A " GOODS" GUARD

NZ Truth, Issue 606, 27 January 1917, Page 2

A " GOODS" GUARD

Bother About Parcels — — — / . > #t Charge of Theft ■; .;,«""" Committed for Trial. : I '. * (From "Truth's" Auckland Rep.) : ?. i-Fbr sometime 'a guard on the passenger trains, but up till recently at"tached to goods trains, George Evans, a . middle-aged man, was charged at> the Auckland : Magistrate's Court on.Tuesday, that oh January 1 . he didsteal a, parcel, of, . ladies' clothing, valued at £67/6, the property of the New Zealand Government. " ; Chief- detective McMahpn jejSj- accused feing deferidddvb'y' Mritw.s Hacke'tt. -w .>/--•■ ■•■■■"■ ; There were some dozen witnesses who gave evidence m detail, and pieced together, the . • . , STORY FOR V THE PROSECUTION was that on January 1, a goods train, of '-which the accused had charge, left; Auckland for Wellington. Amongst the goods consigned to various sta. r tions on -the ; rbute'-.was / , a" parcel of ladies clothing, consigned by Mackay, ; v Logan, Caldwell and Co., to Wallace^ and? Co., Waitoa; Th^acptosed .had' charge of UHe: train ancl" had. wiy '-bills ; showing the .destinatipnfof the goods m the particular wagons. Wfaen the train arrived, at .Papakura, the stationmaster there * noticed Evans remove a parcel from a wagon to a van, • and after the train.,had departed from Papakura; he rang up the station at Mercer, the upsliot being that" wtogn; /the train arrived at Mercer, a clerk, searched; wagon 11589, discovered •£h&t a parcel '■ consigned to Wallace: aSd Co./ Wajtoa, was missing. Theparcel would weigh somewhere about, -281bs, and was about 'two feet long. ,• SUBSEQUENT TO THE * DISCOVERY 5 that the parcel was missing, Constable .Gourley was instructed to make in-* .yestigations, ,4- n d- Vhe ,; interviewed EVans, whose explanation then was; 'that he had put a parcel off at Whan- ■ jjjatata. Inquiries elicited the A fact that a parcel and some iron bad been unloaded at Whangarata, but this was .only a small 71bs parcel, consigned to* ;a : ' Mr, Frazer, by Wingate and Co. On January 4, the manager for Wai -si lace and^Cp., wrote to the claims department o£ the. Railway Department,: ■touchingvthe^ttite^ng parcel. Search'" was ; ntadji/ of. e^y^^ruck connected with that .particular t'^Sln and inquiries 'made at'-eacb^of^et^ttons at which /the, train: had ifioS^eop^ut there was no .trace of : th^vjgiisslng parcel. Accused had said" that it was possible that the wrong paTcel was put out at Whangarata, but when told that the parcel he put off at Whangarata^ was not the one he had removed front the wagdn to the van at Papakura and which was addressed to Wallace and Cb. r Waitoa, ' Evan's r refused to give any explanation, and said perhaps it would be as well if they (the police); charged Mm witlr*the theft. Constable, Gourley met this view, and then Evans wanted to . know why he was being charged, and .was told because he; refused to give amy explanation. Ac-j cuaed then made a statement (pro-: duced), which he signed, m wfoich he, said that, at Papakura he had taken: a /parcel from^a^jsvagon' to a van m; order to save time at Whangarata, but then discovered that he had TAKEN THE WRONG PARCEL, \ and he returned it to a wagon, but; it was possible ho had not returned^ it to the , same wagon. All efforts to trace ' the missing parcel had failed, and on January l2, Evans was arrested on the. present ' charge. . When interviewed first, Evans-' off ered^ Constable Gourley the keys of hls'hpuse ami invited a search, but the house was not searched till after his arrest. . '-The accused pleaded not guilty, reserved his defence, and was committed for trial. „