ATTEMPT TO APPROPRIATE BLANKETS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 271, 12 August 1919, Page 8

ATTEMPT TO APPROPRIATE BLANKETS

By Telegraph—Press Aiiociatioil. Wanganui, August 11. At the Magistrate's Court to-day,. Captain John Connor, inastci- of the lighter Morning Light, and David Bertie, Joseph Gibson, and John Jackson, wntersido workers, were charged'on the mforuiation of the Collector of Cusioms. with having in their possession dutiable goods which consisted of two hundred blankets valued at .£157. , „ Evidence was called by the .Crown Prosecutor to show that on the night of August 2, when the steamer Armagh was loading wool m the Wanganui roadstead, the quartermaster saw several bales dropped over the side by three Other men on the lighter's dcclc handled the bales. , John TayCor, third officer of the Armagh, said ho searched the lighter and found the blankets concealed on the deck under a. tarpaulin, . Alfred James, the |iur6er, said tno blankets were tho property of the imperial Government, and were used ».v Australian troops which the steamer conveyed to Sydney. He took over eliji'Ro of 7000 blankets, which were stored m the alleyway. , , Early in the proceedings the charge ogiiin.=t Bertie was dismissed. The other defendants gave evidence, and denied linking anything to do with the blankets. Ill's Worship also dismissed, the charg« against Captain Connor, owing to lacs of positive evidence. Ho said the evidence • disclosed that the oilier two men went on the Armagh and thev did not givo a satisfactory reason for doing so. Jackson's evidence proved contradictory. It was an impudent attempt to appropriate over .£l5O worth of blaakets, but his > Worehip believed the men were not Uio only ones implicated. Jackson and t<ibson were each fined .£3O, and .iG costs.