“MOST IMPROPER”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 16 October 1942, Page 2

“MOST IMPROPER”

WATERSIDER# DEALS GOODS CREWS COMMENTS BY JUDGE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. ‘‘lt is a fnost improper and highly reprehensible practice,” said Mr. Justice Blair in the Supremie Court yesterday, in condemning strongly the ■purchase by waterside workers of goods from the crews of overseas vessels, described by two foremen stevedores as being common. “It has been cheerfully 'asserted by* the defence that such transactions are perfectly honest, but if that practice is sanctified, the law about the receipt of stolen . property, goes overboard,” said His .Honour. “I ;hopO you of the jury, will take strong measures' to show it is highly Improper. No wonder pillaging is rife when two witnesses have the effrontery to say it is the practice to buy goods at low prices on boats and ask no questions. “It is a wrOng thing to do, and the men who do that are not fit for their, job on the wharf,” continued His Honour, it was a reasonable suggestion that such goods were stolen, and to buy them in that way facilitated, their disposal. He thought the statement that such purposes were common was a slur on the great body of waterside workers. These remarks were addressed to 'the jury in the trial of Robert James Smith, foreman stevedore, charged with the theft of two bolts of suiting or with receiving them, knowing them to be stolen. The jury disagreed and a new trial was granted.