CHINESE BEFORE JUDGE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 153, 16 March 1923, Page 9

CHINESE BEFORE JUDGE

ADMITTED TO PROBATION HIS HONOUR EXPERIMENTS Two young Chinamen camo up for sentence be*re His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman yesterday in the Supreme Court. They were Yeo Him, acred 22. who had pleaded guilty to bfeaking and entering with intent the premises of Wah Shing, a laundryman : and Noeang See Yeang, aged J 7. who admitted breaking and en- . tering and theft at the premises of Sing On Tie. fruiterer. Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell appeared for both the prisoners. Yeo Him. said counsel, had been in New Zealand two years. He had been to China for a holiday, of six months, and at the time of the offence had come up from Christchurch to Wellington. partly for a holiday, and also to see a Chinese doctor. Counsel asked for /probation, though there might be a little difficulty in explaining the rules of probation procedure to the prisoner. There was not any need to inflict a heavy penalty in this case as there were ijery few cases of crime amongst the Chinese citizens of the Dominion. Asj the amount missing was only £2. perhaps His Honour would inflict a fine. His Honour said that he was very much averso to fines in such cases. Mr. Macassev said that Him had ■worked as a laundryman, amj was said to lie a hard worker. Him’s uncle, who belonged to Christchurch, was present, and said he would see to it that the terms of a probation order were adhered to. In regard to Neeang See Yeang, Mr. Treadwell said that his father was in .court, and would look after him. He had work to go to. This bov was very much frightened. Ho thought something very dire and terrible was going to happen to him. Mr. Macassev: They say he is very Untruthful and cunning. He gets 255. a week. \ His Honour: What has ho done with it ? Mr. Treadwell: I think I can explain that. He has been silly. He has bought two cameras, and has been severely dealt with by his father for this His, Honour said that ha knew some Judges objected to admitting Chinese to probation, but ho did not, think that it was in the case of Chinese so round as these. | . Yee Him and Naang See Yeang were both placed on probation. His Honour remarked that he was aware that at least one Judge, had been averse to granting probation to foreigners. but ho would make the experiment in this case. The whole procedure under probation would ba very thoroughly explained to the guardians in the presence of an interpreter, and a copy of the rules would bo put in Chinese for their guidance. .