Question on pillaging

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33513, 19 April 1974, Page 2

Question on pillaging

(New Zealand Press Association) , AUCKLAND, April 18. The Government was asked today for a statement about policing of pillaging on the waterfront.

Particularly important was a clear statement of the responsibilities of the police under the Crimes 'Act and the Police Offences Act to combat theft, said the Acting Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon).

In the light of. recent “Nationwide” television programmes the public needed to know whether these acts were enforced on the waterfront.

“The fact that a university lawyer with police experience has suggested that the police are not carrying out their functions on the waterfront is a matter for serious public concern and calls for urgent Government action,” said Mr Muldoon. Asked if he was concerned that allegations of police turning a blind eye on the wharves carried back to the period of the National Government, Mr Muldoon said that this was irrelevant. This was the first time that any National M.P.s, including the former Minister of Police (Mr Thomson) had heard it stated that policing stopped at the wharf gates. The Auckland Watersiders’ Union disputes officer (Mr J. Hewitt) said today that an Auckland docker caught drinking a can of - orange juice from a vessel’s cargo was suspended from work on the waterfront for nine months.

The incident, which occurred two years ago, was the last one in which a member had been, taken before the union for pillaging, he said. It showed how seriously pillaging was frowned on by the union.

In the last two years only one watersider had been convicted of pillaging. If a case was reported to union officials the union dealt with it without referring it to the police. Watersiders frowned on pillaging and were anxious to protect their livelihood, Mr Hewitt said.

When the union took action this did not constitute a “kangaroo court” —the matter was handled according to the union’s properly constituted rules. - Mr Hewitt said that the Auckland union had a file of 130 documents in which masters and chief officers had certified that pillaging had taken place on their vessels before the ships’ arrival at Auckland.

Tax service. — Representatives of an Auckland tax service had, without permission, attached stickers advertising their firm on tax return forms left on post office counters for collection by taxpayers, the regional controller of the Inland Revenue Departmen' (Mr A. C. Manning) said yesterday.—(P.A.)