CARGO BROACHED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20363, 27 September 1940, Page 2

CARGO BROACHED

GAOL FOR SEAMEN “TRIED TO BLUFF IT OUT” THEFT OF FISH ON MAORI “I think you two made your case worse by trying to bluff it out and telling lies,” said Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in Wellington, when imposing a sentence of one month’s imprisonment with hard labour upon Ralph Copley, aged 32, a seaman, and Robert Adams, aged 37, a seaman, who were jointly charged with the theft of some crayfish and two other fish, forming part nf the deck cargo of the Maori when she was at Lyttelton on September 13. The men denied the charge. Copley was represented by Mr. F. W. Ongley. Detective - Sergeant P. Doyle, who presecuted, said that the two men were part of the crew of the Maori, and both were in the engineroom. The chief officer saw the accused among the deck cargo opening a case of fish. They had a hammer and a bucket, and when the officer approached he found that they had four or five crayfish and some other fish in a bucket. He spoke to them, and Copley said it was “a fair catch”; Adams replied that the bucket had been there before. The officer asked why broach the cargo when they could buy fish for a few shillings In the town, and Adams said: “If we put it back, will it be all right?” Mr. Ongley, summarising Copley’s case, said that the .defendant went on deck for a ‘breather.’ Immediately he got there, he saw Adams by the rail, and the mate came along and said: “What’s going on here?” Copley was taken aback, The mate went off into a tirade and said that stuff had been taken for some time, and he had got to get somebody for it. He said he was going to report the matter to the union, and Copley declined to have anything further to say. There was neither a hammer nor a bucket there, and the men had not interfered with the cases of fish.