Shop-Lifting
p. 70 · Read in the full issue
Pt. Moresby "Marys" Try
From Our Own Correspondent
Pt. Moresby, Jan. 6.
SHOP-LIFTING is a comparatively new industry in Port Moresby; and the efforts in that direction of two dark skinned ladies of Poreporena, last week, were not very successful. Whether they had heard of the shopping methods of some of their white sisters in London or Sydney, or whether their procedure was the outcome of a widespread femin ine instinct, was not made clear.
They attended a sale at one of the smaller stores in the town, one carrying a large umbrella which was closed but not rolled, and the other a wide-mouth ed bag.
In the crowded store their quiet move ments might well have escaped notice; and, from the lavish array of goods dis played for sale, the few trifles that they dropped unobtrusively into bag and um brella might not have been missed.
But the eyes of Commerce are keen, in these competitive days; and on the following Thursday the enterprising pair found themselves facing an unsympa thetic Magistrate. Not only were the fruits of their industry torn from them, but they were also fined 2/6 each, with the alternative of seven days.