PILLAGED CARGO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16749, 2 June 1922, Page 7

PILLAGED CARGO.

LOSSES ON THE lONIC, COSTUMES AND FROCKS STOLEN. The unpleasant discovery was made this morning bv two of the large drapery firms in Christchurch, that a quantity of fashionable and seasonable goods, out of shipments that arrived by the lonic, had been pillaged. The losses amount, in the case of one firm to approximately £3OO and with the other firm to about £75. In each ease tho goods pillaged consisted of model costumes and frocks.

The manager of one firm said that fortunately there had been less pillaging during the past couple of years than was the case previously. During the later part of the war and tor some time after, the amount of pillaging that took place was considerable, but since then his firm’s losses had been comparatively small. He attributed this fact to a tightening up of the supervision at the other end, where most of the pillaging, he considered, took place. The pillaging from the lonic’s shipment was the worst cast* he had come across for some time. “ The pillagers know what they are going for and always take good stuff,” lie added. ” It seems to be carried on by 7 an organised system and whether it takes place on the vessel or before reaching the vessel is difficult to decide.” A member of another firm expressed a similar opinion. He said the pillagers seemed to know the brands on the cases, for it was . very seldom that * case of boots arrived that was not pillaged. The case of goods belonging to his firm, which had been pillaged on the lonic, was zinc-lined arid had had a square hole cut in the top of the zinc. The pillagers then struck a lot of samples of cloth, etc., which must have been taken out before the model costumes would be found. Obviously the pillagers had gone to a lot of trouble before they were able to get the costumes, so it would seem that they must have had some idea of what the case contained.