LOST IN TRANSIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 235, 1 October 1920, Page 2

LOST IN TRANSIT.

I FILU-GED CARGO. ; SOME POINTED INSTANCES. WHAT MAY HAPPEX ABROAD. ( Many circumstances have prompted some importers to see the pillaging question from a new angle. New Zealand waterside workers have been blamed for many thefts of cargo of , which they arc innocent. Stories, ■ too. have 'been told of fat men wliq walked out of the wharf gates and returned with their personal size considerably diminished, while at the same time their pockets have appeared to be much heavier than before. Other talcs centre around circumspect carters who' arrive at a definite destination with a load that has been somewhat diminished enroute, but more often than not a detailed inquiry into some of these circumstances, suspicious on the face, have led to the detection of nothing more than perfectly harmless and legitimate private trading transactions. liut the conversation of a commercial man who speaks from lengthy experience of the ins and outs of foreign trading easts a degree of suspicion upon other commercial institutions in other lands. "Personally." he said, "1 do no business with foreign finus I do not know. In Japan, particularly, although there are some houses of established integrity, there are many who have no commercial solidity. j So far as I know them, these always insist on payment in advance of consignment. Many American houses, reputable and otherwise, insist on the same thing. What i-s then to prevent them sending out a case of articles that are without commercial value instead of goods as per invoice?" He went on to say that he would be the last man to say that this was done often, but within his own knowledge .such a practice had been made by unscrupulous firms, and often enough he had received delivery of useless things in perfect cases under circumstances , that at least made him doubt the 1 honesty of the firms with whom he had | had dealings. He hinted that some at j least of the thefts that had been reported had involved much too large a j quantity of bulky materials for men I with a minimum of time, and under constant surveillance, or at least with the | risk of detection at any moment, and lin a great variety of ways, for watersiders to have committed tho thefts. Other gentlemen questioned about pillaging were inclined to agree with this possibility. Some of them were definite I that New Zealand watersiders had not the opportunities to steal bulky goods that had been short-delivered, sometimes in considerable quantity. One informant instanced a case that had been absolutely intact, and which had weighed exactly right on delivery. Vet it had been filled with bricks and coa], with a few pieces of old iron. He argued that whoever interfered with. this valuable consignment, which was noted as expensive cutlery, must have had ample time and no possible fear of detection, and must have been further I equipped with weights and scales, to 'have taken the goods and replaced the .missing weight _o precisely. | Often enough a certain quantity of goods pillaged from a case have been | replaced by newspapers to prevent the I remainder of the merchandise from I shiftjng. When such a case is opened and found to contain American papers this is generally thought sufficient proof that the thefts were not committed in i-New Zunland, but rather in America [where in these days of delay in shippin" ; ample opportunity is given to gan°-s oi I thieves who have ample time to'operate while freight is held up at the railway siding*. (ircumstanccs like those detailed whicn are all of fairly recent occurrence' should convince the merchant and the importer that not aU the car°-o shortases, or .yen the bulk of them, occur alter the steamer reaches a New Zealand port. i