Timber Found On Beach Not Finder’s Property, States Magistrate

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 May 1948, Page 6

Timber Found On Beach Not Finder’s Property, States Magistrate

(P.A.) Gisborne, May 26. A warning to the public to use excessive care in removing anything from a beach, because if the article could be identified by the owner it became a case of theft, was issued by Mr. E. L. Walton S.M., in the Police Court today. The magistrate dismissed, under a section of the J.P’s. Act, a charge against Ivan Napier Race, aged 20, of stealing fencing posts, battens, railway sleepers and bridge timber valued at 15, the property of the New Zealand Railways and others. Accused pleaded not guilty. Harry Crawford, stationmaster, Gisborne, said the sleepers produced were possibly from the Waikanae Creek bridge. He admitted the sleepers may have been alongside the line and had pahsed usefulness.

Detective Sneddon said accused admitteed picking up all the timber on and from Waikanae on May 14.

Cross-examined, the detective admitted that people had a right to take timber from a beach. This was the first case of the kind of which he had heard. Other people had returned fencing material to the county yards, but accused stated that he was not aware the materials should be returned. Accused came of a highly-re-spected family and was willing to return the timber.

Many persons lost a lot of property in floods, said the magistrate, and although the law did not support him he thought all persons should put what they found into a common pool. In dismissing the charge the magistrate made provision for the timber to be surrendered to a pool and suggested that accused should give £2 10s to the flood relief fund to prove his interest in those who suffered was genuine.