“LIKE PADDY’S MEN”

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1920, Page 4

“LIKE PADDY’S MEN”

THE 'LYTTELTON WATER FRONT. CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 22. At the Lyttelton Magistrate’s Court to-day, before Mr S. E. McCarthy, . S.M., a fireman on the steamer Leitrim was charged with stealing a carcase of lamb, valued at. 30s, the property of the Federal Steam Navigation Company. Accused pleaded Senior-Sergeant D. Jackson said that the more he- saw of those cases the more he deplored tho deplorable state of affairs waterfront. Accused yesterday stole a carcase, and was caught by tho chief officer on t-lie deck of the vessel going down below with it. No one seemed to know where lie got it; nor did anyone seem to care. Yesterday, at a sating of the court, they had the manager of a large company as a- witness in a case of alleged theft of -coal, and he had said he thought the chief engineer of a vessel would have the right to give other people’s property away. “I can only say this,” . continued tho senior sergeant, “I have come to this conclusion, that the management of the Lyttelton waterfront is like Paddy’s gun—it wants a now lock, stock and barrel. It is astonishing that men can take stuff from the side of a ship,' and only by the purest of accidents he caught taking it down to the forecastle. When heads of firms eom'e bore and say such things as that, you can little wonder at firemen committing thefts.’’ In giving judgment the magistrate said: “We had a rtise yesterday in which the same company’s property was concerned, and the evidence of the local manager was.that the chief engineer would have the right, should he feel so disposed, to give three tons of coal away Three tons of coal is worth £l2 in Lyttelton and we are to assume that a, servant of tho Federal line had authority to dispose of it. When that evidence is given in open court/ it is little wonder that the “small fry” on the ship commit theft. However, I cannot overlook this theft. I shall convict him to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.