LOSSES OF GOODS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23999, 24 June 1941, Page 6

LOSSES OF GOODS

EXPERT PILLAGERS WORKING

NORTH TO SOUTH ISLAND SHIPS [BY TF.I.EGRAPH —I'RESS ASSOCIATION'] CIIRISTCHUItCU, .Monday

Manufacturers throughout New Zealand are organising in an effort to combat the serious losses occurring annually in the pillaging of consignments of goods passing between the South and North Islands. All members of the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association have been circularised and urgently requested to supply full details of their losses during the past three months. The council of the Manufacturers' Federation will meet at Dunedin on Wednesday, and at this meeting pillaging will be discussed. .Losses reported in Christchurch include slippers, whisky, stockings, handhags, frocks, blouses, shirts and i arious forms of men's wear. It was said to-dav that the loss would run into thousands of pounds every year. The pillaging was so systematically carried out and on so large a scale that the impression had grown among manufacturers that it was on an organised basis. Strength was given to this assumption by the fact that the tools used in the pillaging of cargo were specially made. Individuals caught in the possession of these tools had been brought to justice, but there had been 110 decline in the volume of losses. Thero was also ample evidence of the expert methods used by the pillagers.