GANG OF THIEVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 2

GANG OF THIEVES.

DEPREDATIONS IN RAILWAY SERVICE. Melbourne, March 22. Startling allegations regarding the extent of pillaging in the railway service and the existence of an organised gang of thieves engaged in the depredations, ■were made by Mr Wynne, ex-Minister for Railways, when speaking in the Legislative Assembly on the railway estimates. Mr. Wynne said that there was an organised gang of thieves in the .railway service, and they would have to be rooted out. These men were a great menace to honest railwaymen. Thieves would put stolen goods into an honest man's kit or lockei, and thus bring suspicion upon him. When men could steal a truck of wool between Newmarket and Spencer Street, worth £GOO, it showed a pretty state of affairs. There were men in the Railway Department who had teen proved to be thieves, yet they were •kept on. Di*ing his term of office as Attorney-General ne came across the papers of one man who had been convicted of 80 offences; these included the receiving ot stolen goods He had damaged the property ol the Commissioners to the extent of several hundreds of pounds by his gross carelessness. This very man at one time cleared out and left his engine on the line, to the great dinger of the rest of the traffic, yet he was kept on in the service In one case a man, who had several sons at the war, was dismissed because he had reached 60 ycar3 of age, whilst another man. who had been convicted of stealing, and was also over 60 years of age, had been kept on The Minister for Railways promised an investigation into the matter.