OPIUM AND SUSPICIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 182, 1 August 1913, Page 4

OPIUM AND SUSPICIONS.

CHEMISTS INADEQUATE

RECbRD.

A GREY LYNN CASE.

Action was taken this moraine in th. Police Court by the Customs authoritia. against Alfred Robert Welham, chemist, ° 4 f ? re l Lynn ' for *«*&* of the Opium Act. There were nine charges of having purchased opium from persons licensed to sell the drug and of not having recorded those purchases (and the _______ :n which the opium was disposed of) in a book which he wa_ required by law to keep for that purpose. In outlining the circumstances Mr J P. Ridings, Collector of Customs, said that welham had been in-the habit of purchasing large quantities of opium extract in various forms from the wholesale _rug merchants, and he was required by the Opium Act, 1910, to keep a record of such purchasers and to note therein the manner in which the opium was disposed by him. An officer of the Department recently visited defendant's shop, and asked for the record, but found that though defendant had purchased large quantities of opium extract for some time prior to the end of last year _c had only one note-book, dating from April 17 last, recording his purchases. He explained the absence of any other record by stating that in October _" fire had! •occurred in premises adjoining his, and hie books and papers had been hastily removed, in the course of the rtmoral some o-f -his papers and records being lost. The officer found that there had been such a fire, and defendant's papers had been removed. But the one •notebook found did not contain any record of nine purchases made concerning _o_, solid extract of opium, Boz. liquid extract and loilbs. tincture of opium, and in the cases of tie purchases T-cor_ed"_ot_in<» was said concerning tie disposal of the drug. Asked about that, _efe___it said -he used the drug in the manufacture of eczema cure, and diarrhoea piHs'.s According to hks statement the : largest amount of opium that appeared to he used for the latter Temedy was used.in May, whiie the complaint for which it was intended was most common at the end of the summer. He had no opium in his shop at the time of the officervisit, and said he had sent a quantity of his manufactured remedies to Australia, but the only goods that could be traced as going there were a box of pillsisoldto a traveller and a bottle of eczema cure sent to a tradesman. In..view of the non-feasibility of the explanation'to account , for the use of so large a quantity of opium, and the further fact that there were large Chinese gardens wit_in a half or three-quarters of a mile of the shop, the Department decided to take action against defendant. The Department did not, however, have any- evidence that defendant had done any trade with the Chinese at the gardens;; there was only the presumption that._e had done so

Defendant pleaded guilty ;.to-the charges. He maintained that "the explanation he had given to the Customs officer was absolutely true, and the opium had been used only in the manufacture of his cures, of which he sold-large quantity. He had not yet advertised the cures, but intended doing so next season. He had never previously been asked hy the Department to show his record of purchases, and had consequently, been a little lax in entering it up.

Mr. r Fra_er, S.M., said that it seemed to him that -the explanation to tbe Customs officer - did not in any way" account for such a huge quantity, comparatively speaking, of opium used. __There was no, thing to suggest that -defendant bad disposed of it illegally, but suspicion was caused by his being unable to give-any real account of how the : stuff ~waa used. : Defendant would be fined _I and costs in respect to each of the nine informations.