CHINESE ACQUITTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 110, 30 July 1927, Page 12

CHINESE ACQUITTED

A QUESTION OF AGE PROSECUTION FAILS Under his Honour's direction, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty against Wong Koon Yee (Mr. Tong), aged 21, who appeared at the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon to answer a charge of unlawful carnal knowledge of a Maori girl. The inability of the prosecution to fix the date of the birth of the principal witness resulted in the collapse of the charge. Evidence was g ; ven by the parents of the girl that tney had consented to her marrying accused when she attained the age of 16. The girl was born in November, 1911, and was stated "to have been baptised when about a year old. Parish records produced showed the date of baptism as February 18, 1912. Mr. Justice Stringer said that according to the evidence of the parents the girl had been born a year previous to that date. That would fix the date of birth at February, 1911, and as the offence was alleged to have taken place in May. 1927, the girl would then be over 16. His Honour added that the Maori methods of computing ages by memory was unreliable. As the girl’s age was the essence of the case there was an insuperable difficulty in the way of the prosecution. The accused was discharged.