IMPROPER PRACTICE

Southland Times, 16 October 1942, Page 4

IMPROPER PRACTICE

Purchase Of Goods From Ships’ Crews (P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 15. “It is a most improper and highly reprehensible practice,” said Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court today in condemning strongly the purchase by waterside workers of goods from 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. 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 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 suggestion that such goods were stolen, and to buy them in that way facilitated their disposal, said his Honour. He thought the statement that such purchases 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, a foreman stevedore, who was charged with the theft of two bolts of suiting or with receiving them knowing them to have been stolen. The jury disagreed and a new trial was granted.