STOLEN STOCKINGS

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 27, 31 January 1919, Page 8

STOLEN STOCKINGS

WHO WILL WEAR THEM?

GROWTH OF CARGO PILLAGING.

"It seems more like deliberate sabotage that mere thieving," was the comment made by .a Wellington merchant on a case of cargo pillaging brought to the notice of The Post. In this instance, the goods had just been shipped in New .York, then carried to Sydney, discharged there and transhipped to New Zealand, discharged here, and finally were delivered at the Wellington warehouse. Between the manufacturer and the consignee they had gone through many handlings. It was.then .practically impossible to say where or when the pillaging was done. It might have been done before the goods even left the United States of America, but it was a most scientific job, whoever did it, and it represents a theft of goods costing £126. The total value of the goods in the cases from which the thefts were made was £680. The loss is roughly 20 per cent. The goods stolen were 12 dozen ladies' vests, and 32| dozen white silk stockings. Who is wearing them now? Or were they sold to be sold again? One man stole them, and he appears to have been an artist at the game. The cases rifled showed no outward signs of having been tampered with. They were in fact intact, with the plaited wire round them unbroken. Only a roseheaded nail gave the show away —all the other nails were flat-headed. The case was made of tongue and grooved material, which is not so easy to force open and close up again as the ordinary plain edged planks of a packing case. But the thief ha-d deftly inserted his hook between the boards and ripped open the bottom of the layer of cardboard boxes. From these, the case being once prised open, it was easy to drag out the stockings witli the hook. Some of them may have been torn in the operation, but the bottom row of boxes were completely emptied,, and the rent in them' corresponded with a rent that could be made by a cargo hook, and the aperture made by the prised plank or batten. As to the vests, the boxes that contained them were torn to pieces in the process of abstraction of the contents.

ARE THESE RECEIVERS?

As 12 dozen vests and 32£ dozen pairs of silk stockings were stolen, the hose being of various sizes, it is. to be presumed that the ladies of the family of ■the' thief would be well set up in these articles if they kept them ■ for themselves; '.but are these receivers? It isJiiot^Jchown where these goods were stolen.t.they may have been taken while the goods were on rail to the American port of shipment, they may have been stolen in Sydney; but New Zealand is not immune from this wholesale thieving of cargo. The merchant who reported to-The,Post the loss of the silk stockings, also ..complained of pillaging of case* and parcels between Wellington arid Christchurch, and the theft of £100 "worth of men's coats between Wellington and Aucktind.

"This pillaging," he said, "is as bad in New Zealand as anywhere. We try (tot avoid it as much as we can by varyntrg marks, and forms of packing that ■w, ill suggest the nature of the contents, but the pillaging goes on just the same. ItJ.haa become very bad in New Zealand, ands is growing. I cannot say where the stockings were stolen; but. the loss on shipments of goock to the extent of 20 .per cent, by theft is a. very heavy one."

:: LOSSES "EASSED ON." -The lots must be passed on to the .workers sm well as everyone else. No doubt the loss by pillaging is passed on in many cases, and so it becomes a factor in increasing the cost of living. That -appears to be the only -way in which merchants and importers generally can recoup themaehres for these, robberies... No man who wae underpaid and found it difficult to faed a. family can justify himself in stealing such articles of luxury as silk stockings. If there is a market for these stolen goods, then, of course, that jmte another complexion jigon it, ;

Shippers of tobacco on the New Zealand coast, it is stated, are now compelled to,so disguise the cases as to give iic; clue to the contents, so heavy had ttfe loss by pillage become. Cases of Australian.'canned iruits,. too, have reached" consignees in Wellington containing empty cans, cut open, the contents taken, and the, cans put back *mong full: ones, the cose being neatly fastened up again. Some of the work must take a long time to do—that of the taking but of 32 dozen pairs of silk stockings was an instance. It wa6 deliberately done, and, with men working all about the cargo when loading or discharging,, could not have been done unobserved.