LAMPS AND PIPES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 4

LAMPS AND PIPES

OPIUM DEN RAIDED

SEVEN CHINESE FINED

•■• Burning-"slush'^r lamps- and -opium pipes still .warm .greeted- a raiding party of two., policy sergeants and four constables,.from, the Mount Cook statiom-When. they paid a'•call, at 4 Haining Street on March 24. In the Magistrate's Court today fines totalling £105 were imposed on seven Chinese found on the premises. .: Ah .Hong, gardener, aged 48, Ah Gin,-.gardener,' aged.26, = and Jim Vim, fruiterer.,, .aged. 35, v .were each fined £20 and costs; Ah Sue, fruiterer, aged 54, and Ah Young;™fruiterer,aged-51, each £15 and costs;..and Sum.Julf, gold digger, age.d:72, and Young, Jim, gardener,'aged 28, each £12 10s and costs. The men' were'allowed seveii days in which to pay., In, the case of Young Jim, for - whom Mr: A. B. Sievwright appeared, application will be made to the Governor-General in Council for reduction of .penalty., .Mr. E. D; Mosley," S.M.; was oh the bench, and Sub-Inspector C E. Roach prosecuted. . .' . ■ ■ ■ ; Sergeant J. Mclntosh said that at 4.45 p.m. on March 24. the raiding party entered thev premise's, by . the .back door, through which a man was leaVing. In a room on the right' at the top of the stairs were two men, and there were four in a room on the left. In the right-hand room there were six-lamps and seven pipes, and in the other room there was one lamp. The lamps were burning and the pipes were warm. Prepared ' opium in packets . was found, and three tins had been newly emptied. There were also some tins of opium "seconds." No explanation was given by■■■ the men, and none would admit that he was the occupier of the house. Young Jim, who was the man leaving .the houße when the police arrived, and Sum Juk, pleaded, not guilty. Young Jim said he arrived just before the police and inquired for a friend. The Magistrate, in imposing the penalties; Said the difficulty was that a minimum fine was fixed by the Dangerous Drugs Act, which tied the hands "of the' Court to a certain extent.