ROBBERY IN THE POST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 50, 27 February 1918, Page 4

ROBBERY IN THE POST.

AUSTRALIAN MYSTERY. The theft of a mail bag containing £I6OO in notes, belonging, to the Bank of New South Wales, between the parcels post office at the Sydney Central railway station and the post office at Brewarrina, is reported by the Sydney Sun. It gives "the following list of previous robberies from the post : March 7: Registered mail bag, con- , taining £2OOO in notes, belonging to thra English, Scottish, and Australian Bank:, Sydney; stolen beMVeeu Bulli and Syd> nev. March 26: Registered packet of watches, worth £2OO, stolen from . a , . strongroom, the door of which had been left 'open. November 5: Registered , packet, containing £ISOO in notes, be T long to the Enerlish, Scottish, and Australian Bank, Sydner; stolen betweon Bulli and Sydney. Besides these, there are said to have been many other rob-, beries in the post involving the loss of thousands of pounds worth of public property. , The' disappearance of the registered bag and its valuable contents is an abaoiute mystery. • The parcel of notes was registered and posted on January l» bv an officer of th'e bank. ' \ ..\ 'With three other registered parcels .it, . was placed in a registered bag. That . bag was T>ut into the ordinary mail ba.g . for Brewarrina, which, aftered, was placed on the tram for Brewarrina. - \ .• ut» Betwen then and the time the bag reached its destination, 518 ■ miles away, it was rifled, arid the b*? , stolen. When the bag'reached ■Brewarrina it was intact, with the seal and everything else apparently m order. But when it was opened it was noticed immediately that the valuable portion of . ite contents had disapeared. . The stolen money, it was stated, consisted solely of new notes, made up oa follows :-£SOO worth of £lO notes £SOO worth of £5 notes, £SOO worth of £1 notes, £IOO worth of 10s notes. ••« The numbers of the notes, with the exception of those of 10s, are as iollow : —£lo, W519621 *o WSI9OTO; £o, 186001 Vto 186110 V ; £l, A661501J to A662000J. The notes were done up m a parcel, and registered m.the ordinary - way . Under the postal regulations it was necessary that the parcel should be branded "Australian Notes" on the out--81 Three robberies of notes have taken place in -a' brief period, and the officials are apparently no wiser now than when thev investigated the first of the thefts in March of last year 'Every care ;u* . stated to be taken, 'and the hand-to- \ hand system carried out as far as possible, but still the robberies occur. It is not even known where the TObbenest are committed—whether in transit oral the ending'or receiving station. The details of the robberies, however, suggest that they have been carried out after the bacrs have beoen despatched. • Referring to the robbery,, the Deputy Postmaster-General said? "We thought, particularly after previous robberies, that we had taken every precautievi to prevent another. There - ' did not seem to be a' "possible ' loopholo through which registered' parcels 'botild escape. -Of course," I have no idea where the leak ie, but clsarly there is one."