THE THIEVING TERROR.

NZ Truth, Issue 140, 22 February 1908, Page 3

THE THIEVING TERROR.

FILCHING AT THE CfIRIST- ,, CHURCH FIRES. George Barnes and His Bundle. • Alleged Stealing and Receiving. i -sphere was some .hellish thieving practised at the late Christchurch fire, which caused so much devastation m the town. While imfortunate stock-holders were looking on at the destruction of their valuable buildings m dismay, very willing J blasted robbers were abstracting the contents and appropriating them to their, own' use and benefit, placing them ,m: premises where they thought theylwpuld be safe from the police. O£ v 'SdAi,r|e, tons, of goods were. , salvaged .tty "all right" citizens, and were at once,' or" soon afterwards, j recovered, and are now on salejin the variotfis;' shops m the city. If every pers6n-Vere given to looting .during the progress , of a fire the scene of a big outbreak would be absolutely worse than war. Some big— or comparatively big— hauls were made at the Christchurch fire, and the have only located a few of them. Take the case of < George Barnes* This bu"ic has been remanded, and appears at the Police Court this-iweek 'end. .He ran what . is <ltnowjr> as./ the ; Rink'; Restaurant, and he^rnay ifrave a 'good- defence: to the dirty ; chaj'' :n^. of theft preferred against him, ;. BUT IT LOOK & UGLY^: The Rink Restaurant didn't appear to be any good to G"uridy— or at least to George Barnes. And he ;. didn'-t figure \as "Barnes . . -...of- New : York" either, but just ;p! George with a penchant fbr a girl, who is a 'very human document apparently. Barnes skallyhooted to Wellington, where he was nabbed on ' a very slender thread by 'Tec. Cassells, the. man who doesn't build castles m his chair, but acts. -Consequence was that Barnes was charged at Christchurch on Tuesday with prigging ' £19 worth of cloth from Ernest Gott and others, and three rows of braid valued at thirty bob, the property of Gill Bros ; further £13 worth bf cloth, belonging to the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing -Co., and fifty-two quids' worth of jewellery, lawfully owned by Alfred Henry Oakey. The prisoner was remanded, and on the applica^ tion of Lawyer Donnelly bail was allowed m a century, himself m a similar hundred runs. Barnes doesn't' look his old self, when he used v to dole out steak and chips and scalloped blowflies and things, but circumstances . alter . cases, especially jewellery cases. ' / William Thompson is ,a voting man who used to dine at the Rink Restaurant. ; He is a blacksmith .employed at Raymond's, and could eat as hard^ah/d as heartily as he could skelp an anvil. He had something to do with salvage m general, and was Charged same morning with having received a quantity of jewellery and mirrors, valued at twenty-four bally notes, Oakey's property. There was •no darned excuse for Thompson, who pleaded guilty through his counsel, Moselv. who chirruped ■ effectively m favor of his client. 'He said, as he pawfcd his brief, that the accused/ tuckered at the Ritik (why didn't they call it Drink ?) 'Restaurant, and had done so for some time. During the fire a number of articles were abstracted from Oakey's shop and were taken to the ißink Restaurant 1 , where they were laid promiscuously m the dining-room. They may not have been stolen, or was there any intention to steal them at the time, but accused was asked to remove them; and he took them down to Ms own boarding-house, like the kind, generous fellow, he was, and left them there. Thompson went on with Ms work- and a day or two afterwards was arrested. He asked for mercy: Blacksmith Raymond, who gave him a •good Character, was willing to take him back again. In fact, he had kept his situation vacant. , It appeared from what 'Tec. Bishop said that all the articles were hidden under accused's bed ; they had all' been xecovered. Even the chambermaid could have had a cut had she swept underneath the couch and discovered their whereabouts. Magistrate Bishop as much 'as said -that the low thief deserved gaol ; HIS ACT WAS CONTEMPTIBLE ■; he had. no sense of decency. However, as it was avowedly his first offence, he would be fined a fiver. The sledge-hammer thief has got a fortnight m whdeh to find the oof or else heUl have to recreate m quod for ia month. The ordinary forge fire wasn't enough for this son-of-a-gun ; something bigger m the way of blazes interests him. ■ But there is a girl m this story, too. And" she knows somedings also. She fooled round at that Rink Restaurant m the capacity of . waitress, or something equally unfascinating. And 'her name was Clara Heln. There is a charge against Clara m connection with receiving a quantity of jewellery, well knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained, or some kindred allegation. As Lawyer Donnelly had only just been instructed, and didn't know . whether Clara, was Sarah, or whether the jewels were real or bogus, or whether they belonged to -an unnaturalised Chinaman or to Oakey, or anything else, he asked for a reimind until the day this bright print escapes from the thraldom of ink and floats into the hands of customers down the streets.