A JOKE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3131, 11 July 1881, Page 4

A JOKE.

The Kew Zealand Times says:—A. -tutw.'-i'.'-.-i: , . - j.-l; , * hn-» l>. ".'■ I'l'iTi'l .ipon tho o; , ■!-:-.) .j'lti ■"'■ i ■:■ m I. .•_:'.'■ orratlv , ) , , C. C.-j::":t- £"..'>. .T-j;;;:;'-. ■-.--; i.- . . "T-.. Leo:. 3ed >.-. -rr;". 7 . -.-■ ■; v c ' r ,-_ ■;• _~ ii'Al'.: tico .;.;;■, a ;hi.>l:lvui livma about fifty miles from town professed an inclination to get some contraband tobacco from a city resident, who he presumed dealt in such commodity, and by the hand of a trusty friend sent £100 in notes to pay for a parcel. The recipient, however, seems to have understood tr« position of affairs, and tlunigh be had no smuggled tobacco in his possession he saw no immediate need of returning th«? rnonnv. Narrowly scanning tbe notes *■ , :■• 1 t ! 'ey were marked. *n •'• v >.-• ; ■ :■;■.• ' ■'''.■ ;-.'i them away for g.i'-l. μ-jv • v ; :: . ~':;:* that tho o<^ l -'< b\it H'»j W:'{;;'i:-;j- \-f; h itf'mvne onei" By and bye, t> , ... 1 pu'olicun was 1.. tiw.t '>v v certain hour, op:1 a' ptai'e. 'Aui ti;b>i-.'C9 would he < l him ; and immecliately following ~ .aevi'lent to tb'ise in tbe secret, an exceptional alertness in the movements of the police and detective force. A constable from the country appeared on the scene, and dressed in plain clothes, and ostensibly enjoying a holiday, was very constant in his attentions and friendliness towards the suspected parties—there was more than one individual suspected. Last night a cart, laden with dried fish and various mystarious-looking boxes, left town after dusk in the direction of a certain toll-bar in the suburbs—three suspected dmugglers being in charge, and their pretended mission, a hawking expedition ia the country—their real intent being to decoy the officials into revealing their object. The lure was effectual, for on reaching the vicinity of the toll-bar, the cart was surrounded by a posse of detectives, police, and a Custom House officer, and every box and bundle of fish summarily overhauled. There was no tobacco there, of course, and it quickly dawned upon tho zsalous protectors of the revenue and conservors of the law, that they hid been foiled. We tell the tale as it was given idj, •with the assurance thai, it is correct.