RAID ON CHINATOWN

Grey River Argus, 27 August 1912, Page 3

RAID ON CHINATOWN

ALLEGED GAMBLING DEN. ACCUSED BEFORE THE COURT. CONVICTIONS RECORDED. The Magistrate's Court yesterday morning bore a look of unusual .activity, and the number of natives; of tlie Flowery Land to be found in the Court, and it precincts showed that they were more than unusually interested in the business set down for (hear ing. The piece de resistance proved to be the hearing of the charges aganist. the Chinese who were captured as the result of the police raid on a boarding house kept by a Celestial in Gi'esson- Street. Inspector Phair conducted the case for the prosecution. The first case taken was that against Quong Bung, the occupier of the boarding house. The accused was a meelc individual, who peered round at the. assemblage through his spectacles, and had the appearance of some Oriental sav,aait rather than ,the keeper of a reputed gambling hell. 'It was 'noticealjle also that lie and his fellow countrymen were all staunch- republicans as could Tfe seen from the absence,of the queue, the badge of the hated Manchus. Mr Beare appeared for Quong Bung who pleaded .not , guilty. The Interpreter was in attendance, but all the Celestials "savied English" ~and' his services Were not requisitoned. 1 Inspector Phair said : Tihe tacts of the case were as follows : — On account of information .reaching- me | about a certain house being 1 used for I

gaming purposes. I instructed a constable to. search the premises of the accused. • He did so, on several occasions and on each occasion found there not only in the front room, but also in the back room dice, dominoes and other materials used for gambling purposes. He also found large sums of European money on the table .which was apparently used for gambling. Marbles, fan an, and pakapoo were also found on the premises in large quantity. In the back, room! was also found a temporary desk erected as a v table, ; which was used for playing an unlawful game. In fact the whole -place seemed to liave been fited up f or the purposes of gambling./ " All the occupants of the house were arrested. Young Saye, merchant, who resides in Gresson Street, said that he knew the accused in this case who lived in the adjoining house. The property belonged to Mrs Flamtigan, and witness was the agent. The house was let by witness to accused who had been residing there for twelve months. To Mr. Beare : Witness let the house as a boarding house, and accused held a license which witness had seen. The license was here produced .by Mr Beare. To Mr. Beare: — Witness knew the house was used as a boarding house. Witness kept ti rent book which he produced. ' Accused owed four weeks rent which was collected at irregular periods. Witness had not seen gambling going on. The countrymen of witness were fond of playing dominoes. The rent was generally brought to witness. He did not go to collect it. He had never seen pak-a-poo or fan tan played. Anyone could enter the. house. There was no attempt at concealment. To .Inspector Phair.— Witness had not taken notice whether there was "money on the table when dominoes were being played. Witness -.had no interest in the house...

Constable Felton said that he was at present in. Creymouth on special duty. Witness knew the , accused. Acting on the instructions of Inspector Phair witness visited the premises on the 1 2th and 14th inst. On the first occasion he entered the first room: on the left at 5.30 p.m. There were two tables in the room. At the first table there were. B Chinamen playing a game with dominoes and dice., Each had a ai quantity of foreign coins. On the other table were 17 at a similar game with; English money varying from £ downwards. Four were pla3 rng- and ithe rest looking on. There would be an occasional throw of the dice and then money would change hands/ Witness remained about a quarter; of. a hour and play was going on all the time. There were no Europeans present. Accused was present looking on. Witness visited the place at 7.30 p.m. on the 14th. There were between 30 and 35 present.

At the first table 4 Chinamen were sitting smoking. They had in front of them some metal plates and there were also foreign coins on the table. At the second table there was a large crowd. Some were playing- the game with dominos and dice, and there was' a pile of money in front of them. Money changed hands freely after the dice was thrown. After each throw the dominoes were turned down and shuffled. Witness remained ten minu tcs but did not see accused. The room was crowded. No-Europeans were present. One dice was thrown with a cone shaped dice box. Witness had no idea of the name of the game. Each player played one domino at a time. It was lying before the player face downwards. The dominoes were played similarly to the why euchre was played.

