PILLAGING RAMPANT

Evening Star, Issue 24282, 25 August 1942, Page 6

PILLAGING RAMPANT

RATIONED OR SHORT SUPPLY GOODS FAVOURED ASTONISHING DISCLOSURES | (P.A.) OHIUSTCHURCH, Aug. 24. Six cases of the pillaging of goods valued at a total sum of £1,234 have been' submitted to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce by business (inns in Christchurch following the special meeting held recently to discuss the increase in cargo pillaging. These cases and four others in which the value of the stolen goods has not been given will be passed on to the Associated Chambers of Commerce, which has boon asked to -approach tho Prime Minister and ask for more severe penalties for pillaging offences. The cases submitted by tho firms reveal that the pillagers have in many cases been taking goods which are either rationed or in short supply. Sills stockings, knitting wool and needles, hot water hags, household linen, and tea have been taken from overseas and New Zealand shipments. A firm which had claims totalling £627 lost mending wool, children’s clothing, stockings, and 15 pairs of sheets. Another firm’s £257 worth of losses in three months included silk stockings, cotton tape, knitting needles, pipes, hair combs, manicure sots, gum boots, and cardigans. Forty pounds of knitting wool, dress material, and children’s clothing were pillaged from another firm’s goods. Liquor, tobacco, eggs, and chemists’ supplies have also been pillaged in recent mouths. One firm is reported to have lost £ll4 in boor and spirits since October, including eight dozen bottles of liquor. Other cases include nearly TO dozen eggs consigned to 'the North Island, 20lh of tea, tobacco, 500 cigarettes, £l2 worth of chemists’ supplies, including 25 hot water bags, pots of cold cream, and 411) of senna leaves. A firm of booksellers has given an example of the deliberation with which the pillagers work. The firm lost 28 dictionaries from cases in dune, and early this month it lost’ 100 hooks from cases which showed no signs of having been opened. There were 88 books from one firm, all being novels and general literature. Although there were three or six copies of certain titles, tho pillagers did not take more than one of each. Tho landed value of the hooks was approximately £IG.