THEFT AND DAMAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 97, 23 March 1940, Page 8

THEFT AND DAMAGE

RELIEF WORKS SITE. Pr-'ss Association. CHRISTCHURCH, March 21. Allegations were made by Mr A. R-Blank'to-dav that, after the relief works at the Waitikeri golf links had been closed down by Hon. R. Semple on Tuesday, the foreman’s office was raided and all the books, records, and files relating to the operation of the job were stolen. The raid took place after dark, and the office was forcibly broken open. Other allegations made by Mr Blank related to the destruction of tools and equipment, wilful damage to motor trucks, and t belts of petrol. The loss to the club through the activities of the men responsible ran into several hundreds of pounds, lie declared. Interviewed to<ln.v, Mr Blank sain that on font different occasions the police had been called in to investigate thefts of petrol. On one occasion a 40 gallon drum of petrol had been stolen, and altogether some hundreds of gallons had been unlawfully removed from the shed. On each occasion the theft was reported it was found the doors of the shed had been forced open, and the job appeared to have been done by men who knew the run of the iopcs and the contents of the shed. Wilful damage had been done to trucks own etl by the club. Three ofj these had been purchased and two were now permanently out of commission because of the damage that had been done to them. Just recently a crank handle was thrown into thej radiator of the remaining truck, doing | £l3 worth of damage. A man wherf: spoken to about this incident replied : “It was a pitv it did not cost £26. In six months £BO had been spent' in repairing damage. Mr Blank added, that there had been constant trouble! with the men, and when a man was threatened with dismissal for unsatisfactory work “go-slow” methods were adopted by his mates. Recently eight men were warned for not pulling their, weight, and this resulted in a stop-! work meeting which lasted from 8 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. . • ' U lirSk. ,