AN EXHIBITION SCANDAL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2498, 23 March 1881, Page 3

AN EXHIBITION SCANDAL.

Attention has been drawn to some singular attempts which have been made, in connexion with the Melbourne Internationa! Exhibition, and in the name of the commissioners, to either impose on exhibitors or defraud the Customs and Harbor Trust of the wharfage rates payable on all exhibits coming to Melbourne from beyond the seas. The commissioners undertook to pass all Customs entries free of charge, and to pay the wharfage rates on behalf of exhibitors. In the bills issued by the “ Traffic Departmen, M.1.E.,” exhibitors have not only been charged for the very work which was to have been done for nothing, but the wharfage rates have been assessed at amounts far in excess of what were actually paid to the Customs. Whilst the executive body have been trying to keep the painful discovery secret, and avoiding measures which would compel them to make the affair public, the proper investigations have been undertaken by the Customs authorities. A specimen list of charges shows that payments amounting to £8 6s 6d have been magnified to £3l 7s 6d or over 350 per cent., which is unusually high profit. The Customs department will be compelled to take notice of the fact that an unlicensed agent has been charging fees for passing entries. The person signing the receipts at the bottom of paid accounts is “ A. Pachten,” who, on the Exhibition list is described as the officer in charge of the shipping , department. Foreign exhibitors did not discover that imposition was being, practised on them until they handed their bills to customs experts.—“ Australasian.”