WHOLESALE THEFTS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3497, 27 May 1920, Page 6

WHOLESALE THEFTS

WELLING-TON MAN SAID TO BE IMPLICATED. A New Plymouth importer, on openin" - up a consignment of goods just received from London, via Wellington, found that extensive pilfering had taken place during transit. This is by no means an uncommon experience, and it is having qquite a material bearing on the cost of living, because importers must, if they are business men, add the loss thus sustained to the cost of the gopds actually (received. This pilfering has become so serious that importers, in the interests of themselves and their customers, should unite in some way in an effort to detect the thieves and stop the ( thefts. Insurance companies are willing 'to insure against piSlagd, knd they are finding the losses so heavy that premium rates must be increased. A Wellington insurance manager re- j eently gave a few instances of piling- , lag as follow: "Missing: Case of English tweeds, case of assorted drapery, case of evening dresses, four cases of valuable steel tools from America lvalue £200), chest of tea from Australia disappeared, case of ladies' shoes put on board in Australia for Auckland, found at Wellington to contain nothing but empty boxes, ripped all to pieces; cases of .men's boots from Austialia. 25 pairs missing; 10 cases men's boots from Australia, j opened up, 43 pairs missing, boxes ; broken to pieces, case nea'ijy done up j again.," That is only a of the j intercolonial and overseas cases cited, j On the New Zealand coast one reads of a cask of whisky going astray, together with a case of cigarettes valued at £125. A case of fur necklets, worth £OO, was lost between Wellington and Auckland; and a case of furs, worth £IOO, which was shipped at Wellington, failed to arrive at Lyttelton; two cases of cigarettes, worth £l2O each, were lost between -. Wellington and Auckland, on one trip. The same kind of thing is being experienced on the railways. Occasionally a wharf labourer is caught and punished, but inquiries go to show that pillaging is a world-wide enterprise with agents, everywhere. The sinister suggestion has been made in Wellington, according to a Sydney paper's correspondent, that the receiver of the stolen goods there is a person of high social ;.tan ding and that sensational devel- • opments are anticipated.