OPIUM SMOKING

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 65, 14 September 1934, Page 14

OPIUM SMOKING

TEN CHINESE CHARGED

FINES TOTAL £150

Several pipes, ''slush" lamps, opium, and other paraphernalia were displayed as exhibits in the Magistrate's Court today when ten.Chinese appeared to answer charges of smoking opium. Mr. E. Page, S.M.,' imposed fines totalling £150. ■ ■ ' ■

■ George-Wong, aged,47 ; was fined £30 for permitting promises to be used for tho smoking of opium, being fixed at three mouths' imprisonment., and the following wero each fined £12 10s for being found without1 lawful excuse on Wong's premises for the,purpose of smoking opium:—Young Hip, aged 33, Jack Fun, aged 40, Ngan Kce, aged 30, Low Jen, aged 42, Young Mok, Joo Wong, Ah Ten; aged 43, and Yep Lim, aged 72. All the accused were described as gardeners except George Wong and Ah Ten, tho former being referred to as an opium house keeper and tho , latter as ,a fruiterer. Leo Ying was also charged with being found on tho premises, but he pleaded not guilty, and after hearing the t!videneo tho Magistrate dismissed the charge. . Ying's defeuco was that he had goirb to the premises to meet a friend, and this was corroborated by George Wong. ..' . X

Senior-Sergeant Dempscy' said that at 11 o'clock last night a party of polico under Senior-Sergeant O'NeiU conducted a raid on premises situated at 50 Haining Street. On .a bell' at the front door being pushed a shuffling of feet wns heard, but the door was not opened. A timber-jack was then used on'a door leading from a side street, and when the door had been forced open. another door was found which also required the use of the jack. Still another door, encased ;in iron and barricaded with steel, hampered progress. While an effort, was being made to break down this door another" party of police had gained access to the premises. In the downstairs portion of the house: seven Chinese were found, aiid upstairs thero woro three. In the room upstairs all entrances Avero barricaded, and it had the appearance of a gaol or police cell, as thero were iron bars on the windows. The accused Wong said that ho was the occupier of tho building. In tho upstairs room there was a platform on which tho Chinese lay while, smoking opium. Six "slusli" lamps were burning. These lamps were more elaborate than others which had been exhibited in previous cases. , On the platform there wore also seven pipes. A pot of boiling fat and four egg cupsl containing a small amount of opium, were on a shelf. Wong produced a pot of opium, and there was a bowl over a heater containing a dark-coloured fluid and opium. An empty opium tin and a. small amount of "seconds" wore also found. Wong had been before the Court on previous occasions. At Auckland "in 1927 he was fined £50 for being in possession of opium, and on. a second charge of smoking opium he was fined £5; at Wellington "in 1932, for being unlawfully on promises for the smoking, of < opium, he. was lined, but served a default of three weeks' imprisonment instead; and in 1930 at Wellington ho was fined' £3 for being found in a . common gaming-house. When the police entered the premises, said thc^ Senior-Sergeant, there .were strong fumes of opium. Mr. C. N. Armstrong,. who appeared for all ,the , accused, said .that the smoking of opium was a natural indulgence on tlie part of the Chinese, and tho craving had been bred, in them for years. Apart from the habit of smoking opium and ; playing pakapoo, they were the most law-abiding citizens in tho community. So long as they did not interfere with Europeans, they should bo allowed to live alone, ho contended. On this pceasiou there were -no Europeans- on the premises.