Cargo Pillaging Down 40 Per Cent

Northern Advocate, 14 July 1949, Page 5

Cargo Pillaging Down 40 Per Cent

AUCKLAND, Thu. (P.A.)— Pillaging of cargo on the Auckland waterfront has decreased by about 40 -per cent since the Auckland anti-pillaging bureau was formed about 18 months ago.

Pillage claims for the year 1947 •totalled over £15,000. Now, monthly claims average £BOO.

The bureau and the police, with whom it works in close cooperation, realise, however, that intensified supervision on the wharves must not be relaxed.

“It is essential that the plain-clothes police strength must be kept up on thewharves,” said Mr W. H. Knox, chairman of the bureau, today. /

“These men are smart and have reduced pillaging to the stage where it is controlled, but the present staff must not be reduced.”

The pillager, Mr Knox stated, was a cunning man, who would steal anything from .nylon stockings, which were., saleable, to bits of machinery which had no market value. Wharf exits should be more adequately controlled and still- more lighting was heeded. A big reason for the decrease, in,..,.-* pillaging is the way the police have clamped down on receivers,” Mr Knox stated.

Harbour board officials, stevedores and watersiders had also assisted.

The Auckland bureau had aroused interest /overseas. Letters had come from bodies such as the Pilferage Committee.of the American marine insurance underwriters in Philadelphia, and the Security Bureau of New York, seeking information. V