SALE OF OPOSSUM SKINS

Evening Star, Issue 21628, 25 January 1934, Page 15

SALE OF OPOSSUM SKINS

CASE AT BALCLUTHA

SEMES Of CHARGES AGAINST DEALER

About five hours of the monthly sitting of the Magistrate’s Court at Balclutha yesterday was occupied with the hearing of a series of charges arising out of breaches of the regulations governing the sale of opossum skins. Alfred Allan Campbell, a local dealer was charged with accepting delivery of opossum skins without an official mark, with failing to enter skins in his brokers’ register, and with failing to forward to the Department of Internal Affairs a certified copy of the entries made in the month in his register of the sale of opossum skins. Arising out of these charges were five charges of forgery and five charges of uttering false documents. ' Mr P. S. Anderson appeared lor the Acclimatisation Society and Mr A. C. Hanlon for the defendant. A plea of guilty was made to the first three charges. ■ Mr i\nderson outlined the procedure governing the sale cf opossum skins, and stated that the defendant had conducted his business in these matters very laxly. He had kept a hook, but had not kept it filled in. The defendant had for a number of years been a ranger for the society, and was therefore well acquainted with the regulations governing the matter. At every sale of skins the trapper had to fill in and sign a form giving details. This was in duplicate, one copy being kept by the dealer and the other forwarded to the department. For the defendant, Mr Hanlon _ remarked that the business on both sides had not been conducted as it jmight have been, as defendant had often experienced difficulty in obtaining the required forms from the Post Office. He claimed that all the skins had been accounted for and the revenue paid, and because of this he asked for leniency. The Magistrate (Mr H. J. Dixon, S.M.) said that in his experience as a ranger the defendant had shown a complete knowledge of the regulations. On the first charge he would be fined £3. with-,13s court costs, 20s witnesses’ expenses, and £2 2s solicitor’s fee. On the second charge there would be a fine of £5, with.expenses 10s and solicitor’s fee £1 Is. On the third charge defendant was fined £2. with 10s court costs, and £1 Is solicitor’s fee.

FORGERY CHARGES DISMISSED,

i Campbell was also charged with making a false trapper’s receipt for opossum skins, purporting to have been signed by a trapper, with the intention that it should be acted upon as if it were genuine. There were four similar charges. Arising out of these charges there were five allegations of causing one L. E. Macassey, a clerk in the employ of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company to act upon the said documents as if they were genuine. Detective-ser-geant Nuttall prosecuted, and the accused was defended by Mr A. C. Hanlon and Mr J. T. Walter, Balclutha. John -Thomas Outsell, trapper, of ChaslajidSj: said he sold his first lot of about 100, to Campbell, about - the middle of June, and on that occasion he signed a statement for them. The number of skins was filled in by Campbell in his presence. He signed no other statements during the season. In all he took about 400 skinsTowards the end of July he sold over a ■hundred more to Gampbplh He had no-’ forms, and neither did Campbell, so he 'gave Campbell permission, to .-sign his name when he got the forms. . Campbell •aid something to hint about - putting more skins on the form! than-were actually sold. In ‘August he sold a third lot. making a total of about 224. The difference of : TBO skins could be accounted for by the number of small and damaged- skins which were classed “ two for one.”

_ Elizabeth Gutsell, mother of the previous witness, gave corroborative evidence. , /Howard E. Pitt, Lawrence, said that, with his father, Harry Pitt, and his ■brother Walter, he had trapped opossums last season. They sold skins to Campbell. He . sold 173 belonging to himself and his brother, and signed a statement for the lot. He did not actually see the body of the form filled in nor did he recall haying read it. He could give no suggestions as to how the form came to be post-dated. He sold 100 more in August after the season. On this occasion he signed no form, as Campbell bad none. _ He told Campbell to fill it in for him. _ Two certificates produced were not signed by, witness.- He did not sell 100 on July 11 as indicated by a further statement produced. Harry E. Pitt, father of the previous witness, said he sold ninety-three skins to Campbell on the same occasion. Howard sold skins on his own behalf that day also, ana a little later Walter also sold skins. It would not be possible for Howard to have sold 272 of his own skins by July 11. Altogether witness and his family sold Campbell 272 skins and another lot of ninety-three.

Ernest Cruickshank. farmer, of Rongahere. gave evidence of sales conducted in a similar manner. He authorised Campbell to sign a form when he got some. Harry P. Parks, fanner, of Otekura, said he had a license, but did no trapping, all of this being done by his son. The statement of the sale of sixteen skins was not signed by him, but by his son. He had not authorised his son to use his name in signing the document lan Parks, the son 1 , in evidence, said he sold the skins to Campbell and signed his father’s name, as the license was in his name. Later he sold some more skins, and though he did not fill in the statement he was fairly sure he signed it also. Alexander Blair and Allan Robb, two employees of Campbell’s, gave evidence that they had nothing to do with the actual sales, but were only concerned with collecting and paying for the skins bought. They could not recognise the handwritings on forms produced. In answer to a question Robb stated that it was frequently difficult to get the forms at the time of sale.

Lyndon Ewing Macassey, clerk, Dunedin, said he was employed by the Loan and Mercantile Company, which had handled all Campbell’s skins last year. He described how the skins were dealt with. All the statements sent in were acted upon in the belief that they were genuine. Robert Hanning, secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, stated that most of the trappers’ statements received were examined by him, and in the case of the forms produced he had acted on them, thinking them to be genuine. In one case he had given Macassey permission to sign and nil in a form to. replace one which he stated to have been lost at the office, although it had been received with the skins.

Joseph P. Moroney, clerk at the Dunedin branch of the Bank of New Zealand, gave evidence concerning the handwriting on the statements produced. These, he said, were signed by the same man in each instance. Detective Nuitall then described his interview with the accused. Campbell had said that il the statements had not

been signed by the men concerned he had signed them with their authority. Constable Boyle, of Balclutha, corroborated the evidence of the interview and the subsequent arrest. This closed the case for the prosecution. For the defence, Mr Hanlon submitted that no prima facie case bad been established. The case depended on the evidence of the four men who sold the skins. The question was whether it had been proved that the defendant made false documents. Ho reviewed the evidence, pointing out that in each case Campbell had been authorised by the men to sign their names. The law said that no document was false if authority had been given for another person to sign it, and therefore there could he no conviction of forgery. The other cases depended upon this, and fell with it. Admittedly the regulations had not been strictly adhered to, not only by Campbell, but by the society, as was instanced' by Mr Hanning’s own evidence.

In summing up, the Magistrate remarked that on the evidence it appeared that authority had been given in each instance. The scarcity of forms was quite a likely thing, and would give opportunity for irregularities to occur. There appeared to he no grounds on which the defendant could he committed for trial, and the information would accordingly be dismissed.