RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT NASEBY.—Feb. 12.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 55, 18 February 1870, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT NASEBY.—Feb. 12.

(Before H. "W". Robinson, Esq., R.M.) Police v. Sing Yung.—rThis was information for gaming in a store, trary to the 19th section "of the To^V«s' and Country Police Ordinance. y Ser,

n— • i ■ • , ■ • ; geant-Major Moore prosecuted. Mr. John Alloo, the Chinese Interpreter, translated the" evidence, and. Mr. H. C. Hertslet Appeared -for u the defendant. Sergeant Moore, sworn—l am -police officer at Naseby. Prom information received went.to the store of the defendant on Sunday 23rd : - January. YV ent through the store into a back room behindhand found a number of Chinamen *oiind the table,; found- also the Chinese coins, cards, and dominoes, now produced, upon the table: They were' in the act ot playing', and there was a of silver staked. I produce balfccrowns which I took from the table. There were some nine or ten men who went out of the room into the store so soon as they observed me. One Qf the men sat at the head of the table, which bad all the appearance of a gaming table, with a hole to receive the money. nHad;sbeen tpld; by- one of the Chinese that I should find gam in going on every Sunday, and that I should find the money in-the hole described. Sergeant M'Nally corroborated' the evidence of Sergeant-Major Moore." After a lengthy • ctoss, exaniination of both these witnesses it was contended, for the defence, that the clause in question; did not (support tlie information, that clause liaving reference to restaurants and public h.ouses, but not to ordinary stores where provisions such as tea, sugar; and flour wereCsold, and.that the fact of gaming had not been proved. Even, should the bench take & different view of the question, /and overthrow both these objections, it was urged that, the Chinese were foreigners, ignorant of our laws and our "customs, and that what, therefore, would be a crime with us was no crime with them; that the gaming, if any, must have been of the-mildest kind, seeing that, though there had been ten persons alleged to have been playing!, 12s! 6d. was the total amount seized by the police; that ' it being the first charge of the kind whicht l|rought>before, the dismissal of the case with a caution should fully satisfy the end of justice. Judgment," * £3, with lis.costs. G-oods seized .to: ;be returned to .owners.