CHINESE FINED £100

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 176, 22 April 1937, Page 18

CHINESE FINED £100

Occupier of Premises Used for Opium Smoking Auckland, April 21. Fong Shee, aged 34, laundryman, the last of nine Chinese arrested when the police cut a way through the roof and entered a heavily-barricaded house in Grey Avenue on April 6, pleaded guilty to-day to being the. occupier of premises used for smoking opium. He was fined £lOO. “AGENT FOR SOME OTHER MAN” Dominion Special Service. Auckland, April 21. “It is obvious that this man has acted as agent for some other man,” said Mr. W. R. McKean, SAI., in the Magistrate’s Court when sentencing Chong On, aged 32, fruiterer, on a charge of having prepared opium in his possession on April 3. .It was stated by Detective-Sergeant McHugh that accused, who pleaded guilty’, was an opium trafficker, and for accused Mr. Tong said he was acting as the agent of a European who had chosen Chong to do such work because he was unable to work through poor health, and because he was an opium addict. The police stated that notebooks with Chinese writing in them showed that from February 5, 1937, to April 2, accused had purchased 13 tins of opium at £ll a tin. From February 11 to March 31 his sales came to £154. Accused had been convicted twice previously on charges of smoking opium. He was an opium trafficker whom the police were glad to have arrested. Had it not been for such men there would have been only' half the number of men brought before the court on opiumsmoking charges. Detective-Sergeant McHugh said that responsible Chinese of the city were making every endeavour to assist the police to suppress opium smoking. “It is obvious that this man has acted as the agent of some other man-,” said the magistrate, “and if his principal was before the court he would have been fined more heavily.” Accused was convicted and fined £5O.