WOMEN AND THE CUSTOMS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 283, 24 August 1908, Page 5

WOMEN AND THE CUSTOMS.

The story cabled on Saturday about tho lady who attempted to smuggle into America £18,000 worth 'of art objects, and who had to pay, acco-ding to the same authority, more than four times tho value of tho goods, as a'fine, as well as £6000 duty, will not- surprise anyone who has read much about. the New .York Customs Office-and its experience with manifold smugglers. According to some accounts, the modern American >whose ancestors were men of war and, adventure finds , his or her excitement nowadays in devising schemes for' evading the Customs and in boasting of. the', achievement later, on, and all sorts of tales are told,of how this is' done. '' ■

One American magazine recently had a story of a lady , who proudly passed through the Customs paying duty on a. large quantity of dress goods, but concealing the most precious of lier purchases, some very valuablo lace, in the pages •of an : ordinary railway guide stuffed into, the pocket-of a big coat. She inadvertently lets someone hear what she has done, and the reader's interest is •worked up to a painful pitch as the story goes on to tell how the officers of tho Customs followed her-to her home and demanded the payment of-the duty with an additional fine, the rescue from this position, horrible for a respectable .woman, coming when tho husband steps forward and says that he had discovered the lace, and paid the duty without informing his wife. It was an interesting little tale, because it showed how lightly an otherwise honest woman regarded the offence of. cheating the Customs. "Dominica" has been making inquiries as to whether New Zealand women do much in this same way, and she is informed' that Customs officials would rather deal with men than women, for women undoubtedly do like, even better than men, to get the better of the . Customs, and if they are discovered they put up the. plea of their 1 womanhood and very often:-get off quite free.

"The way they usually do it," said One Who Knows, "is by bringing in things for their friends and putting them with their own personal luggage. '.If there is no .'separate wrapping round them the Customs official cannot tell that there is any difference, and ho only finds out what has been dono long after, when tho woman who has. received the dross, or whatever it may be, says: 'Yes, and I got it so cheaply, because Mrs. So-and-So brought it out with her own things, and did not have to pay duty on

Of course, there is not here the temptation to smuggle on tho enormous scale that America knows. Our women do not ieturn with "art goods used by tlieip in Europe and worth £18,000," nor do they invest so extensively in European frocks, as the American millionairess can do. Then, again, a great deal of tho smuggling carried on in America ik in connection with gems. Diamonds and pearls' and other unset jewels are brought in so freely, and in such ingenious ways, that the Customs officials have bad at last to resort'to the use of the X-rays to detect their presence in the clothing of arrivals who are suspected of carrying them. There is in New Zealand no duty on imported unset stones, aid one of tho reasons for this is not very creditable. Dishonest dealers, it was stated, smuggled stones through freely, and it was absolutely impossible to detcct them, while tho whole burden of the duty fell on the shoulders of tho honest dealers.