RAID ON SHIP

Southland Times, Issue 22041, 14 June 1933, Page 8

RAID ON SHIP

SILVER SEIZED attempted export FOUR MEN FINED (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 13. Silver coin to the value of £727 seized when the Wanganella was raided last Thursday was forfeited to the Crown to-day and fines totalling £159 were imposed on four men charged with attempting to export money from New Zealand. James Freeston, a steward, was charged with attempting to export coin valued at £252 11/-; the ship’s barber, Henry Morgan, with exporting a quantity valued at £225 6/-; the fourth officer, Douglas Jack Strath, coin valued at £26 8/6; and James Boyne, a seaman, coin valued at £2O 18/6. The accused pleaded guilty. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr Macassey, asked for maximum £5O penalties on Freeston and Morgan and these wereimposed. Strath and Boyne were each fined £25. • . On behalf of the defendants it was stated that as a result of the offences all had lost their employment. A feature of the proceedings was the production of a large belt containing £l7O worth of silver alleged to have been used by Freeston to carry coin on the ship. Boyne had £25 of silver hidden in a gumboot. Silver produced and valued at £l9o remaining unclaimed was stated _to have been found in a cabin occupied by two ladies, and Freeston is stated to have been seen leaving this cabin when the ship was raided. Mr Macassey said the Treasury desired him to point out that the cases were very serious, as it meant depleting the silver coinage and people who were taking out the silver were making a profit of 25 per centum. If the traffic was not stopped the Dominion would be further handicapped and a great loss and inconvenience would result. Coin being exported would make 25 per cent, profit out of the exchange, and as all surplus exchange was purchased by the Government under the Banks’ Indemnity Exchange Act, the profit was made at the direct expense of the New Zealand taxpayer. It was desired to make an example in all the cases. Mr Macassey said that about £b(M worth would altogether be forfeited. “We suggest this is not money belonging to these men. We suggest they were acting for someone else, but there is no reason why the„ full penalty should not be imposed.” Mr Leicester, for Freeston, Boyne and Morgan, said this was a type of case in which the Court should not lose a sense of proportion. The Wanganella was held up for some five hours and he understood that as a result of that delay the company suffered considerable loss, the blame for that loss being attributed to accused. It had been explained to them that under no circumstances could they resume their association with the company. Freeston had been at sea for twenty years. As a result of losing his employment he would be stranded in New Zealand. The money represented all his capital and he intended taking it to Australia with the idea of making profit. Morgan would also be stranded. He received a shilling in the pound for taking the money to Australia and had he been successful would only have received £l2. In regard to Boyne, his case showed what a travesty of justice would result if the Court acceded to the Crown Prosecutor’s request. He received £2O in wages and changed the notes into silver, the idea being to increase the money to enable him to pay the balance of the expenses of his mother’s funeral. Counsel said that if substantial penalties were imposed and the silver confiscated, as he supposed it would be, they would have difficulty in finding money to pay the fines, the result being they would have to serve a term of imprisonment which was not contemplated by the legislature. A special plea was made for leniency for Strath, the fourth officer, by Mr T. B. McCarthy. Mr Page said the offences were difficult to' detect and exporting silver seemed to have assumed substantial proportions. LIMITED POWERS POLICE IN AUSTRALIA. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Sydney, June 13. The Sydney Morning Herald says the police in New South Wales, who have been working with the New Zealand authorities to prevent the importation of silver coin from that Dominion into Australia, have been handicapped by their limited powers under the existing Acts. Since the differences in the exchange occurred thousands of pounds worth of silver have been brought to Sydney by intercolonial liners. Although the New Zealand authorities made it an offence to export silver the practice has persisted, and the co-oper-ation of the New South Wales police was obtained, but the authorities have found it was not an offence to import silver coin into Australia. They questioned many offenders and discovered hundreds of pounds worth of coin on ships arriving from New Zealand, but could take no direct action.