MISSING MAIL BAGS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16153, 6 March 1918, Page 6

MISSING MAIL BAGS.

ROBBERIES IN AUSTRALIA. t v s KBy Cable.—Presa Association.—Copyright.) (Rcceivod March sth, 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 5. c / Following; on a series of mysterious robberies of mail bags, involving large * sums of money, the Postmaster is offer- s ing a reward of £500 in connexion with j; tho abstraction of £1000 in notes from v the iSydney-Brewarrina mail. d During the past ten months five mail bags have been reported miseing v at Sydney, the amount lost totalling * £5350. Tho loss referred to in the c ] above cablo message was on January " 18th last, when a registered mail bag 11 containing £1600 in notes, tho pro- 1 ] perty of tho Bank of New South Wales, was stolen between tho parcels s post office at the Central Railway Station and tho post office at Brewarrina. w Since then still another mail bag P has disapeared. On February 23rd a sealed niajl bag addressed to Rooty c Hill, containing cue registered letter c of £50, addressed to the u Rooty Hill, was taken to tho Central 1-1 Railway Station and placed in the " train mail van. Tho postal officials P who carried tho bag reeoived a receipt From the railway officials on the train, ? ivho took delivery of it. "When tho J; train reached Rooty Hill, little more

than an hour afterwards, the mail bag iould not be found. Its disappearance s an abosluto mystery, and both the Postal Department, particularly tho letcctive branch, and the Railway Department arc at their wits' end as to i possible solution. The biggest postal robbery that has jeeurred within the past twelve nonths was that in which £2000 in lotos was stolen in transit from Bulli o Sydney on -March 7th last year. How tno mail s arc handled was reicntly explained to a pressman by a >ostal official. egistered mails, ho said, are put nto a, .separate bag, which is sealed icloro being taken to tho mail-room, rlionce orduiary mails are despatched'ho sorters, it was stated, who reccive md ''witness-in" the registered mail, lavo no knowledgo of its contents. The uitial sealing or the bag is done in he presence of v.-itucssos, and is checkd lioni hand to hand until it reaches he railway 6talf. The official further tatcd that tho Postal Department in iydney annually handles £1,000,000 or tho many banks of the State, and, s well, large su_is belonging to other .rms. One firm in Sydney, at sale imc, has boen known to receivo in one ay, through tho yest, £8000. l<'ollowing is a summary of the roberios in the post during , the past welve months: — March 7th —Registered mail bag, ontaining £2000 in notes, belonging to I le E. S. and A. Bank, Sydney, missing etween Bulli and Sydney. March 28th—K-egi6tered packet of atches, worth £200, missing from a irons-room, the door of which had ecu left open. November oth—Registered packet mtaining £1500 in notes belonging to io E.S. and A. Bank, Sydney, missing ie I£. S. and A. Bank. Sydney, missing January 18th —Registered bag conlinins: £IGOO_ in notes belonging to ie Bank of New South Wales, missing ;twecn Sydney nnd Brewarrina. February 11th —Parcel of larc worth 48- (Found). February 23rd —Registered mail bag I mtaining* £50 missing between Sydij and Rooty Hill.