ALL BLACKS’ SELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1935, Page 7

ALL BLACKS’ SELECTION

FRAUD IN COMPETITION CRIME COMMITTED BY POSTMAN. FALSE DATE STAMP ON LETTER. CORRECT LIST OF TEAM ENTERED By Telegraph—Press Association. Dannevirke, July 11. Arising out of a competition conducted at Wellington in connection with the selection of the New Zealand Rugby team for the English tour, Albert Frederick Patterson, a Dannevirke postman, pleaded guilty to a charge in the Magistrate’s Court of attempting to obtain £5O from Harold Edward Taylor, the promoter of the Competition, by false pretences. The police said the names of the team were sent out by wireless on Saturday and Sunday evenings, June 15 and 16. Letters containing the selection of players were to bear- a postmark dated not later than June 15, 6 p.m. On June 18 a letter purporting to come from C. J. Noble, hairdresser, Dannevirke, was received at Wellington, being the first correct list supplied. It bore a Dannevirke post office date stamp of June 15, and the time of 6 p.m. . . A departmental inquiry disclosed that the date stamp time was one not officially recorded at the Dannevike post office, as no mails were leaving at that hour. Patterson on June 13 in the mail room had made some reference to what an easy matter it would be to date stamp a letter on June 15 and forward it after the result of the All Blacks’ selection had come to hand. He admitted making out the entry in Noble’s name. After having forwarded the letter he told Noble what he had done. . Patterson was admitted to probation for 12 months, the magistrate remarking that the consequences might have been more serious had the money been obtained. Suppression of his name was refused.