AFFRAY IN WALKER STREET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 63

AFFRAY IN WALKER STREET.

ALLEGED ASSAULT BY A CHINAMAN. A Chinaman with blood on his hands and face, and palpitating with excitement, arrested the attention of a constable at the foot of Stafford street on the 4th inst. He said he had be 1 fighting in I Walker street, and was asked to pilot the policeman to the scene. A crowd had! gathered outside a shop kept by Joe Ching, and Mr Hugh Smeaton stepped up and produced a large butclter'e knife, which ( he said had been taken from the Chinaman lin company with the constable. It is ' alleged that this Chinaman, whose name ( is Bing Sing, went to the abode of another Chinaman named Li On, and demanded to know what he had done with some silk i left by a Chinaman who had died in the j hospital, and had been buried on Monday. ! It is alleged that Bing Sing took la On by the neck and ran him into the street, ; when Li On, not wishing for a disturbance, walked away. Bing Sing followed, and, | it is stated, pounced upon Li On outside Chmg's shop, at the same time pulling out a butcher's knife, and making a slash at him. Lj On, throwing up his arm. warded off the_ blow, and then dashed into the shop, where he was followed by the now - infuriated Sing, who felled him to the floor, and threw himself on the prostrate body, brandishing his knife. Mr Smeaton, who had witnessed the whole affair, then rushed in, and found the pair writhing and fighting on the floor, with three other Chinamen, trying to separate them. Both were covered with blood. The knife was wrenched ! away from Bing Sing. Li On was taken, to 1 the Police Station, an slfurmihg spectacle, | but was found to have sustained only a small cut on the right nostril. The blood ! seems to have emanated from the ncaes of the combatants. POLICE COURT PROCEEDINGS. ' Chines flocked in. numbers to the City Police CouTt on th© 9th to be regaled with the ' details of Si On versus Bing Sing, »nd to sun themselves in the majesty of the lew. The police said there had been a little misunderstanding about a name. Ben "Sing j did not own the scriptural patronymic of I Benjamin, as the abbrevation might seem , to imply. It was Bing and not Ben. 1 This being adjusted Bing Sing was duly charged with, on March 4, wounding one Si On with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. — Accused pl«aded " Not guilty." The spectators were divided into two camps. On one side sat the friends of the accused, and on th© other the sympathisers with the prosecutor. An able interpreter was available, ' accused: pleaded " Not guilty,' and Mr A. C. Hanlon (prosecuting) having stated the facts of the case, as already published, declared thut only the merest accident had prevented accused from carrying out his attempt with a knife, and that this court, if it found, that there had been, a wicked intent, should commit accused for trial. j Si On, a thin, peaceable-looking person, blew out his match, and being interpreted, said that he went to Bing Sing's place with Wong Sue to see about a piece of white silk belonging " to a dead man," Wong Hoy. Bing Sing had cried "No silk here. Whereupon witness bad said politely, " Well, if its not here, never mind." Bing Sing, however, grabbed him savagely by the waistcoats Witness went on to say that he left th© premises and the grasp of Bing Sing, and ' -went to tell his countrymen about it. Sing, however, followed him up, shouting th© Chines© equivalent for " I'll do for you, or my name's not Sung Chow." Witness did not know why accused in his wrath should call himself Snug Chow. Perhaps it was " some Christian name." Sing, having overtaken hi mi, attacked him •with his fists, and witness, still endeavouring to be polite, took refuge in Joe Citing's cook shop, where he tripped over a sack of turnips, and accused fell on top of him. Bing Sing recovered himself first, and, placing a knee in the pit of witness's stomach, whipped out th© big butcher's knif© produced, and made a slash at witness's ©yes, shouting " I'll stab you or my name's not Chow." He threw up his hand, which was cut, and the point of th© knife only slit the side of his nose. Accused was about to slash him across th© head: when the weapon was snatched away. To Mr Wilkinson, (for the defence): The wounds on his nose were not caused by his falling against a fruit box; because there were no fruit boxes there. Witness was not j aware that Bing Sing had paid for the maintenance of the deceased Chinaman when the latter was in the Hospital. Witness had not attended the funeral, but had gone to ; claim deceased's effects all the same. Witness had not hit, or even kicked Bing Sing. He was afraid of him. Witness then produced a document, which purported to be a letter from Li Bow, a brother of deceased, authorising witness to collect the dead man's things. Mr Hanlon, having viewed the writing from various points, handed it in, saying that if he had handed it in upside down it could mot be helped. Witness further intimated that the disturbance had lasted half an hour, and had raged in three houses in succession. He had , the key and the authority to enter accused's rooms. Won See, of Stafford street, gave corroborative evidence, and Jack JLwong said he had seen accused pursuing Si On with a knife, He had given Si On warning of what wai behind him, and it had been he who haa snatched awtwy the weapon in the nick of time, and handed it to a European. Hugh Sme a- ton stated thtwt he had witnessed, the affair. His evidence mainly corroborated that given by Si On. He "had sees accused with a knife following Si On into a shop, and had, hurried after hxxa. The Jcnife was hiandea to him, and he subsequently gave it to the polioet, Accused, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial. There wa4 a subdued shuffling of fjKppsre& and soon all thai wrnainett of the eels was the great knife on tike clerk's desk, And A little heap of dead matoheg netn the witness box.