SUPPOSED PARLIAMENTARY THEFT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIIII, Issue 3625, 11 September 1912, Page 9

SUPPOSED PARLIAMENTARY THEFT.

SEQUEL TO DISAPPEARANCE OF A'OLUMES OF CONSOLIDATED STATUTES. fPER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, Sept. 10. Prior to the departure of the steamer Atua for Suva to-day. Detectives Hammond and Quartermain arrested a man named Charles Fish on a charge of absconding from hail at AVellington. He was brought before the Police Court later in the day and remanded to appear at AYellington next Tuesday. The original charge upon which he appeared at AYellington, when’ll© was remanded and allowed bail, was that of stealing from Parliament buildings. Wellington, a number of volumes of the Consolidated Statutes, of a total value of about LI 00-

Fish was employed as library messenger for about 11 years and it is alleged that when the Statutes were consolidated in 1908 and the new volumes were in general demand, he stole them at intervals and sold them to second-hand hook dealers, who in turn resold them to solicitors and those requiring them. A number of the missing volumes have been recovered, some of them being found in Auckland, Hamilton, and other places. AY hen arrested, Fish had a ticket for Suva in his'possession in the name of AY. C. AYatkins. He had'also a large sum of money.