CARGO-BROACHING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1928, Page 8

CARGO-BROACHING.

MEASURES TO REDUCE LOSSES.

Committees of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce have discussed with representatives from the Overseas Shipowners' Committee measures that might be considered to reduce the extent of pillage of cargoes. The measures taken in New Zealand to reduce losses under this head, the chamber considers, have been effective in bringing the figures down to minor proportions. In 1920 a conference of shipping pnd other interests made many recommendations that have assisted in coping with losses by pillage, and there is not thought to be the same necessity for drastic action as there then was.. The main ports in New Zealand, by the erection of wharf gates and effective control of waterside labour, have dealt so well with the problem, it is said, that only extraordinary measures wciuld reduce the present scale of pillage even by a trifling and this being! t,be case it does not appear to the chamber that further action can with advantage be taken. However, particulars are being gathered by the chamber, and if these warrant further consideration the matter will be again investigated to see whether improvements could be effected.

The pillaging at New Zealand ports, the chamber states, does not appear to be of serious moment, and in any case it. is not always easy to lind out whether the pillaging has occurred before the goods reached the ship or on the voyage out. However, final ports of discharge usually record a higher loss by way of pillage than first ports of call, and it is not always possible to trace at which port on the way this loss has occurred.