OPIUM SMOKING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6

OPIUM SMOKING

DANGER TO EUROPEANS CHINAMAN FINED £10 There was something of a stir in tho Chinese' quarters of tho city on Sunday afternoon owing to the activity of the Mount Cook police. The object cf the officers of tho law was to exorcise their olfactory organs in tho scent for opium, nad in one instance their quest was successful. Tho sequel was heard in the Magistrate's Coiirt yesterday, when an elderly Chinaman named .Too Doong was charged with having smoked.opiuim, and with having had opimn in his possfcssion. Defendant pleaded guilty. Aoting Sub-Inspector Emerson said that about 4.45 p.m. on Sunday Sergeants Cruickshank and M'Lean went to defendant's house in Hnining Street, whero they detected indications »f opium smoking having been going on. A hot 0" e was. found, and defendant admit, that ho had been smoking opium. There was a European woman in tho house, but Doong declared that eho had not been smoking. Defendant had been previously fined JES for /permitting opium, to 1)0 smoked on his premises, "This is just an instance of what we have had to deal -with before," remarked Mr, F. V. Frazer, S.M. • "If the Chinese kept' their opium smoking (o themselves, or could keep it to themselves, perhaps there would not be eo stronfl an objection to their doing it, ■ but there Is always the rjst-and it is it real risk—that the smoking of opium will spread to the European portion of the community. It is all . very well for Joe Dooiijr to say that this woman was not She may not have beon smoking at the time, but if she is in tho habit of visiting a Chinaman who 6mokos opium, it is only a matter of time when she will start, and hor friends will start. That is why the penalties havo to bo severe in these oases. So far ns Joo Doon" is concerned he is an old man himself, and I daresay he praotically needs the opium." Joo Doong was fined ,£5 on each of the • two charges, and the opium-smoking materials were ordered to be confiscated.