AN OPIUM EATER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3981, 14 July 1915, Page 4

AN OPIUM EATER.

_ ■—gjgyCUSTOMS SEIZURE AT AUCKLAND. /Press Association Telegram.) AUCKLAND, July 13. On the arrival or the steamer Caldergrove at Auckland . from Philadelphia. the Customs officials, m makinp- their usual search, came across six tins of opium and a tin or yen-lie concealed above one or the snips borers. The opium was claimed by y Chinese fireman .named Chan Fooc. and he. was brought bet ore Mr F. \ • Fraser. S.M.. this morning on a charge of having had opium m ids possession. Mr Rhidings stated that tne ibega. importation of'opium from snips thau carried Chinese among the crew was gradually increasing. Recently tne Customs officials had found 460 tin* in a ship that came to Auykiand witli empty bunkers. 1 sualiy it was possible to find very little or the opium. but, as the coal and cargo went dot' ti as the ships discharged at ports down, the coast, the Chinese got at the hieing places of the opium and ran tne stuff ashore. He felt quite sure that it would be found that opium would be run froriwthis ship at southern ports. The six tins of opium contained 360 z ami the yenshe (second) soz. the value being about £ls. The accused, through an interpreter stated that ho was an inveterate opium eater and had been so for the last twenty years. Ho needed the opium for his own use and lie could not work without it.

The Interpreter: He tells me tha» he eats and smokes about half an ounce a day, and he would die without it. The yen-she is the opium cooked for eating. He got the opium from a Chinaman aboard a ship in « n English port near America. His Worship remarked that if accused had declared the opium he would not have been charged wim any offence. He must be fined £IOO. the minimum, which was reduced under the special section to £25, with 22s 6d costs.

Mr Riddiugs mentioned that accused had £27 pay coming to him. and that if he didn't pay his fine the captain of the ship would have to enter into a bond of £2OO that tho man would not be left boro. The opium would be forfeited, but the man would probably be allowed to keep the yen-she.