SILK PILLAGED

Hokitika Guardian, 17 July 1928, Page 4

SILK PILLAGED

AUCKLAND FI lID I LOSES HEAVILY. AUCKLAND, July 14. “Easiness firms who have been nAbated by the pillaging of cargo consigned to them regard this, as a mild disaster,” said Dir A. J. Weir, manager of the Parisian’ Neckwear Company, whose firm lost £8(X) worth of silks on the last voyage of the Arawu from London to Auckland. Out of 22 cases of silk placed on board the Arawa in London, consigned to the Parsinn Neckwear Company at Auckland, only 17 were found to lm intact when the shipment was examined at Auckland on the arrival of tho vessel the other day. The missing five cases, lined with zinc, and measuring three feet six inches square, have not yet been found hv tho police, despite careful search. It is remarkable that not a, trace of either zinc or cases has been discovered, and it is presumed that the case after pillage must have been burned in fh’e furnaces. Dtany of the 84 rolls of silk discovered buried in the coal on the Arawa were badly damaged. Curtains of green colour, with books sewn into the material, a.ml btli'b’r cloth which resembled the ship’s fittings, were used to wrap the rolls of silk ini to protect them from damage by the coal. The material pillaged is estimated to be worth £BOO. About £2OO worth lias been recovered by the police. “Out of eight recent shipments conto my firm, five were heavily pillaged,” said Dtr Weir. “We lost £BO in one shipment, £6O worth of silk in another, while others, averaged about £2O worth of goods. This last case of pillaging on the Arawa is easily the Higgest yet recorded in the Dominion. Although the silks were insured the loss to us is large, because of the inconvenience caused. Even if the silk mills were cabled to-day for further orders, it would be nearly six months before we could get delivery,” concluded Dir Weir.