3221 b of mercury was sold on that date, but King was paid for 4221 b. King said he took a job at Enleith as a rigger in February, 1969. After seeing mercury washed into drains from‘the chlorine plant at the mill, Eng said, he placed a large steel container at the end of a culvert into which the drain ran. Half an inch of mercury had settled in the tank after a week, he said. “1 regularly returned to collect mercury from the tank Sometimes it contained as much as an inch,” he said. Eng said he stored the mercury in a 12-gallon tank. Later he filled containers the man at the Enleith dump had given him, and took these to Auckland to sell. He sold the first lot of mercury to Morris and Watson, Ltd, in Auckland. During the Christmas break, when the pumping station at Enleith was dosed, the drain was dry, Eng said. He recovered more mercury from a hole washed out under the culvert He sold the final amount of mercury in Auckland to Mathey and Garrett, Ltd, after

taking a holiday in Australia early this year. “Gentlemen of the jury, I did not steal, nor did I receive mercury from persons unknown,” he said. King said he did not think he was entitled to take mercury from Enleith itself. “If 1 took mercury from inside the mill site it would be stealing.” King saia it had not occurred to him that the company might •be concerned about the loss of $lO,OOO worth of mercury. “I have seen things in Enleith which would make $lO,OOO look like a match box,” he said.