New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-08-05
A Device to Prevent Whisky Fraud,

a Desice to Prevent Whisky Frauds.
A Washington letter TO the New York
Times says:
The Secretary OF the Treasury and Com
missioner Of Internal Revenue today per
fected system which, it is expected, will
insure the cancellation of spirit tax stamps
when once used, and make it almost i'm
possible for distillers and rectifiers to prac-
tice frauds upon the revenue. Hereafter,
instead of pastipg the tax paid stamp en-
tire on the package, the edges of the stamp
only will be pasted. A piece Of paper will
be pasted on the stamp 90 as to prevent
the centre, containing the serial number of
the package and the number of proof gal
Ions, from being fastened to the package.
When dumped by the rectifer, the gauger
is required to cut from the stamp the centre
containing the serial number and proof
gallons, which must be forwarded 10 the
department through the collector. A com.
plete record Of the daily transactions Of
every distiller and fectifer will be kept
here, and the pieces cut from the tax paid
stamp will be checked up against the par
ties who handled the spirits. Recti6ers
will not be sold stamps to cover larger
quantity of spirits than is shown to have
been dumped by the vouchers cut from the
tax paid stamps and returned by the gauger.
By this means tax.paid stamps can not be
used second time by distillers and recti-
fere. who can not obtain stamps for
greater quantity of rectified spirits than
their own records show they originally pur
chase for that purpose. The department
will keep full abstract of the history of
every package Of spirits from the time it
leaves the distiller's cistern until it reaches
the retail dealer. This record will only be
completed when portion of the tax paid
stamp is returned to the department, and
the issue OF duplicate number is sure to
be detected in q short time. A treasury
officer will go to New York tomorrow to
prepare the stamps now in the hands of col.
lectors for the new regulation, and to ar
range with the bank note companies for the
preparation of future issues. The same
system will be applied to rectifer's stamps
The delegation. of distillers who were
here were informed of the stamp regula-
ton. and expressed the belief that in con-
nection with the very thorough system of
recording transactions in spirits BY the
treasury combinations. fraud will be frus-
trated or certainly detected. In their in
terview with the revenue officers to-day
the distilers suggested one change in the
transportation Of the more costly brands of
department. They claim that casks of
high-priced liquors are very frequently
tapped while in transit and two or three
gallons removed, making the packages
short upon arriving at destination. This is
done by boring gimlet holes and plugging
them up while in railroad cars. Distiilers
request that regulation may be made by
which these casks of finer liquors may be
inclosed in larger casks. This plan has
been suggested before, but the difficulty
has been that the government stamps and
marks must necessarily be on the inner
cask. The suggestion is now made that
some sort OF an engraved stamp can be de-
vised to be placed upon the outer barrel,
which will show that the inner cask has
paid full duty. The Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue is considering this sugges.
ton.