A Drop too Much.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6753, 6 February 1892, Page 2

A Drop too Much.

An Auckland merchant writes to his paper :—We have a wonderful law, of which I am a victim, which enacts that case spirits imported into the colony shall be each an equal number of gallons, either 2,3, 4, or 5, as the case may be. The merchant when importing orders his parcels to be an equal number of gallons, but has to put up with the risk of the gauge here being measured the same as from the exporting country. If a parcel measures two gallons and one gill, the merchant is called upon to pay duty on three gallons, in other words, 16s for what does not exist in the case. Even though an offer be made to pay down the duty on the gill in excess on the number of oases, this is refused by the Customs, and the wording of the Act carried out—" Two gallons and under as two gallons, two gallons and not exceeding three gallons as three gallons, and so on.” We will instance a merchant importing a 1000 cases Geneva. These are ordered to be each four gallons, and of certain strength. On landing them here a few cases are measured by the customs offices, and he declares upou this the whole shipment to be four gallons and one gill each case. The merchant is called upon in this way to pay duty on 1000 cases of five gallons each, whereas they only measure four gallons and one gill. The* Customs refuse to take the excess duty on 1000 galls, but claim duty on each case of 31 galls in excess of actual measurement, which, on 1000 cases, would amount to tbo round sum of £775, or a little more than prime cost of the shipment. The only alternative that is left, is for the merchant to export the geneva elsewhere, to some country where red tapeism is not as rampant as in New Zealand, and where a merchant is not made a victim to a Gill Too Much.