OPIUM DEN RAIDED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 140, 10 December 1931, Page 10

OPIUM DEN RAIDED

FORTIFIED HOUSE

CHINESE PENALISED

FINES TOTAL £235

Strongly fortified and barricaded doors and windows, secret signals, spy holos, and doors which, when shut, automatically lock a person into a recess—few would believe that in theheart of Wellington, a few yards from ii busy thoroughfare, there was such material for a story which could come right from the pages of Thomas Burke. A raid carried out yesterday afternoon by a party of police under SeniorSergeant Scott brought all these facts, and more, to light. The raid was on a house at 36, Haining street, where it was suspected that opium, smoking was carried on. The suspicions proved to be well-founded, and to-day in the Magistrate's Court nine Chinese were fined sums totalling £235 when they were convicted on various charges. Ah Wong, a gardener, aged 31; Low, a shop assistant, aged 53; Ah Hing, a gardener, aged 58; Ah Yood, a gardener, aged 75; Sue Joe, a gardener, aged 49; Ah Gee, a gardener, aged 65, and Joe Lum, a gardener, aged 40, all pleaded guilty to being found unlawfully on premises used for the purpose of smoking opium. Ngh Pong, described as a traveller, aged 20, admitted allowing his premises at 36, Haining street, to bo used for the purpose of smoking opium and having prepared opium in his possession. SMELL OPIUM IN THE STREET. Senior-Sergeant Scott told Mr. K. Page, S.M., that in consequence of something he heard he went with a constable to 36, Haining street, shortly before 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. On reaching the house he could distinctly smell opium. The house consisted of a kitchen, a bedroom, and a scullery. From the gate of the house an alarm was given in the living-room by means of a piece of string. After going through the front gate witness entered a small passageway which was highly boarded on one side. He allowed the door to shut behind him, and then found himself locked in between two doors. He managed, however, to get the first door open. Sub-Inspector Lopdell: "What were the external fortifications of the place?" Senior-Sergeant Scott said that the outer wall or fence was covered with barbed wire and the windows were covered with wire and strongly boarded with lining. Through a hole in the- second doorway he could see some Chinese pouring some substance down the sink and dissolving it with hot water. He instructed Sergeant O'Donnell, who had come on to the scene, to catch some of the substance in a tin as it came out of the drain pipe. It proved to be opium. £5 TO GO AWAY. As the Chinese refused to allow him into the house, and he could not break through, he instructed a constable to obtain some crow-bars. These were used to break tho wire and wire netting which covered the windows, but the police were then confronted with the solidly reinforced lining boards. After a time a Chinese named Ah Joe came I along, and witness instructed Ah Joe to tell the Chincso inside to open the doors. Ah Joe spoke to those insidd for a while, and then £5 in singla notes was handed out through tho spyhole. Ah Joe gave this to the police), asking them to go away. CROW-BARS TO WORK. Continuing, Senior-Sergeant >Seo6t said that the police got to work wititithe crow-bars on tho back door amd windows, and they were just about in when the door was opened. A co>;e and coal fire was going strongly, in ttie kitchen, and in it and around it ware some tins and jars which had contained opium. A search of tho house resulted in a large amount of paraphernalia being found. Witness produced numerous omprty tins in which opium is packed, smokimg lamps of peculiar shapes, an opium pipe, trays, and small oilcloth pilloive. He said that other Chinese had 'informed him that opium was worth £ 10 an ounce, and working on this basis he considered the value of the opium, in tho house to be about £560. When, he searched the owner of the house Constable Bobinson found on him a quantity of pure opium. STRONGLY BARRICADED. "The front door," the Senior-Ser-geant went on, '' was very strongly "barricaded at the top, in the middle, «nd at the bottom with three by two iron bars screwed into the walls." It 'was additionally reinforced with wire. The windows were covered with wire net ting outside and in some instances 'with iron bars and also strong lining boards, so that very little headway could be made* with crow-bars. The string f..yom the main door gave the alarm, and the middle door was controlled from the inside, so that anyone getting through the first door could be locked betiveen the two doors. It took tho police, half an hour to get in. AVhen the police entered the house reeked with oj >ium smoko from the opium which had 'boon burnt in the stove and poured down the sink. The Magistrate (to Sub-Inspoctor Lopdsll): "Have you any thing to say on the question of penalty?" "NO REDEEMING FEATURES V Sub-Inspector Lopdell: "This iplace has, to my knowledge, been fortifiiad in this way for the last two years and a half. It is known to be a vicioun den of its kind, at any rate among Chinese, and it is very probably one of those places where those who import opiuni can dispose of it. There are v o redeeming features as far as I can .see." "One finds it rather difficult bo say very much that can be said in these men's favour," said counsel foir the accused. The occupier, Ngh Pong;, had given no trouble to the police lifterwards, and the other men all had clean records. Counsel stressed the ci1 aving the men had for the drug. It was said that if one was not an opium add act it was impossible to appreciate the mental and physical torture that thesq men went through unless they could get a smoke. As Chinese they conld not, fully understand that they were bri jaking the law. It was their natural instinct to smoke opium. The occupier had expressed tho deepest regret at wb.ait had occurred. He said that it had taught him a lesson, and in future he would have nothing to do with such places. "So far as the occupier in concorned," said Mr. Page, in sentencing the accused, "ho appears to have prepared his house systematically and thoroughly as an opium den. LHo was found in possession of a large qjuantity of opiuni and he may be, as tie SubInspector says, one of the eltiannels through which opium illicitly brought into the country is disposed of. " Ngh Pong, the occupier of th<> house, was fined £.100 for allowing the premises to be usod for opiuni sj uoking, and £25 on the charge of having propared opium in his possession. The others, who were found on the pi ■emises, were each fined £15. , OTPWt OF BRO&E. The ninth Chinese, Ah Joe, 'pleaded not guilty to giving a bribe ot' £5 to Senior-Sorgeaiit Scott and Constable Hodge to induce them to forejo their duty. Senior-Sergeant Scott said that while he was trying to get ij lto the

