Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Custom House and Dock Offices . . .

The Customs officers had also to deal with Quarantine Regulations but only in relation to ships arriving from foreign destinations as this letter to the editor indicates pointedly :

• January 1877 - Correspondence - Quarantine Regulations at Cardiff - To the Editor of the South Wales Daily News - 'Sir - Your issue of to-day quotes Dr Paine, the medical officer of the port sanitary authority, as reporting to the town council that yesterday morning a vessel arrived in Penarth Dock with small-pox on board, to whom no quarantine paper had been issued by the Customs officers, and he further implied that the officers do not carry out the work with that care which was desirable.

I regret that I have to say that these statements could not have been made by Dr Paine had he been fully acquainted with the facts of the case, and the quarantine regulations and sanitary laws. The vessel in question, the 'Argosy', actually arrived from Liverpool on the 24th December, at which time there was no sickness on board. This being a coasting voyage, no quarantine papers would have been issued to the vessel, and our duties as quarantine officers, which are clearly defined by Acts of Parliament and Orders in Council, do not require us to examine the masters of vessels arriving coastwise. Further, the vessel having been passed into dock, she was entirely out of our control as quarantine officers, her charge then falling solely to the care of the port sanitary authority.

The quarantine regulations being really carried out by us in their integrity to the full extent of our powers. I shall feel obliged if you insert this letter in the public interest, as well as in justice to the officers reflected upon. - I am, &c. W. P. Hendy, Examining Officer of Customs, Penarth, Customs House, Penarth, Jan. 9, 1877' - South Wales Daily News [325] [361]  10th January 1877.

Smuggling was not, however, the sole domain of the male of the species as the following newspaper report indicates :

• February 1879 - Female Smugglers at Penarth - 'Two washerwomen, named Mary Ann Nelson, and Emma Jones, were on Thursday, brought before Mr Corbett, county magistrate, at Cardiff, on charges of smuggling. The two women were seen by a Custom House officer coming from the s.s. 'America', and receiving that some cigars were falling from their persons, he took them into the Custom House, at Penarth, A female searcher examined them, and found concealed in their skirts, 2 lbs. 10 oz. of cigars, and 3 lbs. 6 oz. of tobacco. They were fined single value, including duty - Nelson, £1 14s. 3d ; and Jones, £1 11s. 7d., with the alternative of 14 days' imprisonment. They went to prison in default of payment.' - South Wales Daily News [325] [361] 7th February 1879.