Many of such craft bear the side nificant nickname "rat" bouts in Chinese, a meani ating that they are the homes of "water rats,' many of them appear to have no /economie reason for existence, they pretend to be fishing boats, but fishing tackle is rarely found on the boats searched on suspicion, and they are too small and slow to be used for carrying passengers, The exist fence of over 12,000 of this type of craft makes preventive work almost impossible in the Colony.
So-called fishing junks of ubout 80 piculs capacity, manned by two adults and a boy, have been exten-ively, used to smuggle spirits of wine" and. Chinese spirits from port to the Clearance Offices at Macao. They rarely make any re-
either port; in some cases they have tne licence' whatever. These craft have a flush deck, with the hold divided into four or more ware tight compartments, and make the run from Macao so as to arrive here during the hours of darkness. Aberdeen and Shaukiwan are the harbours most favoured by them, chile some have been captured in Kop Shai Mun, Tsun Wan, and Ching T Bays.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.