house Ah J oe came up, and witness requested hij a to ask the others to open the door. : The accused conversed in Chinese, amd then told witness: "No, they won'it open the door." Witness told him 1; o ask again, and after some more conversation witness saw the proprietor inside push through five £1 notes. Ali. Joe gave witness two, Constable Hodge two, and kept one for himself, gaying, "This for me. You go away. " Witness did not go, and the accu^ ed then gave him the other note, aga;in telling witness to go away. Sergeant O'Donnell said that when he arrived at the house Ah Joe told him that he had given £5 to SeniorSergeant Scott, and he wanted witness to get it back. Ah Joe also offered witness j i few pounds to go away.

After hearing the accused's version of the affair, given through the aid of an interjpreter, the Magistrate said that if the [accused, as counsel suggested, had bean an innocent channel or intermediary the charge would fail. The evidence took the matter further, however, fior it showed that tho accused had divided tho money and kept £1 for hiu lself. When- ho found that the police bribe was not enough he had given \ip his own £1. Ho had also offered a few pounds to Sergeant O'Donnell to go away. "Ho was not the cliief instigator, but he certainly took a.n active part "in trying to bribe the Police Foreo," Mr. Page concluded. Ah Joo was fined £5, in default twentyone days' imprisonment. He was allowed one week in which to pay.

Thf! Magistrate ordered that the £5 given by the Chinese should be paid to the I,Wellington Hospital.

Dot fault was fixed at three months' impriisonment in the case of Ngh Pong, and one month in respect to the other accuiwd. "I'm not prepared to give them time to pay," Mr. Page said. "These men are difficult to locate if they get away. Counsel says there is no i mmediate prospect of their paying, so i t seems useless just to give them a xi cck."