TRAMPS ON TRAINS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22505, 25 February 1935, Page 7

TRAMPS ON TRAINS

PILFERING OF GOODS PITCHED BATTLE WITH POLICE ifrom Our OWn (/orresponoent.) SYDNEY, February 14. Railway officials and police in the Australian States have had a new work thrust on them during the past few y ears —that of combating the activities of unemployed youths and men who " jump the rattler" in order to move about the country in search for work or for less honest purposes. It has become a social problem. When the practice first became prevalent a lenient view was takeh of the misdemeanour of stealing train rides, as it was recognised that most of the men were genuinely seeking employment. But, as with so many other privileges, the few who abused the leniency" made., the many. suffer It was found that a large criminal element was creeping into the men detected in trucks, from which pilfering became rife. Several organised gangs have been broken up after causing railway departments and consignees heavy losses through theft. The usual method was for some members of a gang to board, a goods train as it ; was lumbering slowly up a steep grade, and toss from trucks bales of wool, cases of food and clothing, arid any other goods they thought worth stealing. Confederates with a lorry would retrieve goods thus thrown to tue side of a line, and hurry with them to a place from which their disposal could be arranged. The worst of these gangs operated on a stretch of line between Parramatta and the Blue Mountains, where a series of grades, with a motor road running close to the railway, made conditions ideal for the pilferers' plans. Several thousands of pounds' worth of wool wits thus stolen before detectives, after several weeks' intensive watch, caught the gang red-} - nded and put thorn behind prison bars.

A noticeable feature of these " train scale*'" activities is that seasonal work in certain districts, such as fruit picking in the Leeton area of New South Wales and Mildura in Victoria, encourages them to become more numerous. This year Victorian police and railway detectives have had pitched battles with parties of men detected on trains. When put off the trains they have gone to the nearest townships and menacingly demanded food and money, causing residents of several of the smaller towns to form associations for their own protection. The experiences of Woom along have been remarkable. That town on the line between Melbourne and Mildura has been used as a place where thorough searches of trains arc made, and every train yields its quota of illegal travellers.

"The men put off," said a Woomalong resident, " are more desperate and more in need of food than they have been in provious years. They scatter through the town demanding food, returning to the same houses again and again. If food is refused them they become aggressive and make threats. As the invasion becomes worse parts of the town are being virtually terrorised. Nearly every resident has a shotgun, and if our. families are menaced we will not hesitate to use them, if only to threaten."