HOW OPIUM GETS THROUGH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 59, 31 August 1911, Page 6

HOW OPIUM GETS THROUGH.

CHINAMAN'S RACE WITH A SHAM. What risks the Qhinaman will run to get opium was illustrated last month at Darwin during the voyage of the St! Albans (E. and A. boat), from Melbourne to Japan, via ports. The boat anchored in Clarence Straits overnight, as usual, so as to pass "the narrows" safely by daylight. When the ship woke up in the morning to resume her way into harbor the first things seen were two Chinese sampans making towards her; two Chinamen and a blackfellow in each. They ran up a red flag, and a Chinaman walked to the stern with a bulky package under each arm, and threw them over- The sampans picked them up, dipped their Hag, and, in the coolest manner, stood off to the mainland. Not the slightest effort was made to conceal anything; in fact, every Chinaman on board, except the pagan who jettisoned the stuff, freely admitted it was opium. When the steamer tied up at the jetty a Malay quartermaster with wide flowing pants was stopped in the evening whilst walking unconcernedly along the jetty by a Customs ollicer, who found L'.ir tins of opium in. his socks, two tins in each sock, j

When the passengers and others about the jetty had lost interest in watching the quartermaster being brought back under guard to the ship, they turned their attention to a huge shark that was lazily cruising around-the boat, his threecornered dorsal fin cutting through the water as he nosed hither and thither in search of unconsidered trifles. Every now and then he rolled over to take in some floating garbage, and as he did bo his long white belly showed up against the setting sun. He was a big shark, and a hungry one, and why he missed the Chinaman who chose that particular time to swim ashore towing forty tins of opium behind him seemed strange. He had to swim quite 100 yards, and lie got through the danger zone before the shark woke up to the fact that provisions were being wasted. The fish then headed in the wake of the Chinaman, but he wan forestalled by a Customs man, who gathered in Chinaman, opium and all, as the lot emerged from the water. The Chinaman didn't worry. He merely remarked, "All li," and hopped about on one foot to shake the water out of his ears, and when he had succeeded, said, "Welly goo yapien, sposee loosce allee; plenty more go ashore." It is plain enough that a big opium trust opsrates in Australia. It is a wealthy crowd, and it doesn't squeal when it has to pay out a big fine. "Yapien" (opium) costs .£3 a tin, and sells for £5 in Chinatown. How much gets through no one knows but the trust, and the trust takes no chances by telling anyone. The opium which was smuggled at Darwin probably went past Darwin on the southern voyage, and was kept till the return to hoodwink the Customs,

No launch is provided for Custom work, and until the Customs authorities ■acquire enough common-senso to see this the officials have to undergo the humiliation of seeing Chinamen running opium in the most impudent and audacious manner. The fact is well known to every Customs official (but not one dare admit it in a report), that opium is quite commonly landed on the northern coast and taken across country l>y niggers and Chinese when convenient.'