Pillaged razors ‘sold in hotels’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 18

Pillaged razors ‘sold in hotels’

• Zetland Pre»9 A»ioct«lion> AUCKLAND. July 31. An Auckland importer, Mr B. Stoddart, said today that he had been told that electricrazors which had been sent from overseas to his company were being sold in some Auckland hotels soon after they had been stolen from the waterfront.

T Mr Stoddart, who is a past president of the Auckland Junior Chamber of Commerce and manager of a city firm, said more im.porters should be prepared to say what the real position was about waterfront pillaging. Unfortunately, many would not do so because they feared their goods would be ’ delayed on the waterfront even longer than at present. Many importers were also too involved in the "paper war” that went with importing to do anything about , pillage losses. According to Mr Stoddart, many importers write off pillage losses or pass them on to the public. "The public pays for it,” he said. Mr Stoddart said that last year, in about five or six months, his company lost more than 1600 electric l razors through pillage. He! was convinced that “a good: proportion” of them were; stolen in New Zealand. His! insurance payment for losses I from four shipments amounted to $11,700. He conceded that some of his company’s goods are pillaged overseas, but he said he believed that most of the .thefts occurred in New Zealand.