Raid on Opium Den

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 633, 9 April 1929, Page 1

Raid on Opium Den

CHINESE PAY £125 IN FINES

Four Pipes : Four Men

OPIUM pipes, scales, lamps and samples of the drug littered the table at the Police Court, this morning when four Chinese appeared on a charge of having prepared .opium in their possession.

'JMIE charge was the result of a raid on a Chinese den in Grey Avenue about 5.30 on the evening of March IS, when Customs officers discovered the accessories of opium smoking alongside the accused. This morning Ah Hing, aged 35, Ah Wong, aged 38, Wong Chung, aged 48, all gardeners, and Ah Yee, a latmdryman, were lined up in Court. They were represented by Mr. L. P. Leary.

Customs officers detailed events connected with the raid. They climbed through a window to gain entry. They found . both back and front doors barred, each with three large iron bars. Ah Hing had tried to put the opium down the sink. “There is no doubt that Ah Hing was a smoker,” said Mr. Leary, “but the others were not. They were smoking tobacco. In dealing with opium smokers the law treats them as criminals. The habit is really a form of insanity and the habitual smoker is not master of his own volition. Imprisonment doesn’t treat the trouble at all.” Counsel proceeded to quote the case of a Chinese who had been cured of the habit by a doctor as proof of the necessity for treatment. “The man was a physical wreck, but now he has been cured he is as chirpy as a sparrow,” he said. He explained that he had now put Ah Hing under the care of Dr/ Gunson and the Chinese was trying to throw off the habit. In the event of imprisonment he w T ould like the magistrate to make provision that the treatment could go on.

Mr. Hunt: Yes, certainly. I will attend to that.

“All Hing has been convicted before for a similar case,” said counsel. “The enforced absence from a drug almost shook his reason. That is why he barred his house like a fortress. The other three Chinese were only visitors?* ' ' , - • The Chinese were put in the box and, with the exception of Ah Hing, denied smoking opium. Dr. Gunson said he was sure Ah Hing could be cured if he would go away to the country for six months or a year. “There is no doubt in my mind,” said Mr. P. K. Hunt, S.M. “Four pipes, four lamps and four men. Ah Hing is fined £SO, in default three months’ imprisonment and each of the others will be fined £25 or two months. A further charge was prefierred against Wong Cliing that he had stayed in New Zealand longer than the terms of his temporary immigration permit allowed. It was explained that he had been attacked by robbers and severely wounded in the leg in China. He had been ordered a long sea voyage, his family giving him £9O to come to New Zealand. “He cannot get work here, and his people will not send him enough to get back,” said counsel. “There is no deliberate breach of the regulations.” Chung was fined £25 and his deportation was ordered.