SHOES PILLAGED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30957, 13 January 1966, Page 1

SHOES PILLAGED

An inspection of a hold of the Shaw Savin and Albion Company’s Arabic in Lyttelton recently showed that five large cases of expensive English shoes had been chopped open.

Some of the fashionable men’s shoes were strewn about the hold.

The value of missing shoes is estimated at many • hundreds of pounds. When questioned about the pillaging, the general manager of Regent Footwear Ltd., of Christchurch (Mr J. G. Hutchinson) said a man who said he was a Lyttelton vatersider had recently telephoned his warehouse manager.

The man had reported that five cases of English shoes in the Arabic were broken open. Mr Hutchinson said the man had asked the warehouse

manager if he could buy some of the shoes at the right price. The piillagir-g of the English shoes retailing at from £5 to £7 a pair, was one of the worst instances he had ever experienced, said Mr Hutchinson.

An investigation, not yet completed, said Mr Hutchinson, showed that five reinforced birch ply cases, sealed round the edges with aluminium and riveted had been chopped open with axes or similar heavy instruments. The investigation would be completed in the presence of the appropriate authorities, in the Christchurch warehouse of the company this week.

The exact financial loss through the pillaging would

not be known till each case had been examined. One case that had originally held 72 pairs of English men’s shoes, retailing on the New Zealand market from £5 to £7. contained one single moccasin half-breed left foot shoe when the case reached the Christchurch warehouse. “We are very annoyed about the whole thing,” said Mr Hutchinson. “There is nothing on the side of the cases to indicate they contained footwear. It takes 20 minutes to open one of these cases in the normal way.

“We paid an extra £55 for these reinforced cases, because of previous pillaging we had experienced with shoes shipped in cartons,” said Mr Hutchinson. The five-case consignment he said, was addressed to “Regent, Christchurch." The pillagers had chopped peep-holes in each case before chopping out an entire side or end. It appeared that they had gone from case to case until they found the sizes and the types of shoes they wanted. “ON N.Z. COAST’’ Asked where he thought the pillaging had occurred, the sales manager of Regent Footwear (Mr A. C. Marett) said: “At Auckland or Napier. I would say it was not done at Lyttelton: probably on the New Zealand coast somewhere.” The Arabic left London on November 5 for Auckland, where she arrived on December 6. On the way the ship called at Curacao and Panama. The Arabic stayed at Auckland till December 16: was at Napier from December 17 to 20, and Lyttelton from December 21 to January 7, when she sailed for Brisbane. Damage to the five pillaged cases of English shoes included: — Case one: One whole side and part of the top Chopped out. Case two: The top chopped out. Case three: A hole cut out of one side and the top ripped off. Case four: A hole cut In the back and the top ripped off. Case five: The top cut out. Frequent incidences of pillaged shoes that his company suffered was most disheartening, said Mr Hutchinson. No matter what precautionary measures his firm took, they seemed to be of no avail. £lOOO LOSS On this occasion. Regent Footwear used reinforced birch ply cases on the recommendation of the English exporters, Walter Sargent and I Company, Ltd., of Rushden. ■

Northants. But the Joss was just as big as ever. The retail value of a single case of shoes was in excess of £350. Mr Hutchinson said that in sax months last year Regent Footwear lost more than £lOOO worth of men’s shoes and children’s shoes from pillaging. Pillaging, he said, meant a tremendous amount of additional work and caused much ill-will among the firm’s customers.

The company also had to make another application for a replacement import licence. “This does not help the retailer whose customers are waiting,” said Mr Hutchinson. “The retailers ’ have for-ward-sold many of their imported shoes." The consignment of shoes from the Arabic, he said, was handled from Cashin quay. This ruled out pillaging from railway yards. Asked where they thought the pillaged shoes had been sold, Messrs Hutchinson and Marett both said in New Zealand hotels.