SMUGGLING RIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 6

SMUGGLING RIFE

COAST OF QUEENS-

LAND

TOBACCO, DRUGS, SILK

TASKS FOR NEW PATROL SHIP

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, September 12. Secret hide-outs among mangroves, fast craft slipping out into the steamer channel, and code signals from ship to Shore are among the smuggling tricks which the new Commonwealth patrol vessel Vigilant will 4ry to trump in North Queensland waters. Customs officials declare '-. that smuggling is rife along this stretch of the Australian coast and they say that something drastic must be done to end it.

The Vigilant is.commanded by Captain T. Haultain, who gained fame as the commander of the Larrakia in the work of intercepting Japanese pearlshell poachers. It has been assigned to duty between Cooktown, the most northerly town of any size in Queensland and Townsville for a prolonged period. ..-..)

Practically all shipping from China, Japan, the East Indies, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands converges down the narrow channel between the Barrier Reef and the mainland. Smuggled goods are dumped overboard in watertight containers attached to drums, which are picked up by small craft operating from bases along the coast. On several occasions parcels of dutiable goods or drugs which have been missed by the smugglers have been picked up. The lucrative nature of the traffic can be judged from the fact that an average consignment of smuggled goods, would probably comprise 20,000 cigarettes, .200 tins of opium, and dozens of yards of silk. The profit on such a consignment would be approximately £2000.

Frequent reports of the operations' of mysterious vessels between Cairns and Cooktown have been received in the past. Customs officials recently discovered a secret boat-slip concealed in dense mangrove swamp on the river north of Cairns.- The Vigilant's principal task will be to follow steamers from which it is suspected that illicit parcels are being dropped. Her speedboat, which is capable of doing 25 miles an hour, will be used to intercept the fast smuggling craft. In addition, the Vigilant will maintain a guard against Japanese poachers and she will use her echo-sound-ing device tp check depths of Barrier Reef waters. Existing charts still use in places the soundings taken by Matthew Flinders in his explorations of 140 years ago and which have not since been verified.