IN CHINATOWN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11162, 18 March 1922, Page 9

IN CHINATOWN

PAK-A-PBO GASES ENDED FEMALEi WITNESS WHO DID NOT APPEAR. JUDGMENT ON MONDAY. The cases against various residents of Chinatown for keeping pak-a-poo dens were continued yesterday, before Mr F. K. Hunt, S’.M. The evidence against Young Sue for occupying a common gaming-house was concluded last week, except for the testimony of an interpreter. Two charges of selling pak-a-poo tickets were also preferred against him. Yesterday similar charges were preferred against Git Toon. The charge of occupying was under section 4 and that of selling tickets under section 41 of the Gaming Act, 1908. Mr E. G. Jellicoe, who appeared for the Chinese, yesterday concluded his case, and on a charge of being found in possession of opium suitable for smoking, Git Toon was remanded to Monday next, when judgment in the gaming cases will be given. A WITNESS MISSING. At the outset the name of Alice Gresham was called to testify as to tho meaning of the characters on the tickets. To the calling of the court orderly there came no response. ObiefDetective Kemp rose to his feet. “We arranged with this witmees to come from Timaru,'’ said the chiefdetective. “All expenses were paid, and she was to have been here on the 16th. The boat was met, but she did not arrive, and this morning she is still missing. She is a missionary, and has had fourteen years’ experience. Her non-appearance here is absolutely inexplicable. Under the circuinstances I will not ask for a. warrant Tor her arrest.” He quoted the old adage of the horse and the water.

“A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE.” “We have endeavoured, from the North Cape to the Bluff, to obtain an interpreter,” he continued, “and all I have to say is that if a conspiracy of silence is to succeed it could not have secured a more signal victory.” He intimated that, as His Worship had expressed his opinion at the beginning of the case that interpretation was unnecessary, he was now prepared to accept that assurance. His reason for wishing the characters deciphered had been a comment by the Chief Justice in the similar case of Joe Tong v. Dew, to the effect that it would he better for the characters on the tickets to be deciphered. As things stood he was prepared' to close his case. KEEPING A GAMING-HOUSE. The case of Police v.- Git Toon was then proceeded with. The facts were practically similar. The charges were of keeping a common gaming-house, of selling pak-a>-poo tickets, and. of being found in possession of opium in a form suitable for smoking. Plain-clothes Constable Ambrose had visited No. 7, Haining street, the house of the accused, on February Bth, and saw tickets being sold to two white men. Ho had paid other visit; on tho 13th, 21st, and 22nd of February, latterly accompanied by Constable Thom. The accused? appealed 4q. be in charge, and had sold’ tickets on "several occasions. When the raid had been made, tho accused had been found in the front voom, and another Chinaman had been at the business table.

Constable W. Thom corroborated. He had Been with the laet witness. Together they had purchased tickets and marked them with a brush and ink on the table. Accused copied the markings on other tickets. On one occasion witness had marked a- ticket for the 2.20 bank, but secured onlythree correct markings. Consequently he did not win a prize. He had made three visits, and on each occasion the accused had been there. UNDER OBSERVATION. Detective T. E. Holmes testified that the place had been under observation for some lime. He had been in the .den, and had seen Europeans paying money, over to the accused. The -place had ail the appurtenances of a pak-a-poo den. Thomas Jamieson deposed that he collected the rent for the house, which was portion of his brother’s estate. The accused, who was a. Chinese doctor, had taken the house and generally paid the rent. WHAT A RAID REVEALED. Detective Walsh, in evidence, stated that he had executed a eearoh warrant on February 24th. Accused had come forward when witness asked for the “boss of the establishment.” He took ovdr 2000 unmarked and 207 marked tickets, 20 bundles and 17 loose bank proofs, six brushes, four marking pots, and four pieces of cardboard on which certain hours were marked. He had been marking tickets for about 13 years past. His Worship (viewing the cardboard slips): From this it would appear that there are 28 banks each day. By order of the Bench Constable Thom re-entered the box and stated that he had taken away under the rant two bottles of opium and apparatus for smoking. “I object, sir,” said Chief-Detective Kemp. “This has nothing to do with the present case.” This completed the cases as far as

the chargee of keeping a gaming-house were concerned.

