OPIUM SMOKING

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 September 1934, Page 5

OPIUM SMOKING

CHINESE FINED. An array of articles used for opium smoking was exhibited in the Wellington Court yesterday, when ten Chinese appeared before Mr E. Page, S.M., as a result of the police raid on Thursday evening on premises in Haining Street. One of the Chinese, George Wong, aged 47, who pleaded guilty to permitting his premises to be used for the smoking of opium, was fined £SO, in default three months’ imprisonment, and the following who pleaded guilty to being found on the premises unlawfully were each fined £l2/10/-:— Young Lip, aged 33, Jack Fun, aged 40, Ngan Kee, aged 30, Low Jen, aged 42, Young Mok, aged 37, Joe Wong, aged 34, Ah Ten, aged 43, and Yep Lim, aged 72. The case against Lee Ying, who pleaded not guilty, was dismissed. Senior-Sergeant Dempsey said that all the upstairs portion of the house -was barricaded with iron bars, and had the appearance of a jail.. Wong, he said, had had previous convictions, but nothing was known against the other men. The smoking of opium, said counsel, Mr C. N. Armstrong, was to the Chinese a national relaxation, and the craving had been instilled in them for generations. Apart, from opium smoking and the playing of pakapoo the Chinese were hard-working and law-abiding citizens in the community, and counsel submitted that if they did not interfere with Europeans they should be left alone.