KEY POINTS:
Beautifully-carved 'dispatch boxes' New Zealand donated to Britain's Parliament after World War 2 are being repeatedly damaged by strange black marks in ink - and the vandal has turned out to be Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The damage is such that the French polishers who routinely clean up graffiti left by tourists in the Parliament building have been unable to remove many of the deep marks which can be clearly seen all over the wood, the Telegraph newspaper in London reports.
The boxes serve as lecterns, one for Government ministers, and one for Opposition spokesmen, and were presented 60 years ago during repair of bomb damage which gutted the debating chamber.
They were made to withstand any future attack - lead shot from muskets was said to bounce off pa palisades made of puriri - and the wood, also known as "New Zealand teak" was valued for furniture and decorative inlays. It was originally used by early settlers for fencing - but the settlers never had to contend with the black marker pen of Mr Brown, the newspaper said.
Maintenance staff trying to track down the cause of the damage said that while Mr Brown was answering parliamentary questions he tended to gesticulate wildly with his black marker pen, stabbing at the papers in front of him and missing to hit the wood beneath.
"The awful truth was clear," the newspaper reported. "The PM was the vandal".
An official said: "Of course, we can't say anything. But if he goes on doing it, it is going to be harder and harder to get off."
An MP close to Mr Brown said: "Gordon is known as Zorro for getting his sweeping black pen everywhere, but I'm sure he'll take greater care around the nation's artefacts now."
- NZPA
