A SPECULATOR? A PAROEL! Postal Neglect Revealed In N.Z. Mail-Bag Robbery

NZ Truth, Issue 1148, 1 December 1927, Page 5

A SPECULATOR?

A PAROEL!

Postal Neglect Revealed In N.Z. Mail-Bag Robbery

Taylor's Oversight Lands

ALTHOUGH Taylor is what is com- I i\ monly known as a "clever gentleman," he fell a little 3hort of the title when he attempted to • negotiate stolen cheques — especially with somebody who knew him. He should have known that this was almost certain to lead to his undoing, particularly when he intimated that he "had a paroel full of them" at a time when it was known that a mail bag containing cheques to the value of over £62.000 had just been stolen. One Important fact revealed m the case was the carelessness with which mails are handled on our trains. The stolen bag, along with another con- j taining parcels, was left on a trolley on the Frankton station platform for a whole night, where any prowler, with the greatest ease' and with little chance of being observed, could cart it away. This is what did happen, and the loss was not discovered until an employee of the Postal Department went down to the station to carry out some duty on the Sunday morning. By that time the thief or thieves had got many hours' start and the bag and its contents, with the valuables extracted, destroyed before the police had taken up the trail. Carelessness appears to have seen exhibited not only at Frankton, but at Auckland also, for there the mails, it is stated, were placed m an unlocked wayside van with nobody m charge, at least half an hour before the departure of the train. It would, therefore, under these circumstances, have been very easy for anybody, even without very much

Him In Gaol

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Hamilton Representative.)

THE conviction of William Harold Melville Taylor on a charge of "receiving 1 " two cheques known to have been m letters contained m a missing mail, m no way removes the doubt that others were implicated m a daringly clever theft.

planning, to have robbed the mail before the train drew out of the Auckland station, and again at any of the wayside stations along: the line. Before news of the robbery had become common property, one of the cheques known to have been m a letter m the missing bag, had been cashed m one of Hellaby's butcher's shops m Queen Street, Auckland. It was this little bit of folly on Taylor's part and the fact that he tried earlier the same day to get an Auckland acquaintance to cash this same cheque, together with another one, that led to his appearance m the dock. But for his identification by the butcher and the lady cashier, it is very doubtful if any connection with the robbery could have been sheeted home to him, for the case against him, except m this respect, was very weak.

Taylor is a young married man with a couple of children, and Tor the past five or six years has been living ?n Hamilton, where he has been employed latterly by a local land agent as assistant salesman. He is said to have been something of a speculator. On the Saturday night when the bag disappeared Taylor and another young married man named Dwen spent from somewhere about seven o'clock till nearly midnight with a couple of single sisters named Douglas, who ran the Kia Ora tea-rooms. Taylor, whose wife was away at the time with her parents m Te Aroha, took one sister home with him, after dropping the other girl at the garage at which Dwen was employed. Dwen and the sister at about eleven o'clock drove round to Taylor's house where they remained for some time and towards midnight they alh left together, the two men dropping the girls at the tea-rooms. They then went round to tho garage where they remained till nearly' two o'clock when they returned to Taylor's

house and, according to both the men, went to bod and did not 'rise until nearly midday on tho Sunday. In the meantime, between ton o'clock on tho Saturday night and five o'clock on the Sunday morning, Lho mall bag had disappeared, and except for tho two cheques proved to have been m Taylor's possession, nothing has since been discovered of the bag or its contents. | On the Monday morning early, Taylor made a suddon visit to Auckland. Even bis friend Dwen, whom ho was with up till four o'clock on tho Sunday afternoon, did not know Mint such a visit was contemplated — that is, if Dwen is to be believed.

About two o'clock on tbo Monday afternoon, Taylor spoko to a man named Nicolas Peters,. who looks aL'tor the telephone at one of tho Auckland taxi stands, and asked him if ho could cash a cheque. Together they entered the tolo- < phone box and Taylor produced a cheque for £10 odd made out by the Brett Printing Company to ono H. Baulf. The endorsement on tho back was m printed letters and when asked who had endorsod it, Taylor said he had got a girl to do it. He also produced another cheque for £18 odd, made out by Bond and Bond, wholesale traders of Auckland, to ono G. Boyes. When asked if they wore genuine Taylor said they wore. Potorw then told him he should havo no dllllculty m cashing them nnd that ho could, even open an account at one of the banks with them and make a draw that waj r . Taylor, however, romarkod that he had a parcel of them. He then went away and purchasod a. chicken and some other moat at ono of Hellaby's shops, tendering )n payment the Brott cheque. The butchor, William Henry Kearney, sent Taylor to the cash desk with the cheqtio, where he was asked by Holon Unsworth, the cashier, if he was Mr. Baulf.

He' replied m the affirmative. She then changed him the cheque and he paid for his meat and left. When arrested about a month later, Taylor was readily identified amongst twelve others at the Auckland police station by both Kearney and Miss Unsworth. Taylor, on being Interviewed by Detective Sweeney, gave a connected account of his doings between nine o'clock on the Saturday night and midnight on the Monday. He denied, however, that he had exhibited the cheques to Peters or that he was the man who cashed the Brett cheque at the butcher's. He admitted having asked Peters for £3 winch tho latter owod him, and waid that it. was Poters and not he, who had tho .cheques and wanted to puy him with one of them, but ho (Taylor) had not tho necessary change 10 give him. This story was rather discounted by a taxl-o>ivor nuinod Gibson, who hnp 7 poned to bo on tho rank at tho time and s;iw tho two cheques m Taylor's possession. Tho original charge against Taylor ,was of stealing tho mail bag and Its contents, but tho Crown, fooling that this- charge could not bo sutlU-unuly provocl to satisfy v jury of Taylor's guilt, altered it to two other charges of receiving stolon elioquoK, liawyor .7. X Strung <U<l not put his client m tho box, but. lie made a foreot'ul addroHS to tlio jury In which ho omphUKiy.ofl llio fiict that not. a slngto Htatemont whJoh Taylor had made to tho dotoctiv© had been found to bo untruo. Ho also improssod tho Jury with tho dnngor of convicting a man on such frail ovidonoo of idontlfiontion. Ills honor's summing up was against, prisoner. Tho jury found prisoner guilty on both counts and ho was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor on each, tlio sentences being ooncurront.