"TIPS" FOR CUSTOMS OFFICERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13864, 26 December 1912, Page 2

"TIPS" FOR CUSTOMS OFFICERS.

A UNITED STATES PRACTICE

SAN FRANCISCO. November 25

An indication of the abuses with which the United States Customs service is honeycombed—or at least was, prior to recent much-needed reforms—is furnished in the suit of the Government against the Federal Sugar Refining Company for about £26.000, representing under-payments of duty on imported raw sugar. The Government charges, and it is admitted, that gratuities, or bribes, according to the point of view, wore constantly paid the Customs weighers, at the company’s factories. In return for this tlie weighers are alleged to Imvb persistently underweighed the sugar, thus allowing the company to escape the payemnt of large sums of duty. The president of the defendant concern replies that although the weights may not always have been correct, they were as often against the company as against the Government. He admitted the payment of gratuities, but said they wore in no sense bribes, “but just such a tip as is given to a waiter in a installment to ensure good service. They are known as ‘house money,’ and were paid bv every concern that did business with the Customs people before Collector Loeb put an end to the system, and relieved tlie companies of an unjust burden.”