AVOIDING THE CUSTOMS
CIGARS GO UP IN SMOKE “You'd be surprised,” the. furnace- ' man said, as he slammed the door of I his fire-box on a few thousand cigars, “what this furnace has seen. Look at | those cigars, now, and me without I even a cigarette.” His voice trailed off hopefully (says the Melbourne “Argus”). r fhe cigars, together with a plentiful supply of advertising matteron which the consignees declined to pay the Customs duty, several cases of doubtful tinned salmon, and some boxes of dried fish about which there was no doubt at all. were being burnt under the supervision of a Customs officer. He would certify later that the goods had been destroyed, and the import duties on them would be remitted. This procedure is followed almost every day with goods which have become damaged or perished and are no longer saleable. Last, week three tons of armoured electric cable, once'valued at £2OO, were dumped in Bass Strait because the cable had arrived in Australia so damaged that the cost of repair was prohibitive. The cable would not go in the destructor furnace. so it was buried at sea to obtain a rebate of the Customs duty. A motor body was destroyed similarly not long ago. The consignee found it cheaper to destroy it and lose the invoice cost than to pay £6O duty on it. When the duty on woollen goods was increased thousands of cheap garments from Japan were abandoned in bond. After the ponderous process of arranging on paper for the Commonwealth Government to reimburse itself for the amount of duty payable, the Customs department gave the garments to charitable organisations instead of destroying them. The Customs officer remembered other goods that had been destroyed to avoid payment of duty on them. Tons of dates and dried figs and preserves arrived in bad condition, he said, and were burned. Even a large consignment of champagne had been poured away.
The eyes of the stoker dimmed. He licked his cracked lips, slammed the furnace door- and turned away.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1933, Page 7
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342AVOIDING THE CUSTOMS Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1933, Page 7
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