EXTRAORDINARY CABLE ROBBERIES.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4691, 19 January 1884, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY CABLE ROBBERIES.

Seven Chinese connected with the robbery and cutting of the Great North* em and Extension Companies' cables were brought up before the Mixed Court at Shanghai, on October 15th. The Court was composed of Magistrate Chen, Mr A. Paterson, Acting Consul for Denmark, and Mr Carles, the British, Assessor. Of the seven Chinese, two were shopkeepers, and the remainder • cable cutters. They confessed the crime. The shopkeepers were fully aware of the manner the thieves obtained the wire. It appears that the robberies were made systematically, and that the village on this side the Lan-Shan crossing bad become a well known and nourishing, market for the sale of copper wire and steel wires of the finest quality. > The copper wire was melted into bars, and the steel wire, made of the finest crucible steel, was cut into short lengths, packed in bounded bundles weighing about one-third of a picui, and sold to men who made the material into nails. The price at which : the steel wire was sold varied from 3| to 2\ dollars per picul, and the principal demand came from Sochow and Hongchow. The loss to the telegraph companies is large. The finished cable, when brought out by specially fitted vessels, and laid, costs at a^ very high rate per mile, and the loss of: traffic caused by one cut is very serious. To hire a steamer for repairs costs 240 taels per day, and there are other charges for coolie hire, steam launches, lighters, .• &o. The damages done by the thieves, too, by which the cables have suffered,' extends over, a distance of thirty miles. In many places the lines have been one-, half or one-third cut through, and then apparently dropped, perhaps when, some foreign vessel came in sight. Before the actual injury done can be computed, a thorough and expensive survey of the lines must be made, and until that is done the recent repairs done to the three cables of the Great Northern Company and the one cable of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company can only be regarded, unfortunately, as of a temporary nature. The thieves are hardy men, mostly divers and wreckers. They had good boats, and were provided with files, heavy hammers, and cold chisels. The chief thief is said to be able to dive into and do work in 100 feet depth of water. The receivers are well-to-do tradesmen. — North China News. . :•■-.,.■