519
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5. Declaration of Lai A Hing..
I, LAI A HING, of Victoria, in the Colony of Hongkong, Trader and Commission Agent, do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:-
1. That I have a great many times purchased prepared Opium from Cheung Tak Company, the present Opium Farmer.
2. That on the 10th September instant at about 6 o'clock P.M., my principal Leung Cheung gave me a delivery order for 24 tins of prepared Opium packed in four large parcels. I took the order to Tak Lung, the Manager of the Cheang Tak Company, and he gave me an Export Certificate and told me to get Opium at the factory at Praya West. Accordingly at about 6.30 o'clock that evening I got 24 tins of Opium from the clerk at the said factory and shipped them on board a small boat. About 3.30 o'clock on the morning of the 11th September instant I tried several times to take the Opium on board the steamboat Honam in this small boat but failed as the preventive officer was strictly watching until the said Leung Cheung who was then on board the steamer told me to take the Opium back so I took it back to Praya West and carried it ashore to the clerk in two journeys. This was about six o'clock in the morning.
3. That on 12th September instant, the said Leung Cheung requested me to offer the preventive officer some bribe money so I went on board the Powan and talked with the officer Fung A-Shing. I requested him not to watch me so strictly and promised to pay him two dollars a voyage. He refused and I went away.
4. That on the 12th September instant about 6 o'clock P.M. I again got a delivery order from the said Leung Cheung to get 24 tins of Opium. Accordingly I obtained them from the clerk at the factory at Praya West and shipped them in a boat for the steamer. As we approached I went ashore and went to the steamer. There I saw the said Fung A Shing and told him that the things had come. He told me not to send it there. I learned that the Opium was placed on board the steamer and then I went ashore. That same evening about 7.30 o'clock I heard that the Opium had been seized whereupon I reported the fact to the said Leung Cheung who went to the Opium Farmer.
And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the provisions of An Act made and passed in the Sixth year of the Reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth entitled "An Act to repeal an Act of the (then) present Session of Parliament entitled An Act for the more effectual Abolition of Oaths and Affirmations taken and made in various Departments of the State and to substitute declarations in lieu thereof and for the more entire suppression of voluntary and extra-judicial Oaths and Affidavits and to make other provisions for the Abolition of unnecessary Oaths,”
Declared at No. 35, Queen's Road Victoria in the Colony of Hongkong this 23rd day of September 1889.
Before me,
LS
Victos H. Dracos, Notary Public,
Interpreted to the said LAI A HING in the Chinese language by TSANG KAM CHUN, Interpreter to Wotton & Deacon, Solicitors, HONGKONG.
(LAI A HING,)
黎阿興
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6.-Report of Case tried before the Honourable Mr. Wodehouse.
POLICE COURT.
6th September.
THE LARGE SEIZURE OF OPIUM.
A large seizure of opium was made on Thursday evening near Yaumati. Inspector Bremner having obtained information that an attempt was to be made to smuggle a quantity of raw opium, went off in a boat accompanied by a small body of police, about 8 p.m., and overtook two boats suspected of having opium on board. On one boat were found 414 balls of Malwa and 199 balls of Patna, and on the other 207 balls of Malwa and 160 balls of Patna. There were three persons in charge of each boat and these were arrested and brought before Mr. Wodehouse yesterday morning. The men in charge of each boat were fined $500 or six months' imprisonment, while the other occupants of the boat were each fined $50. Later in the day Mr. Webber applied for a rehearing of the case on the ground that he had a perfect defence for all the prisoners. The application was granted, and the case will be reheard on the 10th inst. [Daily Press, 7th September, 1889.]
POLICE COURT.
10th September.
In the case in which six men were charged with removing 199 balls of Patna opium and 414 balls of Malwa without permission from the Superintendent of Imports and Exports, Mr. Webber stated that Mr. Francis had been retained for the defence, and asked for a further remand. Remanded until Friday,
POLICE COURT.
13th September.
THE OPIUM CASE.
The case in which six men are charged with the illegal possession of several hundred balls of opium was again before the Court. Mr. Francis, Q.C., instructed by Mr. Webber, appeared for the defence, and explained that he was instructed on behalf of the owner of the opium. Mr. Dennys watched the case on behalf of the Opium Farmer.
The case arose out of a seizure made by Inspector Bremner on two sampans, and the charge was laid under the section of the Ordinance which prohibits the possession of opium in quantities of less than one chest. In this case the chests had been broken and the balls packed in bags.
Mr. Francis, addressing the Court for the defence, said the opium in question was the property of the Yune Tak firm, of which Lam Chune Sing was one of the partners. Lam Chune Sing was a licensee for the sale of prepared Opium under Ordinance 1 of 1884 and was, as he understood, the only person who had been directly licensed by the Opium Farmer for the purpose of selling prepared Opium.