PILLAGING CARGO.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 May 1912, Page 6

PILLAGING CARGO.

[ Sydney, which, according to a cable message' published recently, is | complaining about cargo-pillaging, is not the only Australian port to suffer from this form of theft, it is prevalent to an astonishing extent in Melbourne, according to the Argus. Some firms suffer loss on nearly every shipment, and the practice is on the increase. All kinds of goods are taken, either in the ship's hold, or on the wharves from biscuits, tea, silk, and laces, to pigiron. Nor are the thieves any respecter of persons ;the present Governor-Gene-ral's belongings were tampered with. Every week the shipping companies pay -about £1000 in respect of goods imported into Australia that are stolen in transit, and every week the importing firms of Australia probably have to* write up against goods received a s»m quite as large, to cover losses which they cannot recover from the shipping companies or anyone else. The methods employed by the thieves are often ingenious. All kinds of "accidents" happen to cases of tea and preserved fruits. < Tins " *ruit are pierced with a nail and the t>^_..T extracted. There is sometimes an understanding between the thief and a packer at Home, by which the most valuable goods are indicated. A zinc-lined case containing valuables is marked on the outside, and the thief lifts the marked board, cuts a hole in the zinc, removes the goods, and covers up his work so neatly, that there is no outward sign of a crime having been committed. In January last a case containing dress goods was opened on the Melbourne wharves for Customs inspection and the contents found to be intact. An hour later it was in the importer's warehouse, and it was then found that £10 worth of goods had disappeared. Sixteen out of sixty-six rolls of silk were missing from another case when it was opened in Melbourne. One reason that the evil is so prevalent is that the risk of detection and conviction is small. Even if a man is caught with goods in his possession it is hard to identify them so as to sustain a. charge of theft, failing which the offender can only be charged with trying to evade the Customs. Perhaps some ot the offenders do not realise fully that what they do is theft just as much as if they broke into a shop and took the contents of the safe.