To Mr Beaire— Witness had been in the police two years in Sept. He had ne ver made a raid or spied on premises before. He had no difficulty in getting in. Nothing- was said to him. Witness stood at the first table a few minutes and then went to the other. Witness did not speak to anyone. He did not attempt to take part in the game. He could not say whether the coins were used as counters or not. Witness on the second occasion was told to get out of it as the police might see .him. Witess said that he would not stay too long. Witness did not attempt to take the money as a police officer, as he had no warrant. Witness did not take anyone with him to corroborate his , statement. Witness did not go into the second room. He would probably hear anyone who was there. . To Inspector Phair.— The . Chinamen said, "Do not 'stay too long. The police may see/ you" Later on he tapped witness on the chest and said quietly "You had better go mow." Detective Sergeant Campbell, said that on the 19th he had a warrant issued and a search warrant obtained to search accused's premises. Witness was accompanied -by Sergeant Egan, Inspector Plhair and several constables. Witness and Constable O'Grady entered first and found several Chinamen seated round a table. At No 2 table there was money *in front of each player. As soon as saw witness the players picked up the money and put it in their pockets. Witness picked up 5s 3d and the Constable 20s. Witness also picked up 30 dominoes which he produced, a small cup and two dice. The game was known as "da gow." In the secpnd xoom in- | I strum ents used for playing "fan tan" j were found., Witness also found pakaI poo tickets and other apparatus used j for the game. All these articles were 1 found in the premises of occused. The pakapoo tickets were in a desk. After searching the premises witness asked for the occupier and accused said that he was. On searching those arrested, money -was found in their possession. One had ,£24 in silver. •No attempt was made by any of the accused to escape', but some went into the other roomY \ To Mr. Beare. — There was no difficulty in. entering". To- the Magistrate. It was eight o'clock when witness entered. It was then dark.

To Mr. Beare. — There Avas no guard at the.door, but Avitness lost no time in getting in. The instruments found were not being used ; but Avitness had watched the house and seen the. instruments being used. On a hot night the windows being open witness had seen them gambling. Witness had been only twice in the place, once with the sergeant and once Avith the Inspector and then had seen nothing-. He could say when the pak-a-poo tickets had been used. ,

Constable O'Grady said that Detec- \ tive Campbell and he entered the.pre- i mises and saw a number of Chinamen present, ten or twelve ' of whom were seated at a table on which was some silver.. Witness, took about 20s from the pile of silver. Accused was arrested as being the occupier of tihe premises. Some of the Chinamen rush; ed into other rooms and Jumped into bed( but all Avere arrested. .There was one old Chinaman in bed, <wlio the "Constable thought had been in bed all^the time and had not been playing-. Daniel! Johan-nis, miner, said that he knew accused and that (he had occasion to visit the house on business, and had noticed gambling going o", on two or three occasions. Th't game he saw was played with sticks, and dice. Witness here detailed the game as it was played. He had played it himself at different times. He had last visited the house over four months' ago, and had won £5, which was still owing to him. \ It was well known to him that the house was a common gaming house. Witness had T>een a member of the Salvation Army about 12 months ago. He was .giving his evidence not because he was receiving a reward, but because he considered that it was for the benefit [ of humanity. ! To Inspector Plhair. — He was not receiving any reward for giving his evidence. Mr Beare said the case should be dismissed as it was only one of suspicion. Dominoes ' was a naitional g-a'mc of the Chinamen, who did not consider it a crime to play it. The only suspicous circumstances were that there were certain articles which might be used for gambling purposes. As a matter of fact, the articles had been left by a previous occupant of the x house, and had never been used by the • accused for gambling. He quoted authorities to show that the presence of a man in a room where fan tan was played- was not sufficient to prove that he was playing the game. It was not alleged that fan tan had been played, but that the house was used as a common gambling house. The mere fact of money having been found on the tables did. not prove that gambling had been carried on. His Worship, reviewing the evidence, said he would take into consider ation, the fact that the accused had not attemped to hinder the police in any way and that he w~as a poor man who w>is before the court for the first time. Tie would be fined 1 £25. Inspector Phair asked for witnesses' expenses. Mr. Beare asked that a month be given accused to pay the fine as be was a poor man, and wou^d have difficulty in-finding the money. \ ANOTHER CASE. .; Notice of appeal was given. Yip Duck was chaTged with being the keeper of a gambling house. •Constable Felton said that, ' acting .under instructions, he followed two firemen to the premises. He asked accused for a pak-ia-poo tcket on the next bank. Accused sad the tckets' were all out.' Later he went back and asked accused for a ticket. He bought two tickets for 2s 6d each, and marked them, them with a black paint brush. Accused then\took a note of the tickets and witness called back at 3.30 p.m. the same , day, Avhen acused put some red marks on them and told witness that he had lost. Witness bought another ticket for, 2s 6d on. the bank to be drawn at 7.30 the same night. This ticket also failed to win a prize. Ho went back on the TQ.th of August, and asked for another ticket, which was refused. After that, however, he was given one for is. That night he was there when Sergt. Egan and Constable Dillon entered and toow from accused a brush with' which' he was marking witness's ticket. There were about seven present in the house at the time. A book was found under a mattress. With the exception the seven present on the, night of the raid he saw only about two persons. . 1 To Mr Joyce : The door was closed against him ; but was ; not locked on each occasion that he .visited' the place. He did not take tlir* first "two tickets away because accused locked them up in a drawer. He -knew, nothing about the .game. himself. The people he saw on the premises were not taking part | in nny gambling 1 game. 1 To Inspector Phair: Others could , casilv have received tickets without his -noticing.it. ' Sergeant Ecran said .that- on the 19th inst., he raided the house of acused. He met a European coming from the house and took Him" back. They arrested six Chinese and two Europeans, and, Mr. O'Donell, one of the white men .gave as his .reason for Being on the premises that he had igonc to see why a certain ; Ghinaman. had not done some work for him. Tlie house had been under observation for years. Mr. Joyce said he would plead guilty on "behalf' of his client to selling l-.pale-a-poo tickets. Sergeant Egan said, in answer to Mr. Toyce. that he had found the door of Yip Duck's room locked sometimes,, but on this occasion it was not locked. ?Tc would not sAvear that 'Arf s joe Avas in the room at the time of the raid. None of those present, except Mr. O'Tsonrjell, gave any excuse for being found "about -the premises.

