LINER’S SAFE ROBBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 December 1938, Page 5

LINER’S SAFE ROBBED

AUCKLAND DISCOVERY

[PER PBESS ASSOCIATION.]

AUCKLAND, December 13.

A sensation was caused on the waterfront and on board the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liner Rangitata shortly before noon to-day. when it. was discovered that. £l6OO was missing from the safe in the captain’s cabin. The robbery was daring and showed evidence of having been carefully 7 planned. The master, Captain Edward Holland, was absent from the ship during the week-end. He closed the safe on Friday evening, and on his ring of keys he kept the only keys that fitted the safe. When he re-opened the safe at, 11.30 to-day he was startled to find that all the currency in the safe, £3OO in travellers’ cheques and £l3OO in Bank of England notes, had been removed. The safe showed no evidence of having been tampered with, and it was apparent that a duplicate or skeleton key had been used. The money was the property of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Although Captain Holland returned to the Rangitata on .Sunday night, he. had no occasion to open the safe, so that there is no indication when the robbery took place. The loss was immediately reported to the manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Queen’s wharf police. Detectives hurried to the Rangitata, which is berthed at Central wharf, and an immediate investigation was begun. It, is believed that during the captain’s absence from the ship the cabin in which the safe stood was kept locked. It is quite common for large sums of money to be kept, in the safes of the captain and purser in a large passenger ship. However, such thefts as the audacious robbery on the Rangitata are rare so far as New Zealand ports are concerned.