COUNSEL’S EXTRAORDINARY ADDRESS.

Mr Jellicoe then opened his defence on these counts : “Whenever, sir, it has been my fortune to come before this rough-and-ready tribunal where it is the lot of a counsel to be styled ‘quite a capable person,* a ‘bloke* and a ‘cow,’ the police invariably stage for me a Chinese raid and a Chinese prpsecution._ And this ancient game of pak-a-poo, in connection with which I made 60 appearances in days gone by, has been resurrected by the police once again Air my edification.

“A STATUTORY BLUNDERBUSS.’’ “The old regime in which your learned predecessors were described as ‘firing something akin to an old statutory blitnderbuss,’ has passed into oblivion. But those -men left behind them a series of law reports all testifying to the quashing by the Supreme Court of every one of the sixty convictions entered by the magistrate. Times and conditions have changed. The old slogan, ‘Rattle his hones over the stones; he’s only a heathen Chinee whom nobody owns,’ has passed away. Since 1917 in our administration, which is the brightest jewel In onr Antipodean half-crown, we pride ourselves upon impartial treatment of Asiatics and our own people alike. “WON THE WAR.” “In October of that year at a meeting of British citizens in at which that great statesman Lord Bryce had been present, he had alluded to China as having the glory of feeling the lofty call of right and justice. Mr Balfour had endorsed his remarks. And since according to these two capital ‘B’e’ China had won the war, His Worship, as chief niagistrate of this Empire city, where hypocrisy and cant were practioally unknown, and where gaming was the life-blood of the community, must approach facts free from all preconceived notions. Counsel went on to speak of “our own inveterate race of gamesters, and repeated his metaphor of the “statutory blunderbuss.” “Yes, hilt we’ve had the barrel new-ly-bored since then,” said the magistrate. “There have been amendments to the Act.” WHAT THE STATUTE SAYS. Counsel went on to outline the legislation passed to meet the point at Issue. The penalty prescribed by the earliest Act had been a fine of £IOO for “unlawful games of chance.” The Act of 1881 gave special mention of pak-a-poo, and tho penalty was £SO. In the new Act of 1908 section 10 relating to pak-a-poo had gone out; but H was toSho tbs jpmfous of paxk 1 ofi

the statute. To-day a house kept for pak-a-poo fell within the meaning of sections 4,5, 9, and 10 of the Aol of 1908. Neither the Act of 1881 nor section 41 of the Act of 1908 imposed a penalty for keeping a house for an illegal lottery. In the passing'of the Act of 1908 the Legislature inserted a clause which was enacted as a corollary and placed the keeping or using of a house for lottery purposes on same footing as a house kept for tne playing of unlawful games of chance. A penalty had already been provided for this under section 4, paragraph 1.

PAK-A-POO NOT A LOTTERY. _lt was impossible to spell into sections 41 and 12 the playing of pak-a-poo. This was conclusive in law. The statute declared pak-a-poo not a lottery, but an unlawful game of chance, and by this definition the court was bound. _ Therefore it was imperative that evidence should be given that the game was played to its finality. This had not been done. WANTED—A BANK. With reference to the charges of selling the tickets counsel submitted that there were essential elements which must he proved. A sjjecifio scheme or contrivance, some bams an which the winning numbers were selected by lot of chance would be necessary, as distinguished from evidence of the playing of the game. There was no evidence of any bank—who was to say what was the meaning of the marking of the tickete unless someone competent to translate them. It must, under section 41, amount to a sale or promise personally to pay a sum of money the amount of which was to be determined by chance. “I hope you will not lay me under the necessity of going any further for justice,” concluded counsel. “These are our Chinese allies; they have won the war for us; what else do we wantP” Formal evidence of Constable Thom and Detectives Walsh and Holmes was taken on the subject of the sale of the ticket.

The cases against Tim Tong, Yee Fou, Ah Lyn and Loo Toe, charged with being found on the premises of a common gaming-house at 7, Haining street, were adjourned sine die.