THE ROMANCE OF CONTRABAND.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 229, 24 November 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF CONTRABAND.

The term "contraband," although in ' recent times it has come to l»c specially used in describing material transmitted to a belligerent nation contrary to the laws of neutrality, has in reality a much wider application. Its original meaning was any forbidden or illicit import or export, whether in time t f war or of peace, and the " free-trad-ers ot the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries dealt in contraband just as much a.s any war-time gun-run-ner, or wily neutml endeavouring to get a cargo of rubber, copper, or nitrate pitst tlie ever-vigilant British blockade. Smuggling of various kinds is to 'v found cropping up in the local history of practically all Engnsii anil Scottis-i seaport town and fishing villages. Blukgang Chine and Billing Gap -uv namos that readily occur to mind ..s l)einj; associated with the wild doings of the old free-trading days, and among the well-known smugglers of the West i Country may be mentioned the famous j "King of Gipsies,"' Banifylde Moore j Carew. The West Country was on tin who!. l one of the chief places where smuggling was carried on. owing partly to the wild and adventurous character ot its seafaring folk, partly to the proximity of the shores of France, and partly, no doubt, to the many chances its dangerous and cave-fretted coast offered to the diaring local mariner with I a cargo ot late or brandy to disposc.of. Hie rocky shores of Devon and Cornwall abound in caves and coves ;o which loc-al tradition assigns a former use as smugglers 'rendezvous and hiJ-ing-places, and in most <~ises tradition is more than likely to l<e a true historian. EARLY FORMS OF SMUGGLING. Probably the earliest form of smuggling on record is one which was, curiously enough, not connected with imports, but with exports. During the sixteenth century the export of wool was stringently forbidden, but none the less a considerable trade in this commodity went on sub rosa between the Southern Counties of England—especially Rye and neighbouring places—and the Low Countries, whoso wool weavers wera always ready to pay a big price for the contraband cargoes of the South Downs. This form cf smuggling was known as "owling"', and the risks run by "owlers" were very groat, for the penalties prcscrilied by the law in those days never erred oil the side of lightness. The heavy duties upon imported lace, brandy, and tobacco gave smuggling a tremendous impetus during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it is to that period that the majority of the legends belong that still linger about our English coasts. 'flu popular view of the offence of smuggling is very woll expressed in an ol'l anonymous song entitled "The Smuggler's Lass": — Oh, my true love's a smuggler bold, And he sails the salt, salt sea. And 1 wish I were a sailor too, To go along with he—■ To go along with he o'nights For the satin and the wine, And run the tubs on Slapton beach When the merry stars do shine. Oh, Holland's is a warming drink, When nights are wet and cold; And brandy is a good man's drink For them as getting old; There's lights on the cliff tops high, When boats are homeward bound, And we run the tubs 011 Slapton beach Whon the welcome word goes roun 1. The King he is a great proud man, All 111 h is purple coat; But me, I love a smuggler lad In his little fishing boat; For he brings tlve Mallin laces fine, j And he spends his money free; And I wish I wore a seaman, oh, To sail along with he! THE PREVENTIVE MEN. The smuggler may, in short, be best described as the seafaring counterpart of the bold highwayman, .whose position in the public estimation was, moreover, very similar. And in Ills case also the obverse of the medal ought not to be forgotten. In many ways the lite of the smuggler was a desperate gamble for vfliat was, after all, a very sordid object, and, like other desperate men. he was not apt to 111 inee matters when cornered by tlio Preventive men. Some curious epitaphs from seaside churchyards serve well to illustrate the risks of the smuggler's calling, and in some cases they are not without a touch of (possibly quite unconscious) irony. The following inscription is to be found in a Cornish churchyard: — ' Here lie the mortal remains of Robert Mark, late of Polperro, who unfortunately was shot at sea the 24th day of January, in the year of our Lord God 1802, in tlio 40th year of his ago. In Prime of Life most suddenly, Sad tidings to relate, Here view My utter Destiny And Pitv my sad State. I by a Shot, which rapid flew, Was instantly struck Dead; Lord Pardon the Offender who, My precious Blood did shed; Grant Him to rest, and forgive All I have done amiss. \ And that I may Rewarded be Willi everlasting Bliss." An inscription on a stone in KinsJii eraveyard, near Bournemouth, shows a great deal of ieelmg which on-3 shrewdly suspects to be by no means impartial: — " To the memory of Robert Trot-man, late of Rowd, in the County of Wilts, who was barbarously murdered on the Shore near Pcole, the 24th March, 176-0: A little Tea, one leaf I did but Steal; For guiltless bloodshed 1 to God apPut Tea in one scale, human Blood in t'other. And think what 'tis to slay a harmloss brother." EXPORTING GOLD. A form of smuggling perhaps less familiar to the general public tlran that just alluded to was the practice of exporting gold from England to Fiance about "the beginning of tlio last century At that time the English guinea was worth a good d'oal more than its face value 'across the Channel, for -Napoleon was engaged in accumulating a vast "war chest," for which purpose he hoarded all the gold lie could possibly lav hands upon. Naturally, the export of gold currency fom England was strictly forbidden, and those who on""i"vd in it took their lives in their hands. This curious byway ot smuecrlm.r. which only lasted during a brief per ml provided Mr. Egerton Castle with a theme for his fine romance, " The Light of Scarthoy." _ \s regards contraband m its more restricted sense t"~ Vusiness of "gun-

running"' for South American insurgents and African potentates has long been a favourite occupation with seafaring nuni who care little about risk to life or reputation, and—like tha older kinds of smuggling—it is, ef course, a very dangerous occupation. J CONCEALED ARMS. During the Russo-Japanese war there wore plenty of adventurous merchant captains who were not averse to getting a big freight on an ostensible cargo of coal or sugar consigned to a neutral port, and concealing a car>o of aims and ammunition for the Russians heiicat'i a thin covering of the commodity named on the ship's papcra. But. as a general thing, between the c'.o«." of the Napoleonic wars and the oatbioak of the present conflict the contraliand business has l»een, as afread.v indicated, mainly confined to ministering to t!ie illicit requirement of reb. K or rival chiefs in more or less out-of-the-way parts of t-b. i world. PrJr.bly m navi! war since the beginning of ii story has seen the contraband question so completely and effectively settled as during the great v.-,'! of l'.ll-l. Nor is tii.' blockade without its humorous aspects, such as cho episode of the india-rublicr onions which so profoundly astonished a BritMi beard 'ng-officer. It is stiil doubtful whether preseai restrictions and higli import duties wifl possibly result in a certain revival rl the old-fashioned variety of smuggling but it .would seen) on the whole in th< highest degree unlikely. Few place; are in these times either sufficiently remote or sufficiently unobserved foi a business of that sort to have an} chance of success, nor are seaboari populations so needy as to require am such precarious additions to their live lihood. Moreover, the grevt protec lion against smuggling and simila lawless occuptions is to Ik> found i» the healthier state of public opinion which has long since ceased' to glorif; as heroes the calling of the highway man and the smuggler, and which real ises the sordidness and ferocity tha —except in the pages of boyhood's fit sies the sordidness and ferocity that ile tion— behind the Romance of Contra band.