CALIFORNIAN JUSTICE.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 2, 17 April 1875, Page 3

CALIFORNIAN JUSTICE.

Justice in California is so swift that it sometimes overtakes culprits even before the actual commisson of crimes which entitle them to that designation. The San Francisco Call reports the severe punishment inflicted on certain Chinamen for offences they are likely to commit. It was reported the other day that some ore had been stolen from a gold mine in Sierra County in that State. A number of Chinamen who lived in tire neighbourhood, were suspected of the crime “on general principles.” The miners therefore resolved that justice should take its course and accordingly sot fire to the huts of the Chinamen. The lints were all ablaze, the Chinese were skipping around and the fun was at its height, when a miner came running up to the scene of the conflagration out of breath to announce that the real theives had been discovered and captured. Some of the mob were at this junction weak enough to suggest the extinction of the fires; but a prominent minor named Joe Warren argued with great force that if the Chinese had not stolen the ore there was no doubt that they would steal something in time, and that the fire had therefore better go on. This view of the case was accepted by the majority, so “ exercises were continued) and the Chinese burnt out completely.