SAMPLES STOLEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26933, 19 November 1948, Page 6

SAMPLES STOLEN

CASE COMPLETELY PILLAGED SETBACK TO MANUFACTURER Twelve months ago a large manufacturing company in Dunedin sent to England for a complete new range of samples. Word was later received that after a considerable amount of work and thought, the sample range had been completed and shipped from Liverpool by the ship Haparangi. A few days ago the case in which the samples were shipped arrived in Dunedin, and the firm took possession of it at the wharf. When the case was opened it was found that only a few empty tins were in it. The whole of the sample range had disappeared somewhere on its journey from the shippers' store to the manufacturers’ store, and his own employees knew as little about it as he did. This example of pillage is one of the most serious from a business man’s point of view that has ever been reported in Dunedin. Not only was a great deal of thought, time, labour and money expended on the preparation of the new sample range, but its disappearance put the manufacturer two years behind his planned schedule. Apart from his own commercial loss, he told the Daily Times yesterday, it . was possible that the pillaging would throw a good number of people out of employment. The samples were of comparatively little value, he said, but it would be at least 12 months before a new range could be obtained, provided that the same thing did not happen again. The case which contained the samples showed no signs of having been tampered with on its arrival in Dunedin. Two boards on the lid had been slipped out to enable the samples inside to be removed from their containers.