PAKAPOO ROUND-UP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22208, 10 March 1934, Page 14

PAKAPOO ROUND-UP

RAID BY WELLINGTON POLICE FINES TOTALLING £460 IMPOSED (Per United Press Asspcjation.) WELLINGTON, March 9. Fines totalling £460 were imposed on Chinese in connection with a • pakapoo raid. The Europeans were fined £2 each. Sub-inspector : Martin said that no raid had been made on pakapoo schools in the Mount Cook district for five months prior to the raid yesterday. During the last three weeks constables had no difficulty in procuring pakapoo tickets. There were approximately 40 to 60 pakapoo_ houses in the Mount Cook district. _ White people appeared to keep the Chinese going. A considerable number of those who patronised the pakapoo schools were relief workers.

Mr Treadwell, counsel for the Chinese, said that during the last 12 months there had been almost unprecedented enthusiasm against the Chinese in Wellington. The allegation that a large number of houses was used for pakapoo was a gross exaggeration of the position. The enthusiastic systematic raiding was out of all proportion to this particular class of crime, making it look far more serious than it actually was. - Regarding the visits by Europeans, Mr Treadwell said , that the Chinese could very well do without them. No inducement was held out to them to visit the Chinese. The Europeans were not the body and soul of the gambling, and the Chinese did not encourage them because they could not tell an unemployed man from a young constable in plain clothes. Mr E. Page, S.M., the magistrate, remarked that he had been told that many of the houses were supported exclusively by Europeans. Mr Treadwell said be had been told by his clients that it was a grogs exaggeration.