ALLEGED RAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24254, 23 March 1940, Page 12

ALLEGED RAID

OFFICE AT CLOSED RELIEF JOB SERIOUS CHARGES MADE DESTRUCTION AND DAMAGE (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Mar. 21. Allegations were made by Mr A. R. Blank to-day that after the relief works at the Waitikeri golf links had been closed down by the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple) on Tuesday, the foreman's office wns raided,' and all 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 thefts of petrol. The loss to th.e club through the activities of the men responsible ran into several hundreds of pounds, he declared. Interviewed to-day, Mr Blank said that on four different occasions the police had been called in to investigate thefts of petrol. On one occasion a 40-gallon drum of petrol was stolen, and altogether some hundreds of gallons had been unlawfully removed from the shed. On each occasion that a theft was reported, it was found that the doors of the shed had been forced open, and the iob appeared to have been done by men who knew the run of the ropes and the contents of the shed. Wilful damage had been done to trucks owned by the club, he added. Three of these had been purchased and two were now permanently out of commission because of the damage that had been done to them. Just recently the crank handle was thrown into the radiator of the remaining truck, doing damage costing £l3.

A man, when spoken to about this incident, Mr Blank alleged, replied: " It was a pity it did not cost £26 " In six months £BO was 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 stopwork meeting which lasted from 8 a.m. to 10.30 a.m.