CHINESE NAMES.

Matamata Record, Volume VI, Issue 474, 24 September 1923, Page 2

CHINESE NAMES.

A POLICEMAN'S SUBSTITUTE. While waiting for cases to be called on at the Wanganui Court, an interesting discussion took place at the counsel table regarding the difficulty of getting the correct name of Chinese who had been guilty of breaches of the regulations (says the Herald). Mr. Gohns stated that a Chinaman would give a -name when requested to, but when he was asked to write it down it would be something different altogether. A solicitor remarked that on one occasion a Chinaman whose name could not be ascertained and who had been left out of the list, came along to the court and paid the fine. The senior-sergeant present capped the story by relating what had occurred on the West Coast in the good old digging days. A policeman then had to take an escort of prisoners over the hill, and one of these was a Chinaman who had disappeared. The guardian of the peace was equal to the oceaslbn, and promptly grabbed another Chinaman as a substitute. It was no use the unfortunate Celestial protesting, for he simply had to go and face the brunt for the offence of his defaulting countryman.