HARBOR PIRACY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 17, 14 July 1911, Page 3

HARBOR PIRACY.

A RAMPANT EVIL AT AUCKLAND. Auckland, July I*l. j An Auckland reporter has been enquir-1 ing into the question of thefts from yachts in the harbor. The fact that the evil is rampant is nowhere denied, but views concerning it varied radically. There was the man who considered it the outcome of organised nirat;';~j £ n g olliCT iWft Who regarded it as spprftdic outbreaks of ioi'eshol'e holligaiiisrci; and the one who had his own views on the subject, but had no time to explain them. This latter had a grievance that the Government did nothing'. "We've lost our things, and have no time to talk about it," was his attitude, and when it was insinuated that newspaper publicity might cause action to prevent him losing other things, he said, "Let 'em go." One of the men who had time to talk stated that in his opinion the talk about organised pirating was "rot." His view was that damage was caused by the number of "wasters" and others who loafed round the waterfront. Many of these had no means of support, and what little money they got went in drink. They consequently made a habit of watching when men from the scows nnd fishing craft tied up their dinghies at the wharves. Immediately the dinghies were vacant the loafer took the first opportunity of getting away with them and making the rounds of the boats in the harbor, looking for food or anything that might be converted into money. Incidentally some of these men in a spirit of wantonness at times destroyed property that was of no use to them. This nian pointed out that no later than last night some men had gone aboard the scow Tally-ho, lying at Queen street wharf, and had with winch handles broken the compass and done other wanton damage. This was in the most frequented part of the liar-' tior, where such action one would think would be considered least likely. He added that in many instances boat-own-ers were te some extent to blame. He had known of several eases of vagrants sleeping out in boats at the slips, in which the owners of the boats refused to assist the police by prosecuting. Again, gome decrease of the practice j would be effected if those who' used dinghies to land from scows and yachts would use chains and padlocks to tie them up with instead of ropes. Among the enquiries made were some relating to the number of arrests made at the waterfront, it having been stated that only one had occurred in two years. The police records show that already this year 412 arrests have been made for all classes of offences, among them being thefts from scows, boats and the railwiiv. In fact, such cases came before the last sitting of the Supreme Court. Tn the course of enquiries, the reporter elicited that n newspaper report to the effect that police officers in uniform had gone cruising on information received for alleged pirates was incorrect, in that no excursion was made by uniformed men.