SMUGGLING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 102, 3 May 1933, Page 5

SMUGGLING.

N.Z. SILVER COINS. REGULATIONS DEFIED. PROFIT ESTIMATED AT £60,000 (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. Wellington investigations into the shortage of silver confirm the statement of the "Star" that the banks are becoming seriously concerned. The regulations were made drastic, and confiscatory powers were given in the hope of preventing the smuggling out of silver coins, which pass at their face value in England. One ingenious method —now obsolete because it was discovered—was to post a large-number of newspapers overseas, each containing n number of half-crowns. Short of the drastic search of the person and luggage of everyone leaving the country, there seems no way of stopping this form of smuggling. There may be heavy penalties for those unlucky enough to be caught, but apparently the game is considered worth the risk. "By the end of the current year," remarked a banker, "I estimate that somewhere about a quarter of a million in silver will probably have left New Zealand. That will represent a total profit of some £60,000, divided amongst those who have been game enough to take the risk." Inquiries in Government quarters show that there is no immediate prospect of increasing New Zealand's supply of silver coins.