Morning Appeal

A Trick in Tare.

A coal dealer whose place of business is on Everett street has recently been detected by Custom officers on Pacific-street wharf in systematic frauds upon the Government and the wholesale dealers in the weighing of coal. The man has been the subject of suspicion for months to Custom officers and to Dunsmuir, Diggle & Co., the agents of the Wellington Colliery. An explanation of the manner in which the business of unloading from the ship and hauling from the wharf is conducted will conduce to an understanding of the trick by which the dealer in question practiced his frauds and the manner of his detection.

When the cart of a purchaser drove up to the wharf at which a ship is unloading for his coal, the cart and horse are weighed at the gate to get the amount of tare, and when they came out loaded, cart and horse are weighed again. It has been noticed for some time that the detected dealer had an unusual tare, and suspicion was aroused of something fraudulent in the weight of his cart. One morning recently he drove up to the dock to begin his day's hauling. His horse and cart were placed on the scales and were found to weigh 2480 pounds. In the course of the afternoon the Customs Inspector directed him to drive on the scales again for weighing. He demurred strenuously to this unexpected order, offering many excuses, but was compelled to obey. His horse and cart then only weighed 2340 pounds. He claimed the loss of 140 pounds was due to the feeding of his horse just before weighing in the morning, and his not having fed him at noon. The truth was ascertained to be that he had a false bottom to his cart, filled with coal, which he used for weighing for tare in the morning and removed after the first load each day, after getting the tare fixed for the day. By this means the dealer was enabled to defraud the wholesale dealers of the price of about 140 pounds of coal at each cartload and the government of the duty thereon, which on Wellington coal is computed at seventy-five cents a ton. As he had carried on this system for upwards of two years, the amount of his frauds must have been considerable. A complaint against him was lodged by the Custom men on the dock with the Surveyor of the Port, in whose hands it remains awaiting action. It is intimated that other dealers have been practicing the same trick that the Everett-street dealer was detected in, and that other complaints may follow soon.--S. F. Chronicle.