The San Francisco call., 1898-12-09
THE ZANTE CURRANT CASE.

raisins of California, for which 1t Is a kitchen substi- tute The Wilson bill put a tariff "Zante cur rants" emitting or other
 The New Y ork importers contended that this meant tariff this class of dried fruit only when grown on and exported from the island of Zante, and that grown on the mainland at Corinth and at Patras or Ithaca etc., must be admitted free The Collector of the Port of New York overruled this contention and t carried importers protest to the Board of General Appraisers, before which the heard The Government case was very imperfectly made out the witnesses introduced to sustain it were in a nebulous state of opinion to what the Zante cur is, and their testimony rather favored the idea that it is the common shrub currant, dried Under the law the Collector of the Port or the Secretary of the Treasury has limit within which to appeal from the General Appraisers to the United States District Court As the Collector and Secretary had no case the testimony taken, they declined to appeal and the decision of the General Appraisers stood as the law of the case and these entrants under free
 The effect of this decision may be estimated when 1t is known that entrants had been exported from Zante the United States for about forty years and our whole import came from the Morea and vineyards on the mainland
 In this emergency Naval Officer Irish determined to take jurisdiction of the here, where the petitve interest lies and the testimony IS accessible Instance all was Hldue pay Quty and the importer was compelled to protest. Under the law all actions in port of entry under the enue laws are brought in the of the Collector, so this one was brought. The case was fully made in the brief of the Naval Officer and upon that went to trial Under the law i'll such member of the Board of General Appraisers Is assigned Commissioner take the testimony, which then goes to the United States District Court, with the briefs and oral arguments Of the lawyers General Ap- praiser Shurte assigned to take this testimony, and sat for many days in San Francisco as Comms' sioner The first stand taken by the attorneys for the importer was an accusation that Naval Officer Irish had exceeded his authority and had overruled his perior, the Secretary of the Treasury But, as the Naval Officers action had secured jurisdiction here and the amount involved several hundred thou sand dollars of Federal revenue, this point had no point
 In his brief the Naval Officers premise that the Zante dried grape and that it is the same fruit whether grown the Greek islands, the Morea 0, any part of the mainland of Greece. He brought to bear upon his case all the resources of botany etymoogy and commercial custom and nomenclature As the issue is burning now, III view of the free admission of the fruit being again imminent we re- sort to the copious and complete statement of the Naval Officers brief for the facts
 The so-called Zante currant Is the dried fruit of grapevine, first known and for ages cultivated near Corirth, and known botancaly the Vitis Corinth- iaca. In commerce it early called the Corinth. This came to be shortened into cornt and corrupted into currant
 Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, I773, defines it: "Currant, small dried grape, properly written Corinth."
 McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary: "Currant small species of dried grape, largely cultivated in Zante, Cephaonia and Ithaca of which islands they form the staple produce, and in the Morea, in the vicinity of Patras."
 French Dictionary of the Institute of Belles Let tres "Raisn de Corinth; blanc varete de raisin. nome aussi pasarelle" the latter being the name of a kind of white grape.
 Standard Spanish Dictionary: "Pasas de Cornto,' pasas being Spanish and Portuguese for dried grapes
 Imperial English Dictionary: "Currant, small kind of dried grape'
 Encyclopedia Britannica: "Currant, the dried fruit of variety of the grapevine
 American Dictionary of Commerce, De Colange: "Currants, the raisins of small, seedess grape, growing in huge punches, often eighteen inches long. Originally Corinth the principal place where they were raised whence the Corinths, from which the word currant has been derived"
 Skeat's Etymoogy of tn. English Language says the fruit known in England long prior to 1858 as Corinth raisin, which corrupted into cur rant and that when the shrub ribes was introduced in the above year it called currant, from its semblance to Corinths, although not seedless.
 The inquiry ran through long list of commercial and botanical dictionaries all confirming the Naval Officers premise that the fruit is grape and that the when corrupted to currant passed over to the fruit of the shrub rbes, bush currant of the garden, to which the Zante currant has no. bo- tanical affinity.
 Historically, it shown that when the Turks were masters of Greece they completely extirpated this grape from the Morea and the mainland and from all the islands which they dominated The Ve- netans the masters of the island of Zante and they domesticated the fruit there, and it continued to enter the commerce of Europe and came to be known as the Zante Corinth or currant After the battle of Lepanto and ensuing upon the final expu- sion of the Turk from Greece, this grape was re- patrated the Morea, but continued to be known in commerce as the Corinth currant or Zante currant
 The Naval Officer secured the testimony of the bo-