Smuggling.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 5953, 24 May 1894, Page 1

Smuggling.

The latest smuggling trick, and one that has apparently worked well so far, is to bring tobacco ashore in the inside of fish. A good-sized ling or cod, to say nothing of a groper, will hold a fair amount of tobacco, while even herrings can accommodate a stick or half-stick, as the case may be. How many pounds or even hundredweights of tobacco have been brought ashore in this manner right under the very noses of the Customs officials it is impossible to say, and the trick might have remained undiscovered long enough had not a lady recently purchased a fish which, on inspection, was found to have over a pound of tobacco stowed in its inside. The good lady, in her innocence, thought the fish had swallowed the stuff. Her husband, however, who is a smoker, and has no objection whatever to contraband tobacco, even if obtained in a " fishy" manner, soon undeceived her, and is now willing to buy up as many of the same class of fish as he can get at the price paid for the last. It is only fair to add that the vendor was not one of the regular fishermen at port. —Exchange.