CUSTOMS ORDEAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9360, 1 February 1909, Page 2

CUSTOMS ORDEAL.

After many months of vexations litigation with the New York Customs authorities Mrs Jack Gardiner, a well-known and wealthy lady of Boston, has recovered possession of art treasures valued at £16,000, which a year or so ago she lent to a friend, Mrs Emily Crane Übadbourne, in Paris. The trying expreienoes of Mrs Gardiner are common to every wealthy American lover of art or painting who desires to bring home treasures purchased abroad. Instead of paying the duty on the borrowed pictures as articles of vertu, Mrs Ohadbonrne absentmindedly invoiced them as household effects. As a result of that oversight she, or her friend Mrs Gardiner, after a long suit with the Customs authorities, is mulcted to the extent of £2BOO in duties and fines, in addition to paying the Governmentappraised value of the alleged household effects—£l6,ooo, Not long ago a Mrs Leeds had to pay a 60 per cent, fine on the value of pearls worth £60,000, which she assessed, on entering the country, at something over £2OOO. Other fines which may easily he recalled are those levied on Mr O. M. fcschwab of £9OOO, and on Mr John W. Gates of £3oon. Wealthy ladies now apportion as ranch of their wardrobe as possible among their maids when returning from Europe, and pay duty on the rest Only those who have been abroad for the first time seek to bribe ilie inspectors to pass the tranks. The inspectors rarely see a bribe big enough to tempt them, since by a cunning rule of the Treasury, when goods are, confiscated and sold at auction, they receive 30 per cent, ox the sum realised. Only recently one Customs inspector in New York, after seven years of service, retired with a fortune of £50.000, received as prizes from the Secretary of the Treasury. It is a matter of daily occurrence for wealthy South Americans to be fined huge amounts for endeavouring to pass the Customs with thousands of cigars in the innocent belief that if one cigar is extracted from a box the box is duty free.