ADVENTUROUS SPIRITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19102, 22 February 1924, Page 4

ADVENTUROUS SPIRITS.

ROMANCE AND THE SMUGGLERS. Kipling, in a phrase that has long boon classic, insists on the eternity of Romance; which, even in an everyday and business world, still “brings up the nine-fifteen.” Kipling is right no doubt, writes Cicely Hamilton in the Daily Chronicle, and even our most prosaic surroundings are tinged with a subtle adventure; but there is equally no doubt that high-coloured, fuJi-bodied adventure —unsubtlo romance that needs no seeking—is less frequent in tidily civilised communities than in rough-and-tumble ages when tbo law is not hold in high respect. Tims—however regrettable from other points of view—the reported revival of crossChannel smuggling must needs give a thrill to the lover of romance and excitement. The more word “smuggler” is redolent of a jolly and salt-water recklessness: it diffuses an atmosphere of clashing cutlasses, of midnight secrecy and daring. The genuine smuggler—the cargo-running seadog—has always been a popular character; alive, ho could count on the assistance of his neighbours; and extinct, he is remembered admiringly. On the coasts where one© ho flourished his haunts are pointed out and his legends repeated with pride. Peace and Free Trade were the undoing of the Channel adventurer; with the breaking down of barriers to international com-' more© Ins industry ceased to be profitable. To his successor, the smuggler of our prewar period, no romance or admiration is attached ; at his best he was a pitiful imitation of the real and boisterous artiele—at his worst he was a I'Aurist (male or female) with a Tauchnitz hidden in a handbag. It was impossible to rouse publio enthusiasm for lawbreakers who risked nothing but a monetary penally; and the smuggler, degraded from nis high estate, became nothing more than a minor cheat and ceased to swagger joyously in fiction. It will bo interesting to learn if the new brand of smugglers who have been brought into being by post-war conditions will acquire the status of the old-style “free'raiders”; whether they will be able, like their forbears, to count on public connivance at their misdeeds, and figure as heroes in the pages of modern romance. One thing, at least, is certain : with the strengthening of modern Customs barriers the race will increase and flourish. Protectionist measures, in various regions, are doubtless tempting the gambler who hankers after risk and the man with adventure in his soul. , . . It may be, therefore, that we are about to witness the widespread revival of an ancient and romantic industry.