HAMILTONIAN ARRESTED

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17220, 1 October 1927, Page 7

HAMILTONIAN ARRESTED

MAIL BAG ROBBERY. \ .IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT. BAG NOT YET RECOVERED. There has been an important development in connection with the mailbag which was recently missed from the Frankton Station, and not traced. The arrest was effected by the Hamilton police this morning of i Harold William Melville Taylor, a ■ locaj resident, who is charged ‘ with the theft of the mailbag and ( its contents, which disappeared on or about September 3. The arrested man is married and an agent employed In Victoria Street.

It is understood that neither the mailbag nor its contents has been recovered. LOSS OF BAG. CIRCUMSTANCES OF CASE. NON-NEG OTIABLE CHEQUES. TOTAL ABOUT £60,000. The loss of the hag at Frankton created a considerable stir and the belief was first held that it had gone astray through being overcarried, but subsequent events disclosed that it had passed into unauthorised hands. An chenue included in its contents was tendered at Auckland. The bag was at first thought to contain only ordinary mail matter, but investigations revealed that it contained a large number of non-negotiable cheques totalling a figure of approximately £60,000. It was ascertained that quite a number of cheques, pissing from bank to hank, were included in the missing bag, and the Hamilton branches of the various hanks were notified by their Auckland offices that cheques were being forwarded to be debited against the accounts of their customers whose cheques .were known to be included in the missing bag. The cheques in one parcel alone to a Hamilton bank were of an aggregate value of £15,800, while other parcels contained cheques of the value of £ISOO, £BOO, £2Bl, and £IOO. Widespread inconvenience was caused? in commercial circles by the loss qT the hag, and considerable concern was felt when it was stated that a ntimber of hills of lading from Australia were believed to be among its contents. Warnings were quickly issued by the banks to their customers.

OFFICIAL INVESTIGATIONS. ELAPSE OF MONTH. The bag in question was discovered to be missing on the Sunday by the officer in charge of the mail room at tiie station. The Chief Postmaster and the police were immediately communicated with, and a thorough search of the yards, and the locality was made. In cne instance the police discovered a patch of ni-wiy- turned earth and thought they had at last come upen file hidden treasure. Digging operalions, however, brought to light only the putrifying remains of somebody's net dog. The postal aulhorties stated it was possible the mails might have been left unattended for a rew minutes before they were transferred to the mailrcom.

but considered die chances of a theft somewhat remote.

If a theft was deliberately planned it could no doubt be fairly easily carried out by the thief playing a waiting game over a series of nights, but official opinion discounted that.

The Hamilton police took the matter in hand immediately and pursued active inquiries in co-operation with the Auckland force, about a month elapsing before the' arrest was made.