AN OPIUM DEN.

Raided by Rutledge.

What He Found There.

Sergeant Rutledgc, who is m charge of the Mount Cook Police Station, is about the only individual whose presence m Haining-street is sufficient to send the Chinese residents into a decline. If, m uniform, after the shades of evening have fallen, crack cricketer -. Warwick Armstrong's more muscular double parades Hainiug-street, each step is echoed with the banging of doors and the clickiag of locks, indicating, of course, that ttJe lawabiding Chow isn't living up to his reputation of being gentle and a respecter of New Zealand law. The 'Chow, as this fearless Sergeant knows him, is a cunning dcvii, but the Oriental wit isn't always a match for the astuteness of Rutledge, who has engineered more than one raid on Chinese gambling hells, and on Wednesday week last, accompanied by the no less pertinacious Mclvclvie, of Clyde Quay, successfully outwitted tbe occupants of a Chinese opium den, and brought a semi-somnolent Confuscian to justice^ ■ For some considerable time 29 Haining-street had been ear-marked as an opium den, and though ßutlcdge had adopted ordinary means to strengthen his suspicion, the right pf entry had always been denied him. For five months or less he had Waited an opportunity of solving ' this opium question, ana on Wednesday evening he did the trick. From Frederickstreet Rutledge and McKelviu got to the real" of 23 Haining-strcct, having to scale three fences, one of them being Gft high. It was pitch dark. Silence reigned, and those two stalwart bobbies anxiously awaited m the yard a fitting moment to burst m. , They hadn't long to wait, however, as a little time had elapsed when a Mongol or a mongrel came out through the back door. Biff !' bang ! bash ! A startled Chink squealed like a pig as he . was hurled through s#acc. The flash of a bull's-eye lantern on the scared chivvy of ..the Chow transformed him into a pertified mummy, and the lastseen of him was his pig-tail as. hu vanished into the night and a back street. The coast being clear, and no warning sound having been heard, the officers rushed m and entered a bed-room, and there before their eyes,* reclining on a bed , with opium bowl to his mouth and lcauing over an improvised lamp made from an empty beer bottle, was one Chin Ah Leoag, who long ■' had loomed m the officer's eyes as the keeper '"of an opium den. The sudden appearance ol two uniformed policemen caused Ah Leoug's lantern-jawed countenance. One Celestial inhabitant who was m the room had apparently just had a puff, and ■ ore be could be nabbed, he incoritiuentally iletl . . Every attention, however, was bestowed on Ah Leong, who was requested "to come along." With the true cunning ol the Oriental Ah Leong, who had one Coat on the bed, contrived io remove his slipper, and actually left it on tLe floor, and .walked m his sox. But lie reckoned for ouce. without an . astute policeman, who picked up the slipper, not a Cinderella shoe by any moans, autA found that it contained a "tin. of liquid opium. The officers made sure of Leong and gathered up tbe paraphernalia which comprised thrco opium bowls, the lamp, and m all about 12 ounces of opium, consisting of liquid opium and "seconds," which is the ashes of opium, and whici> ■ the economic Cantonese re-smole m an cagci- desire- to get to what Customs Collector Nixon, at the S.M.s Court on Wednesday, described as "*. "Elysium." Leong was then removed to Mount Cooi , and intimated.. there that, he intended la plead guilty. When brought befoxe Magistrate NascMcn on Thursday morning, he, however, changed his mind. He had' Mr Fitzgibbon to' defend him and wanted a. remand for a few days. Tec recjucst w*i refused. Ultimately it was decided tv have the case heard that, afternoon, and that afternoon ay. impudent-looking, dis bevelled Chinkie stood m the dock charged with unlawfully smoking opium ; an;{ with having opium, m his possession. Sergt. Rutledge told the story of his i raid, and Mr Nixon, v.ho prosecuted for the Customs Department, gave some itiea : of how the Chinese made opium suitable I for smoking from tincture of opium, , which is procurable from any chemist shop. The methods employed by the j Chow is to boil the tincture, then set fire to the, iumes. till only the ste*pgiving . drug remains. ■ To the individiial unaccustomed to the habit,. thr.ee or fo.ur puffs of the pipe make him cither sick or sleepy, while to the habitual smoker, four or five pipes would do the knock-out act. An idea of what constitutes a pi'ge of opium was given by Sergeant, Rutledgc, who selected a long needle, dipped it m the opiunr, and inserted it m the bowl of the ' pipe, which holds a quantity littia •more than the size of a pin-head. The bowl is then held over a lamp. The -smoker puns, and, sooner or later, drops into- tbe land of nod. Mr Fitzgibbon, who appeared for Leoug, Isad no defence, but twitted tho Sergeant wilh having been . unable to gain I admission to the pestilential premises, ] which drew from the Sergeant the retort i that being unable to gain admittance by. j fair means he had to adopt the ruse be did. On the first charge a fine of £5 and costs was imposed. On the second, a fine of £10 and costs was ordered. The paraphernalia seized- will be confiscated.