Constable Dillon gave: . evidence corroborating Sergt. Egan.?s, and said that Europeans were in the haliit of vi=itiner the place. . ;

To Mr. Joyce: He did not get any pvnianation from the Chinese about th^.ir being there. Mr. Joyce tHat the only case of gambling- proved. Avas that of the ron-

stable and Yip Duck. He; Avould call evidence to prove that the men had business to transact. Michael O'Donnell, -remembered being on the premises 'on the night of the raid. He Avent to see a Chinaman who had done some Avork for him. It was the first time he had visited the house.. ■ J. Weinburg, on being questioned by Inspector Phair, admitted being on the premises. He had gone to the house to get some change as he did not Avant to go to an hotel. He had not gone there to find out the result of a pak-a-poo draw. He had been at the. place before selling fish. The reason that he entered the place Avas to get change for a shilling, not to find out the result of a drawing. He could, not account for the loss of the tAvo sixpenny pieces that lie had received for the shilling. Ah Joe deposed that he Avas cook in the-- Albion <Hotel. He AA'ent to Young Say to give him two complimentary tickets. After that he went to Yip / Duck's house for the purpose of get-' tinghis clothes, which \vere there. t He never gambled, and had lived in GreymouvT? for fifteen years. , Ah Sim, Avho required the services 'of an interpreter, remembered going to Yip Duck's place. It Avas his habit to , put in the evening there. He once lived at Yip Duck's house. He did not see" any pak-a-poo tickets being sold. He left several of his things there, because there Avas more space there than in his OAvn room. He aamd>tted having in his- possession, Ayhen' arrested a very old pak-arPoo ticket. He had had 'it so long that he could not remember Avhere it came from. The sergeant after- • wards threw it aAvay. Ah Sing, a gardener, living in Greymouth, said he Jived with Yip Duck. He Avas there on the night in question, and remembered Mr. O'Donnell coming there, to ask why some Avork had not been done. He had ai ticket in his coat Avhen arrested, but he did not recollect who gave it to him. ' ~ Ling Woo said that he was a cook and that he slept at Yip.Duck's. The police were on the premises Avhen he entered. A constable was "then looking at a tea cosy. Constable Dillon said he Avas sure that Ling Wood was sitting in a room when Aviness entered. The information against Lung IWOO was dismissed, no ticket having been found on him. Y'up Ma said that he Avas present when the police entered Duck's premises. He had some herbs in his poc- . kef that Avere wrapped in a pak-a-poo ticket.- \ Constable Dillon . remembered" searching the last witness. -and finding on him a pak-a-poo ticket which was wrapped round some herbs. - .Sergeant Egan said that Avhen Yup Man Avas searched a pak-a-poo Avas found in' his possession. His Worship said that in future the Chinese Avould have to stay someAvhere else. „" ■

Yip Duck, who had four previous convictions recorded against him, Avas fined £75, ; ■ -\ ; ; • The charges against O'Donnell, Ah J Joe. Ah -Sun, aiuLLung Woo Avere dis-, missed. John Weinburg was fined £2, Yep Mung and Ah Sing were each fined 32s 6d, and 7s 6d for interpreter's fee. FURTHER CHARGES. The charges against the thirty odd Chinamen who Avere found inside a common gambling house were continued yesterday. The man found in bed was exempted, 13ut the others Avere all 'dealt' 'with. Mr. Beare appeared on behalf of the. accused. "He said that some of the Chinamen Avere boarders and' that the others had merely come to see their friends. The hearing 1 of the case did not occupy much time, and the Magis-"* tratc inflicted a fine Qf £2 each. Vounff Save guaranteed that the men Avould all be here in a month's time if their fine Avas not paid.