127
-15-16.
does not make any difference to the issue of murder that because
you don't know the man you cannot say why he did it. Motive is
no part of the Crown case, but itmay be, and I think in this case itis, an interesting and important factor in considering whether
you are satisfied that the accused is or is not guilty of the
violent killing of Michael Pine.
There is a motive suggested by the Crown here. It falls into two halves. It consists of a determination tɖcommit suicide
for the reasons that the Crown has explained to you, and with that
shall I call it a detestation of the European - or perhaps it
would be better to say a belief that the removal of Europeans from this earth is to be counted unto a man for glory. You have that
curious combination.
Motive is very often a curious thing. What is the evidence
on this issue? It depends very largely on what happened on the 21st June in the Swatow Drawn Lace Thread Workshop in Pedder Street.
The accused you remember, worked there four years ago and he turned
up in a thoroughly disheartened and disgrunted frame of mind.
The accountant noticed that
-
said he looked thoroughly unhappy
and he sat about telling him what it was all about. The accused
said "I wanted to go to Singapore. I borrowed $10.00 in Swatow and as soon as I got the $10 I was cheated out of $5. I then got on
board a ship intending to go to Singapore but they found me there,
took $3 for my fare to Hong Kong and turned me off when I got to
Hong Kong". He had a rattan basket with him and if we accept that
story, he had somewhere round about $2. We cannot be certain but $2
would be the whole of the change left out of $10, having been
cheated out of $5 and paying $3 for his fare. He may have had
some money of his own. Anyway, he was not in funds at the
moment and he brought his rattan basket. He put it down in the
shop, slept there that night and on the following morning he
had his morning meal. He went after leaving the basket behind
him. No money was found in that basket and no money on his