DEATH OF CHINESE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 6

DEATH OF CHINESE

Inquest On Body Found In Evans Bay

“It is difficult to say whether this is a case of suicide or uot,” commented Hie coroner, Mr. W. G. L. Mellish, when an inquest was held iu Wellington yesterday on a Chinese, Pow Gin, aged 39, whose body was found on the Evans Bay beach, near the patent slip, on the morning of August 11. The coroner added that it looked as though it was suicide, but he would find that death was caused by drowning, there being no evidence to show how Pow Gin came to l-e in Hie water.

Sergeant. C. R. Duke, Kilbirnie, conducted the inquiry on behalf of the police. Evidence was given that Pow Gin lived with a countryman, Charlie Lee, tit 2-10 Cuba Street, for about four months before his death. He was in very poor health and had been an inmate of Central Park Hospital. After being ill in hod all day he left his home on the afternoon of August 10 without? •speaking to anyone and was not seen alive again. He had been living in New Zealand for about 10 years and had had no money or property. He had a wife in China, and his only relative in the Dominion was an uncle, She Wah, 191 Riddiford Street, Wellington, who also gave evidence. Charlie Lee said Pow Gin did uot work. The Chinese Association wanted him to return to China as he had been ill for some time, but he refused to go back because his native town was under Japanese control. He smoked ii good deal of opium, but witness did not know where it was obtained. He did not know whether he had been smoking opium shortly before his death. The corner: Is there difficulty in getting opium for them now'?

Sergeant Duke: ’ I think it is difficult now, according to other Chinese. The coroner (to the interpreter): Ask if it was the lack of opium that made him despondent.

After the interpreter herd questioned witness, who replied that he could not say, Sergeant Duke said he had spoken to several Chinese, and they had told him that it was very diflicult to obtain opium. “The lack of it,” the sergeant added, “makes opium smokers despondent and very depressed.” Dr. P. P. Lynch, who conducted a post-mortem examination, said there was nothing on 'the body to suggest violence.