TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13909, 7 December 1910, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

From the conduct of the A students during Mr'AsBad quith's delivery of the Tradition. Lord Rector's address at Aberdeen University recently, it is evident that that singular and—one may add—bad tradition still lives among them, by which it is held that tho proper way to mark what ought to be a dignified occasion, is to indulge in senseless horseplay. So badly did the young mep behave that Mr Asquith, who spoke—or rather attempted to make himself audible—in the great hall of the University, threatened to stop his address. It was noticeable, however, that the boisterous conduct was confined to a small number of youths. One practice—known as "passing up"—provides great merriment on these occasions. It consists in wrenching individual students from their seats and passing them on outstretched hands across the benches. Just after Mr Asquith commenced to speak, a student in a girl's dress sprang on a bench, unfurled a yellow flag and blew a tin horn. He was seined and expelled amid great uproar. The worst part of this elegant performance occurred after the close of the address. The students were to drag Mr Asquith's carriage from the University to the Principal's residence, two miles away; hut when the speech tinded, the more excited of the students rushed to the quadrangle, attached ropes to the carriage, and dragged it into the street. The carriage was at unco crowded with students, who were subjected to a fusillade of green peas by their companions. Those in the carriage retaliated by stripping the vehicle of its fittings and using them as ammunition. In the melee the carriage was upset, but was righted again. It was dragged along, and in its wild course the front wheels became locked, and the vehicle turned on its side. In this position it was dragged some distance. Finally the excited youths rushed tho dilapidated vehicle down a steep street to the harbour, and with a wild whoop toppled it into the sea. A tug-of-war made a fitting final© to a happy day. As a result of their escapade sixteen students were ordered by the University authorities to defray tho cost of the carriage, to the amount of about £SO. We aro prepared to recommend amusements much cheaper and saner than this.

To-day's cabled statement Profitable that the Chinese GovernSmuggling. ment fears it will be

almost impossible to put an immediate end to the traffic in opium, appears truthful when the trade

even in Australia, is considered, bmce the importation of opium into-the Commonwealth was prohibited the evil, hut slightly mitigated, has been forced into hidden channels. The opium victim still smokes; but ho « OG * it furtively, in a corner. The proot ot this is that the drug has risen steadily in price. A tin worth thirty sinllings before the prohibition, is now readily saleable at £5 in Little Bourke street. That same tin if sent to Narrandcra or Hay or further afield, is worth from £6 to £7. Tho cost of it* outside tho Customs is about 16s, so that tho profit on every tin of opium smuggled into Australia can be set down as at least £4

12s, and possibly £6. These returns have drawn a syndicate of skilled smugglers into being, having head* quarters in Melbourne, with an agent in Hongkong. Tho consignment of contraband, after devious voyaging, reaches headquarters, which was for a time a fashionable villa in a fashionable suburb. Again it was a room in a superior boarding-house, whero tho head smuggler posed as a commercial traveller. There the tins are "salted," half the opium being removed and molasses substituted. The drawn-off opium is similarly treated, and then retinued. Thus a consignment of 500 tins, costing £400, is converted into a consignment of ICOO tins worth at least £5000, and possibly £7000. But ail these profits are not for the syndicate. In every port in the Commonwealth it is alleged that there are officials in the pay of the syndicate, and this is assigned as the reason* why the Customs Department is unable to cope with tho traffic. It is stated that some of its own officers are engaged in tho trade. Investigation is said to have convinced the heads of the department that a few of their employees have been unable to resist the great temptations held out by those > who control tho opium traffic. The Federal Minister of Customs, when questioned as to the probability of this, gave the rumour a flat denial. Such allegations had not been substantiated, nor was he aware of any syndicate. However, he admitted that opium still got into the Commonwealth in considerable quantities.

There is much that is A .remarkable about the

Modern famous Bullfinch mine Gold Rush, other than the reported

vastness of its riches. In an article contributed to the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" some interesting statements are made concerning this latest wonder. The success of the Yilgarn field has been mainly due to a Bystem of prospecting pioneered by a man named Lcneberg, who recognised that the prevailing method of searching for outcrops containing gold in coarse particles'was antiquated, His system consists in *dollying". thousands of small samples of the pebbles "which are strewn about the surface. Should tho faintest trace of gold be found, a hole is put down immediately under the spot from which the samples were taken. In such a manner Charley Jones, prospector, found the Bullfinch mine. To Mr Vincent Shallcrass, a partner <jf Doolette, is due the christening. Ho was talking 1 to a well-known mining engineer jußt about the time the strike had been made. "We haven't been too lucky with our flowers at Wiluria, tho Myrtle and the Lilac" (the names of two mines at Wiluna), "so we'll try a bird, I think, for a change. We are going to call this the Bullfinch." Then came news of the immense yields, and the great rush set in. One's mind turns instinctively to the Klondyke, with visions of toiling men, whom the frenzy and excitement of the "gold fever" alone kept from dropping oh trail. One hears of Southern Cross, a mining town, twentytwo miles from Bullfinch, and one iniagines such a town as Bret Harte pictures. Southern Cross is very different to Red Gulch. Certainly it is, hard to imagine a man travelling to a gold rush, first in a train with Pullman sleeping-cars and dining-car attached, and then motoring to.the,actual scene of the great find. -Imagine a minim? town possessing, before the rush set an, a telephone exchange, an electric light system, and a motor garage 1 Of course, there are a few of the picturesque old-timers to be seen on the field, but the modern methods predominate in what is called "the white collar and motor-car rush."