GREAT WHISKY FRAUD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 20 April 1907, Page 4

GREAT WHISKY FRAUD.

SEARCH FOR A PIPE LINE.

Further particulars are now to .hand of the gigantic fraud upon tlie luianil llevenue at home, which was cabled a few! weeks ago. It was alleged to havV® been carried out by one of the smaller distilleries in Ireland. Great quantities of whisky are said to have been for an unknown period placed on the English market without having paid any exleise dutv; and it was further alleged that the Inland Revenue, having discovered the invasion, had levied upon the offending firm an enormous penalty, variouslv stated ac £1.3,000 and Mi'ir 000. , . , The current reporta in trade circles, to which some publicity has been given, are (says the Daily Mad) that the alleged cheating of tlie Exchequer was carried out by means of underground pi|)J connection between tfie distillery and the dutv-paid warehouse, which enabled the whisky to secretly pass from the place of manufacture to the warehouse, where only spirits that had paid dirt? should remain. Tile effect of such an. amazing schema would be that the linn could save lis a gallon, and could not onlv undersejl whisky of cquu 1, strength and age and quality, but make larger profits than competing firms. Irish members were much disturbed over the allegation*. They expressed a belief that the reports were exaggerated. One Irish M.P. declared implicitly that the authorities had dug a trench all round the distillery in question, but had not discovered the pipe l ; ne about which gossip has for months been making exaggerated statements. The law as to distilleries lays down, for the purpose of preventing evasion, that a duty-paid warehouse shall not be nearer than One hundred yards, and that a public roadway shall intervene. "For some time past;' the ine I rade Review says, "the prices quoted by the firm in question have been the subject of much comment, since it was felt that they were ill some instances absolutely impossible on the assumption that dun liad been paid. We think it would hava only been fair to the trade for the authorities to have prosecuted 'n a public court, instead of settling the matter privatelv." Mr IT. C. Lea, M.l\. -t-ii-'l to a T>ailv Mail representative that he first heard of the subject in question from the Dublin representative of the Wine and Spirit Trade Review, of which he s proprietor, "i intern! to push my question until T get a satisfactory awwr|* from Mr Asquith." said Mr Lea. "For some time a vast quaniUy of whiskv coining from Ireland lind been selling at a penny, twopence, or threepence a gallon Jes- .than the ordijifii \ price! Tlie fraud has meant a gh-eat loss to the trade in England. T nm; causing enquiries to he made in Ireland so that the whole facts may be madic, known.'