CUSTOMS FRAUDS IN AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2122, 13 February 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CUSTOMS FRAUDS IN AMERICA.

Pkobably in no portion of the United States has Uncle Sam been so outrageously deprived of the dues collectable at his Custom Houses as here on the Pacific Coast. For a long time the borders of our vast domain were so far from markets that it did not pay to smuggle dutiable goods into this country. But this condition of things has passed away. There are railroads to the south of us from Mexico, and to the north of us from British Columbia, and nothing is easier than to elude customs officials, where, as it happens, there are do such officials to avoid. Some months ago the News Letter pointed out that the smuggling of such articles as diamonds, jewellery and opium was being conducted from British Columbia in the moat open manner imaginable. There were absolutely no check or hindrance to what was going on. Almost any astute man— such as are the reporters for our daily papers— might easily have discovered on the spot that which the Revenue Department of this Government was interested in finding out. But along many miles of our border Uncle Sam has no representative, and accordingly the smugglers had it all their own way. Boats left Victoria every fine night, and the moment their cargo wan landed across a channel of some twenty miles wide it was in United States Territory, free of duty, free from question, and free from leyr«l seizure. At last, however, s Collector of the UnUea* States bus been put upon the truck of things, and has made a haul of five thousand dollars worth of opium, which is a mere bagatelle in comparison with the sum total. But it is a begiuniug, and sustains by absolute proof the condition of things which the News Letter month* ago pointed out. If the Authorities at Wash' ington do not realise what all this tneaus. they must be bliud indeed. It is one of the penalties a country pays for a high tariff, that it must take e^pecta] pains to prevent smuggling 1 . It may not ignore the subject if it would, because it thereby enables dishonest men to conduct a fraudulent and ruinous competition with those who act hononrably by the Government. Then, again, the latest revelations show that «-v« u at this port of San Francisco the i' venue it* being shamefully defrauded. Tlio system of ad valorem duties i* •• i.-vinium on dishonesty. The importer k.i iws how to have what, in the parlance of commerce, is known us "salted " invoices tent to him. By them his impoi taiions are valued at much less than they ought to bo, and the revenue of the country is defrauded accordingly In thin instance, again, the honest man who reveals the trnth is placed at a di«ndvantage by his dishonest competitor. He has a right to claim and demand the protection of the Government he dcxh honestly by. The question is as to how he can be best protected. Certainly he can expect but little from collectors 01 appraisers, however honest, who kao« little or nothing practically, of the huMuew they ure engaged iv. These thing* want looking into. — S.F. News Letter.

Circumvention.— Before the adoption of the Police Act in Airdrie, a worth} named Geordie G had the surveillance of the town. One night a drunken obstreperous Irishman was lodged in the cells, and, this being rather atrainst his inclination, he made a tremendous noise by kicking the cell door with his heavy boots Geordie was equal to the occasion, for he went to the cell, and opening the door a little, said, " Man, ye micht put aff yer buits, and I'll gie them a bit rub, so that yell be respectable like wlieu ye gang before the baillie iv the morn tug." The prisoner at once complied with the request, and taw his mistake only when Geordie shut the door upou him, saying, "Ye can kick aw*' hqq aa lap* as ye like," *