SMUGGLING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5209, 1 December 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

SMUGGLING.

(From the San Francisco Newsletter.) San Francisco is declared by an expert to be the safest port in the United States at which to carry on smuggling. We fully believe it is. It has long been an open secret that the vile business has lieie an exceedingly fair field, and a remarkable deal of favor. Customs officers cannot see the crooked thing, even if it is poked right undertheir noses. Pieces are before their eyes, and how could they be expected to see right through glittering gold ? The Island trade is said to be prolific in smuggling enterprises. In the Society and Hawaiian Islands there are known to be extensive arrangements for carrying on the crooked with Stu Francisco. If the Commission now sitting desired it, they might make a rich haul upon one of the very first vessels that may arrive from the destinations we have indicated. The China trade, too, is crooked from beginning to end. Chests of ten, containing quantities of opium, are landed from almost every steamer. An expert procured from Hongkong would soon make seizures that would astonish the country. Even Parson Newman was smart enough to discover that there was toil times more opium introduced than paid duty. Smuggling is looked upon by many people as a venial sin, yet in truth it is a monstrous wrong against the body politic. It is a robbery of the whole people. But when the Collector of the Port orders smuggled spirits and cigars to be entered as “ personal effects per City of New York," what wonder is it that persons not so specially charged with the protection of tile revenue, practice a lax morality upon this subject ?