SCANDAL EXPOSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 367, 30 May 1928, Page 1

SCANDAL EXPOSED

Money for Unemployed large share goes to collectors

“IF you want to carry on, you must get some responsible 1 citizens to supervise your work—the present position is scandalous. We can t have irresponsible men going about with boxes from which the money can be shaken.” These were the words of advice given by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court to-day to Charles Gordon Lindsay, secretary of the Auckland Unemployment Association, when the loose methods of the association were made public.

The extraordinary revelations of business laxness were made during tbe prosecution of Roger James Coyle, aged 32, who was charged with being idle and disorderly, and begging alms. The Auckland Unemployed Association- for which Coyle was a collector, consists of a secretary, an assistantsecretary, and six collectors. According to Coyle’s statement, the collectors received 60 per cent, of the amount they collected. The police stated that the boxes could be easily tampered with, and there was no audit of receipts and expenditure.

Sergeant Brown said he had seen Coyle collecting at Carlaw Park on three occasions. Witness asked accused for his authority to collect, and he produced an authority form signed by Lindsay. The money could have been shaken from Coyle’s box with ease.

Senior-Sergeant Cummings said he had frequently seen Coyle collecting for the unemployed in public places. In a statement to witness, Coyle said that he received half of what he collected, his average earnings being 10 shillings a day.

The Auckland Unemployment Association," said Mr. Cummings, “is a selfconstituted body which was authorised by the City Council to make only one street collection in August of last year. The committee has been subject to no audit system.

SECRETARY EXPLAINS Charles Gordon Lindsay, secretary of the association, was then called to explain the association’s operations. He said that he had been a clerk until 1926, and from May to August of last year he was a labourer at Arapuai.

Sine# September he had been secretary of the association. The association. he said, had been formed at a meeting held in Civic Square. It had authority from the City Council to make a street collection on August 26 last, when £349 was collected. That was the only day on which the association had authority tc, make a collection.

In September he was appointed seculars’ at a salary' of £4 10s a week. It was then decided to carry on the work of the association, and six col-

lectors were appointed. They were instructed to go from house to house, and not to collect in the streets. Chief-Detective Hammond: The collectors received half of the amount collected ? Witness: That is not so. The boxes were brought in each night, and the money was counted out. If a man collected 15s, he might receive 7s 6d—it depended on his circumstances, whether he was married or single. £I,OOO COLLECTED The Chief-Detective: What was the system of distribution. Witness: It was left to my discretion. The Chief-Detective: Since September these men have collected £1,000? Lindsay admitted this was so. “That does not include the sum that has been paid to them,” said Mr. Hammond. “How much have they been paid?” asked Mr. Hammond. “It’s hard to estimate,” replied witness. "Who's your committee?” asked the magistrate. “Ongley, a labourer out of work, and a collector, Agnew, a man out of work, and Phillips an accountant out of work,” replied Lindsay. Mr. Hunt: There’s an accountant on your committee and you’ve got books like this. No balance, nothing added up—it’s disgraceful. Mr. Hammond (to witness): You can’t show from these books that you’ve paid out six or seven hundred pounds? Witness: It has been paid for relief. Evidencfe was also given by Frederick James Phillips, a qualified accountant, who was elected to the committee at a mass meeting of unemployed. He had. not been actively associated with the committee since early in the year. The magistrate, in dismissing the charge against Coyle, said that he was glad that the case had been brought. It exposed the methods of the committee. Addressing Lindsay, he said that future operations would have to be supervised by responsible citizens.