SUN-RUNNING AT SAMOA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 71, 20 April 1909, Page 3

SUN-RUNNING AT SAMOA.

I l.cui- i'.ecko. Hi,, well-known novelist, give* in ihanyVrs' -luiii'iml an account of .joins, gnn-riiiuiii" adventures of his in the curly da\> of his career. These occurred lining Hie war which hrukc out between Malictoa. Kins of the Sanioan Island.-,, and the revolted chiefs of Savaii. the lr-.rjji.-i island of the group. In conjunction wifi his half-caste partner, Alan Striel.hmil. Mr. lit-.-ki- resolved to (make a c.ui>e lo Tonga (I'riend'y I Maud-1, where Ihcy could obtain arm's I very cheaply- and then they would "run" Ihi'in int.i at various point.-, along the const (if t'pohi. The Kings consent w.i- sought and obtained. They made several voyr.gos. continues the narrative, and were occasionally overhauled by rebel war car.-ies ami .searched; but without lv.-ull. fc.r they had built a false skin all round the cutter's liohl, in which the arms were stowed, ami then the hold itself was usually full of copra or other cargo. Those ravages succeeded remarkably well, ('a their third trip, however, they learned (hat. in port were Hire* warships--Ocmum. American, and English—who seaiched every incoming vessel to see if .-he had arm* on board. Willi a large supply of rides and ammunition concealed in a vei'v ingenious way, the bold evaders of the recently-pro-claimed law u-ainst the smuggling of arni.s into the islands steamed up the harbor. As their boat carried the British ling, they ■,' ore immediately boardcS bv an olticer fiom the Hritish warship. I'pon being asked what cargo lie held, Mr. Uccke replied: "Ten casks of molasses and fifty live hugs." "Any arms!" demanded the oilieer. "We have these" •—pointing to his own and his partner's carbines and revolvers. The officer, however, to satisfy his conscience, must needs make a sytrch of the craft, and soon the casks of molasses attracted his attention. He ordered his attendant to probe the casks with a stick, with the solo result of drawing out each time dripping black, odorous molasses. The officer was satisfied and departed. Had he, however, says Mr. Becke, used a piece of eane instead of the stick, and curved its point from the bunghole down along the bilge. h e would have struck a nice supply of "Winchester carbines, which, as it happened, were only p.Vcod in the hands of the King's adherents by equally clever ruses! The hogs also served a useful end; they were slain and then tilled with cartridges and sent to various royal supporters even in the face of the unsuspecting rebels themselves. Some ycare afterwards an American friend of the narrator succeeded in getting a number of rifles on shore in .Samoa 4iy concealing them in cases of corrugated iron that were to form the roof of a new native churchtwo in each case. The eases were packed m Auckland,