A BIG HAUL.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13485, 3 June 1914, Page 2

A BIG HAUL.

SEIZURE OF OPIUM

A record seizure of opium was mad« by the Fremantle Customs officials on board the steamer Ashburton the othea day. The quantity of drug discovered is not only a record for Western Australia, but it believed to be a record for the Commonwealth. The> Ashburton arrived from London via the Cape on Saturday, May 16. The boarding inspectors' attention wa« directed to the vessels engine room. The officers began to shovel coal from portion of the bunkers. What is known as a "coal pocket" was emptied of its contents without result. Efforts were then directed to the port side. The work of removing the coal—each "pocket" contains about twenty tons — was extremely arduous aud occupied some considerable time; but eventually the task was accomplished. It wa« here that the sensational discovery was made. Hidden away on the second shelf of the port "pocket" some feet from the lowest floor of the ship, tho officer's discovered 491 -J-lb tins of drug and 101b of crude opium. The drug is variously estimated to be valued at from £1 to 30s per ounce and. so tho total value of the seizure would beconsiderably over £5000. The captain and officers of tho Ashburton" deny all' knowledge of the drug, as also do tho crew, a number of whom are Chinese'