SMUGGLING AT LYTTELTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11415, 2 November 1897, Page 2

SMUGGLING AT LYTTELTON.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— l think it high time that the justice-loving part of the community was in possession of certain facts with regard to the way the Contraband Goods Act is carried out in Christchurch. The s.s. Matanra came into Lyttelton on Oct. 25, and on Oct. 26 a man, evidently in the employ of the Customs, came down and asked the seamen to sell him tobacco, offering 3s per lb for the same. The men said they had not any, and the man from Christchurch asked them to try and g - et some. He came again on .Thursday and then offered 4s a pound, and a quartermaster said he had won some at cards, but did not want to sell it. The detective then asked if they could not scrape up any more, and he would come on Friday for it. He came down and found the quartermaster in his bunk, asleep. He roused him up, and the quartermaster said all he could get was 6lb, and part of this he had had to get from another ship. The agent, or detective, ov whatever he likes to call himself, said he wanted more, but that he would take the 01b if the quartermaster wonld take it to the station for him. This he did result, arrested and fined treble the value.. Noiv, I ask, is it just or right that men should be bribed to commit a felony and then punished by the same people that persuaded them to do it. I may add, this is the third case of the kind that has happened lately. Christchurch appears to bo the only port that resorts to these means of causing crime and then finding it out.—l am, &c., LOVER.OF JUSTICE.