Shipments to N.P. Suffer From Loss Through Pillaging

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1942, Page 2

Shipments to N.P. Suffer From Loss Through Pillaging

Difficulty of detecting port of offence. No values of cargo pillaging losses similar to those submitted to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce could be obtained at New Plymouth yesterday, but it was acknowledged that certain types of shipments to Taranaki suffered periodic depredations. It is not suggested such losses occur after the cargo reaches New Plymouth "It is a difficult offence to detect, and it is not possible to say where the pillaging takes place, at the loading, transhipment or final port," a business man said yesterday. He pointed out that cargo found to be short might have been broached anywhere en route. overseas or at tranehipment points. Petty Thieving. As far as arrivals at New Plymouth were concerned the losses — and they were fairly regular — appeared to be the result of petty thieving, it was stated. Goods found to be missing were usually of a size and shape that could be placed in a pocket or carried inconspicuously from the wharf precincts. Thus the stealing was mostly confined to packets of chocolates and tea, boots and shoes, silk and groceries, especially cartons of biscuits. Such pilfering is going on all the time, it is stated, and there are few coastal shipments that do not result in claims totalling at least some pounds having to be met by the shipping company. Inquiries made yesterday do not suggest that pillaging has increased since the introduction of rationing, as the Christchurch report claims, or that rationed goods are more particularly favoured by pillagers. "It is surprising the risks men will take for a small reward when detection brings such severe penalties," the informant commented. Much of the pillaging is done by experts practised in the art of removing and replacing nails, wire and boards with such skill that the thefts are detected only after the case has been opened at its destination. The classic example of that kind of theft, it was recalled, was that of a piano Imported privately from Britain. When the case was opened in New Zealand some years ago all it contained was pieces of iron and stones corresponding to the weight of the missing piano. It was one of the stones used for ballast that resulted in the undoing of the culprit. British police traced it back to the paved yard of a carrier in England.