OFFENCES UNDER THE OPIUM ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15953, 22 December 1913, Page 8

OFFENCES UNDER THE OPIUM ACT.

CHSES against a chemist and a ! CHINAMAN. HEAVY FINES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) t ' WANGAN.UI, December 20. It will be remembered that recently in--9 vesications were made in the Taranaki 1 district for the purpose of sheeting homo | offences under the Opium J lie serine] H took place in the Stratford Court yester- § day, when a chemist named Albert .William | Nicholson was charged on nine ssperate 8 informations with breaches of the regula--8 lions." It appeared from the evidence that I the opium-book was carelessly kept, and B that enormous quantities of opium were B passing through his hands. Ihe defenuant 1 was convicted, and, in giving judgment, B Mt Kenrick, S.M., said that lie was not I going to draw inferences, but lie must saj H no attempt had been made to account even B in the roughest way for the disposal of the 5 drug. The failure to balance the opium- ■ book was a serious matter. Fines aggieB gating £30 and costs were imposed, B' Sing Lee, a Chinaman, was then charged 1 with "being in possession of opium in a 6 form suitable for smoking. William | • O'Meara, Customs officer, gave evidence 9 as to the quantities of opium found in i the possession of defendant. The find i:i 9 eluded a couple of pills containing opium, B with some pink gum and all the phara 3 pheualia ' necessary for opium smoking. B Evidence for the defence was to the effect B that Sing Lee was really not the guilty B ■ one. A Chinaman named Wong, it was | alleged, took the outfit, etc., to Stratford, 1 and when the raid was made Wong (lis--5 appeared/? 1 The magistrate said that this H alleged disappearing trick was an old exE cuse. It had been offered to him in three H other fascs ho had tried. The real'j a guilty man had always a knack of dis--9 appearing. Accused was fined £25 as it S was onlv a first offence, with costs £10 B 12s 6d. " The fine was promptly paid and 8 the articles of the find were handed over B. to the Customs Department for destruc-