SMUGGLING IN FIJI

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 8, 26 December 1928, Page 6

SMUGGLING IN FIJI

AimudAN HBAVIL Jb’lNM). ■ T ■ S JYAj Dec. y.' Tins morning a sea nan from * the ,steamer Tdfua was heavily fiiied, for smuggling Indian hemp into the oniony. ' . , . , Dor some time the police have, had suspicions of a seaman named Arthur Nicholson, of the s.s. Tofua, which trades between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Auckland. In spite of surveillance, he managed to keep clear of the law until,last evening when he was arrested in a native quarter,, and found to have in his possession ten one-ounce jars* of extract of Cannibis incicae, or Indian hemp. The police atskedi for a severe penalty, and, accused, who said he did not know that he was. doing anything illegal, was lined £125, in default three months’ •.imprisonment. Many of the Indiana have been -in the. habit of using Td.ian hemp in their native land, and cannot understand why any tabu should exist in Fiji.