They left the town in the early morning, but instead of keeping to the mainland they embarked in a small rowing boat and pointed their bow towards the head of the lake.
Their objective was Glenorchy, which was 20 miles away.
All day long they kept paddling away, and it was close on midnight before they picked up the lights of the two hotels at Glenorchy.
It was their mission to inquire into the why and wherefore of those lights, which should not have been burning at that hour.
The constables landed and kept the hotels under observation for about an hour, and then descended on the astonished landlords and collected certain observations which resulted in informations being laid charging the two licensees with breaches of the Licensing Act.
The sequel of the affair occurred on Saturday at Queenstown, when the licensees of the Mount Earnslaw Hotel and Glenorchy Hotels were each charged with exposing liquor for sale after hours and keeping open houses for the sale of liquor after hours.
Two men were charged with being found on licensed premises after hours, one in the Mount Earnslaw Hotel and the other in the Glenorchy Hotel.
The publicans pleaded guilty to exposing liquor for sale after hours, and they were each fined 10 and their licenses endorsed.
The evidence showed that the licensing laws had been most flagrantly flouted by the licensees.
The constables found that the hotels were lighted up and the bars were open at 1.20 a.m., just as though trade was being carried on during legitimate hours.
• The revolution in China by which the usurping Manchu dynasty has been deposed and a Republic moulded on modern lines established has in nowise altered the determination of the rulers of the Empire to liberate their land from the opium curse at the earliest possible date.
Dr Sun Yat Sen, the first President of the newly-formed Republic, addressed on May 4 the following pathetic appeal to the British nation:-
"Opium has been a great curse to China. It has destroyed more of our people than war, pestilence, or famine.
"Under a Republican form of government it is our earnest desire to thoroughly stamp out this evil, and to complete the work that has already been done in the opium reform. Since retiring from the office of Provisional President of the Republic I have given much thought to this question.
"While I realise that the most important thing is to stamp out the cultivation of opium in China, yet this is a very difficult task to do without at the same time prohibiting the sale and trade in the drug. With an opportunity to sell at high prices, the temptation to plant is very strong, and in such a large country, and under present conditions, it is almost impossible to stop it while permitting the sale of opium.
" We must make its sale and traffic illegal, and we can then stop its cultivation. At present we are hindered in this because of a treaty with your country. Remembering with grateful appreciation what you have done for me and for my country in the past, I appeal to you to further help to stop this sinful traffic now at the beginning our our new national life."
- ODT, 3.9.1912.
