TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



335 



The look of disgust on his face was worth witnessing 

 and in words more forcible than polite he exclaimed 



44 what a b ass I was not to have wticed that ; 



why I would have been retained by the whole batch 

 and if I had seen what you observed ; I would have 

 got them all off." " You would have had a good 

 chance," I said, " but then you didn't observe and 

 that made all the difference." 



After this case a sharper look out was kept and 

 many other cases of frauds, or attempts were dis- 

 covered and a better check was put on them ; but I 

 am afraid they were not altogether stopped ; it is not 

 always an easy matter to stop abuses of any sort — 

 except by slow degrees — when they have once ob- 

 tained a footing, you don't know who is in the swam 

 and must therefore patiently abide the issue. 



After these frauds and other irregularities were 

 discovered Mr. Robinson from the Imperial Customs 

 was sent here, and on his recommendation a new and 

 more up-to-date Custom House was started. Mr. John 

 Fanning, well known to the mercantile community 

 for his strict, and, as was thought by some, over 

 strict measures, was sent to reform the customs and 

 that he did so with firmness is a matter of history. 

 He, also, had tons of mud thrown over him, and 

 if he had been a weak man — which he wasn't — 

 his life would not have been a happy one ; he 

 was an able man, and after a time the general 

 community began to recognise it. He was in 

 course of time, succeeded by another clever and capa- 

 ble man in Mr. R. H. McCarthy, who also had to run 



