HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1242, 18 September 1875, Page 7

HERE AND THERE.

So far, Otago has found the Chinaman a useful law-abiding resident ; but beware that he does not establish among you the game of "Pak-ah-pu." I will endeavour as faithfully as I can to give you an idea of the game and its surroundings. .

The Chinese " Quarter " in Melbourne extends from Little Bourke street, at its intersection by Swanston street, to Steph.n street, and save for a few old identity shops of a mean sort, tho control of this part of the street may be said to be Chiaes< . John, once given a footing, is like the thistle, and it is as difficult to eradicate him eveu by Act of Parliament. From the display of wares in the Quarter, it is puzzling to say in what he deals. There are no tempting preserves, nor confections, nor ingenious gitneracks in china aud ivory; a few ramshackle Btores show chests of tea. But although John, ad a body, professes the sale of that universally beloved plant, his real occupation is v Pak-ah-pu." Frowsiest of the frowsy, cadaverous of the cadaverous, John lounges at the door of hit* dark and uninviting den, the very illustration of indifferent inaofcivity. The Eastern odour pervading the quarter is grateful to his nostrils, and, ao to speak, he stands and basks in it, To a European it is as of hospital sewage— bad gas and stale opium fumes. Here, sanitary measures abrubtly stop ; dead bloated rats and decomposing fish offal dot the gutters aad await the starveling dogs, by whom, as in another Constantinople, they are ultimately torn away in the maddened extremity of canine hunger. Off the Quarter, on either side, there are blind alleys and filthy lanes, where crime begins, and crime is always snro of shelter. John neither thieves, robs, nor murders, but he brushes elbows with professors in each of the departments every hour in the day and night, Numerous of these dens are kept exclusively for John's special illicit pleasures, and an organised system of female cbild-luring is carried on in his interest, and, this withm a hundred yards of .one of, fche m»i» ttwroaghfww oi the city. Ooc«woa«

ally the police make a raid — Christian busi. ness being slack— oa one or more of these "enticing houses," in search of some child girl absent from home without leave, and seldom without turning out ten or a dozen female children, from ten to twelve years <vld. It is in these dog holes that the young victim is initiated in the use of opium, and the fascination seldom allows a convert. The law shuts up the house, and perhaps sends the children to the reformatory, but hesitates to molest John. "Welly good," says John, "me go nother place ;" and so he does, a few doors farther down, with impunity. Is there any other civilised city under British law where prostitution begins so early and receives so little discouragement ? I trow not. But to "Pak-ah-pu." The game itself is a money raffle — the highest prize to the gambler who has the greatest number of marks of the right kind. In many parts of China, although against the Imperial law, it is freely played and tolerated, and here the Chinaman plays it without cessation, and considers it a fair game of chance. The drawing takes place in the Quarter, but the banks have Chinese agents located in shops in all the adjacent thoroughfares. In any of them, at any time of the day and evening, the gambler may risk from six pence to thirtytwo shillings on a drawing. Say he hazards sixpence — he marks ten out of eighty characters on a paper handed to him for the purpose. This is copied, initialled, and returned, and he may attend the bank in person to fee the result. The drawing, to be presently described, is of twenty of the eighty numbers marked on the ticket, and the gambler's "bjecfc is to have aa many numbers in the tf v he has chosen, of the twenty, as possible, The combinations of which the eighty numbers are capable are obviously beyond ordinary calculation, and successful tickets are not of frequent occurrence. With a sixpenny ticket, a holder has the following chances :— Five marks —of the twenty — one shilling ; six, nine shillings ; seven, three pounds twelve shillings ; eight, twentytwo pounds ; nine, forty-three pounds ; ten, seventy-two pounds. Each bank starts with £300, beyond which it declares its nonliability ; so that, in the exceptional case of a run of luck in favour of the speculators — and it has occurred — the spoil has to be divided pro rata. When first started in Melbourne, about eighteen months since, there were ten or twelve bankß in full swing, but some of them were repeatedly hard hit and collapsed, and they now number about half-a-dozen. It is calculated that at least a thousand pounds a week is spent in lowpriced tickets by the working men and small trading people of the place. Trie " chong," or place of drawing, is not a savoury place ; and, as the company assenit>lm<_j there consists of roagsmen, ni^htmen, thieves, prostitutes, children, larrikins, n d loafers gene» rally, it is bettor to read about than visit. The process has been prat tically described by a detective in a prosnuurinrt instituted against them last year ; find, with the addition, that the proceedings are accompanied by a monotonous Chineso chant, supposed to b« an invocation to the Mongolian God. of ForMme, the description is accurate enough, and here it is :—: —

" A large board was taken down from the wall of the bankers' room and carried to the partition or barrier. This board bore on its face 80 pieces of Chinese paper, each bearing one Chinese character respectively similar to one of the SO characters on the bold ticket, but each character enlarged, so that the piece of paper bearing it singly was the size of such ticket. A large vase was then produced and placed next such board. A large number of Rpectators were outside the barrier or partition, and one of them took off this large board those 80 pieces of paper each so bearing a single Chinese character, and folded them up separately, and dropped the whole 80 into said vase. Four basius were then introduced and placed near the vase. Such 80 pieces of paper so folded were taken from the vase and counted into four packets of 20 each, each parcel being placed in a distinct basin. Four small sealed packets of papers were then produced, and each packet placed in each basin. The basins were then placed on a tray over the head of the operator inside the barrier, who faced the spectators on the outside, one of wliom drew from one of the basins one of the papers so folded up, and bearing one Chinese character as detailed above, and give same to oae of the managers inside, who proclaimed the character or number, which character or number was posted outside the barrier in view of the spectators. The sealed packets were then opened and searched until a character or number wns found similar to the proclaimed character or number The basin containing the packet in which the character or number was found, was taken to a bench near the barrier. All the managers having got pen and ink, and clean uncrossed tickets spread out before them, such tickets bearing 80 Chinese characters, similar to those pro duccd on the board, then marked or blotted out 20 characters on these tickets, according us the tickets to bs marked or blotted were read out by the operator from the 20 folded pitcpsof paper in the winning basin, which pie-es of paper, each bearing one character as detailed above, having been taken off the board and put in such basin, became the winning /narko. The tickets so marked by the managers were handed out to the apec-

Twelve months ago the Magistrates convicted Bix of tho proprietors of " Pak-ah-pu" fchops, and fined them £20 each. The decisions were appealed against, and after a lapse of ten months the Judges quashed the conviction, on the ground that it had not been proved, as required by the Act, that the agents who sold the tickets were beneficially interested. John protests that he cannot be stopped by law, and from the contempt he has for it in consequence of the numerous unsuccessful attempts to punsih him^ there has grown up a determination in the Mongolian mind to bid defiance to the authorities, and maintain the right of •• Pdk -ah • pu." Tbe powerful guilds formed in Victoria enable the Chinaman to contest every inch of ground without regard to expense j and I am assured that had the appeal been unsuccessful tho cases would have been taken to the House of Lords,

As it is not improbable that your city may be selected as a ba«o of operations in How Zealand,- aeu«j)t ar friendly warning, #b4