CHEAP GOODS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 249, 22 October 1942, Page 3

CHEAP GOODS

BGUGHT FROM SHIPS' CREWS. WATERSIDER CHARGED WITH THEFT. "It is a most improper and highly reprehensible practice," said Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at

W eiimgton on Thursday, condemning the purchase by waterside workers of goods from the crews of overseas vessels, described by two for emen 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," he added. "I hope 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 that it is the practice to buy goods at low prices on boats and ask no questions. It is a wrong thing to do, and men who do that are not fit for their job on the wharf." It was a reasonable inference that such goods were stoleh, and to buy them in that way facilitated their

disposal. He thought that the statement that such purchases were common was a slur on the great body oi waterside workers. These remarks were addressed tc the jury In the trial of Robert James &mith, a foreman stevedore, who was charged with the theft of two bolts of suiting or with receiving them, I.nowing them to be stolen. The jury disagreed. A new trial was granted.