Chamber Of Commerce To Investigate Pillaging

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 14

Chamber Of Commerce To Investigate Pillaging

The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce plans to obtain a detailed dossier on the incidence of pillaging of imported goods during the next three months.

It will investigate a selected number of local importers to complete a questionnaire indicating the type of goods pillaged, their value and quantity, the type of containers involved, and the probable date of pillage.

It will also ask shipping companies and the Railways Department what specific action is now taken to prevent pillaging. It has already asked an overseas shipping association to provide some of the data which it has assembled from a national survey carried out over the last two years. The council of the chamber decided last evening on this plan for tackling the pillaging problem. The chairman of the importers’ committee (Mr E. J. Parry) said that Ore problem had been resurrected by a newspaper report on the extensive pillaging of a consignment of English shoes which was discharged from the Arabic at Lyttelton. Move In 1963 The chamber in 1963 unsuccessfully sought to interest shipping and insurance companies and the Railways Department in the investigation of pillage losses. Nor could data be obtained from the Marine Underwriters’ Association and the Railways Department to indicate the degree of pillaging occurring throughout the country. Mr C. F. Whitty said that

after some of his imported goods were pillaged two years and a half ago he raised the matter with the newspapers and the chamber. The chamber, he said, took the matter to the Associated Chambers to obtain a report from all the main ports in New Zealand. The report had not yet come to hand. “Are we going to talk about it or are we going to get on with the job?’’ he asked. "Last week we lost 10 cartons of glassware valued at about £4O. The cartons and cases were pillaged.” Mr Whitty said that although the shipping companies were prepared to meet claims the Railways Department failed to face its responsibilities and blamed the containers.

“We have to be strong in this matter and not let it rest for another two years and a half,” he said. Effects On Public

Mr H. F. Royds, who recently lost 30,000 American cigarettes, some at sea and

.some between Lyttelton and Christchurch, urged that the public be made more aware of the effects of pillaging. He said it was often inii possible to get licences to rei import the goods stolen, and 'in most cases the importer was required to pay duty even though he never saw the goods. A repetition of claims on insurance companies for pillaging could lead to higher premiums, which ultimately would be felt by the buying public. He' said he had seen goods being stolen from the railway sheds, but it was hard to get anything done about it.

The district traffic manager of railways (Mr M. R. Leineweber) told the meeting that the Railways Department examined every case of pillaging on its merits.

The president (Mr B. J. Drake) said the plan adopted would enable the chamber to observe the pattern of pillaging. He described pillaging as a very deep-seated problem for which no ready solution appeared to be obvious. One of the greatest difficulties was to pin-point where the pillaging occurred.