The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-24
Treasury Gives the
Collector More
Power.
WILL AFFECT THE
I CHRISTMAS TRADE
Duties Up TO One Hundred Dol
lars May be RENTED Here
Without Question.

BY a recent decision of the Treasury
Department the reception of gifts com
ing from foreign countries, through the
mails, will be expedited, though of
of the ruling. The point came up in
the report made to Washington, by
Collector Stackable, of a transaction
which seemed outside the regulations,
but which involved the convenience of
an importer.
The case. was that of retail mer-
chant who had received silk American
flags from Japan, the consignment ar
irving by mail few days prior to the
Fourth of July, which occasion made
the demand for the flags of the nation.
Had the usual course been followed
there would have been necessary an
appeal to Washington in the matter of
the seizure, which would have taken
such time as to cause loss in sales and
probably loss of the goods. The regula-
tons provide that for the first offense
remission of fines may be made by
the Collector when the duties are not in
excess of $25. The duties in the case in
point amounted to s30.3S. These were
assessed and COLLECTED, the goods being
released. In his report the Collector
called attention to the business rea-
sons for the action and asked that he
be given more power than is granted
in the regulations.
The Treasury Department then took
up the matter and in the letter which
has now been received says that in case
of seizures here the Collector shall have
the power to release goods in cases
where the duties are not above 800. AS
this will cover almost every case where
the goods are received through the
mails, there will be little or no difficulty
in the importations of materials for
Christmas or other gifts. This of course
means where the goods come from
countries which have no parcels post
convention with the United States, and
where the importation under such con-
ditions constitutes the first offense.
The regulations provide that goods
may pass through the customs regular
ly when carried in the mails from coun-
tries which are in a parcels post con-
vention with the United States. From
all other countries dutiable goods COM
ing in the mails must be treated as
goods liable to seizure and so held.
The first importation of this nature is
treated as the first offense against the
laws, and the remission of fines shall be
permissible only when there is clearly
no intent to defraud. The new order
as affecting Hawaii gives large latitude
to the Collector
In the case of a second Importation
the penalty is heavy, the law being that
there shall be assessed upon all such
goods received their dutiable value,
which is the foreign value with the ad-
dition of the duty. This would mean
that such goods purchased abroad and
coming in by mail would cost the i'm
porter twice the price and the duty as
we'll This is a very wide-reaching law,
owing to the fact that there is now only
one European country, Germany, which
is in parcels post convention with the
United States. England has not enter
ed such an agreement and goods from
that country will be subject to the
penalty. There is a convention with
Canada however, as there are similar
agreements with the Central and South
American countries