Returns return again

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 4

Returns return again

Some of the 1977 tax returns found last week in an unattended waste bin in a Christchurch street turned up again yesterday — in another waste bin. About 10 packets of the returns, some opened, were in a waste bin delivered to Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company in Langdons Road, Papanui, an employee there said yesterday. The packets had apparently stayed in the bin when the bin was emptied. Noone had checked the bin, the employee said. “Some of the packets were intact, wrapped in brown paper. Others had broken open. People could look through them.” The returns were still in the bin at

Firestone last evening. They will be taken away when the bin is full. Mogal Bin Services, Ltd, remove full bins about every two days replacing these with empty bins. Last Thursday completed 1977 returns from the former Ministry of Works building were left in an unattended waste bin in Worcester Street. The rear door of the bin was open and some passers-by took packets of returns. The Inland Revenue Department said someone from the staff should have been watching the bin. Because of pressure of work, a wasteremoval firm had been hired to dispose of the forms. The forms were to have been buried.