[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CARGO BROACHERS PUNISHED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 46, 24 February 1913, Page 3

[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CARGO BROACHERS PUNISHED

AUCKLAND, 23rd February. Before Mr. Justice Edwards on Saturday, Harry Ferguson Clark and Frederick "Hyde i" were charged with stealing five ■dozen pairs of socks, either from, the hold of the Mokoia or from the Avharf at Auckland on 21st .November.- vHycter was an A.iJ. member of the Mokoia's crew, and was in charge oi No. 3 hold, with a special commission to prevent pilfering, pud Clarke wae> a casual l labourer employed by the Union Company to work tho cargo at No. 3 h"o!d. The Crown Pfo&eCulov explained that tho goode stolen \ver«i pat t [of a consignment to Archibald 'Clark and Sons, of Auckland, transhipped ex Rotorua at Wellington, and brought on .to Auckland by tin- 1 Mokoia. v After, b'iarir.^ the evidence, the jury rotturned z verdict of giiilty. (Ilafk and Il^dei weru further charged with the theK of 13 pint bottle's of beer froni the cargo of the Mokoia, and of a

book taken from, a trunk, al^o in tho vessel's cargo. The jury, leturned a, verdict of guilty. In, passing, sentence, his Honour Te-ferred-to Clark's lengthy and discreditable record of" convictions Jor theft (on ,one occasion), resisting the police, drunkenneee. and dicorderly conduct, and obscene language. - ".This sort of thing," he said, referring to pillaging, "has got to be -.put down.'. ,He further remarked that.defalcations of this kind were passed ok by shipping companies to honest people, and in tlresa hard times honest people could not, afford to keep men like Clark 'idle. Prisoner was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, with hard labour, on each charge, 'the sentences'to be concurrent. . , Hyder," who had ". previously borne a good ■ character,, was sentenced to 18 month?' imprisonment, with hard labour. The- Judge said 'that it-was to be feared that there were dozens of cases of pilfering undetected for every" one that was sheeted home.