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April 2, 1898.]
Standard III.-Maggie Peterson. Standard II.-Florence Silas. -Standard I.-A. Loureiro.
Special Prize for History.-Serene Mehta,
THE WAI SING LUTTERY.
PROSECUTION IN HONGKONG.
At the Police Court on the 29th March, be- fore Commander Hastings, the following were charged with keeping a gaming house for the purpose of a lottery at 97, Bonham Strand, on the 23rd of February:-Pun Fu, Tang Sui, Lam Tak, Chan Shu, Chan Ki, and Leung Yik. Mr. Dennys (Crown solicitor) appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Francis, Q.C. (instructed by Messrs. Deacon and Hastings) for the defen- dants.
Mr. Dennys, at the outset, called attention to the ordinance under which the charge had been preferred, remarking that unless they considered the words of the ordinance it was very difficult to understand why, the charge has been laid in the way it had. The word "keeper" was defined as any person who shall and in any manner assist in conducting the
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
each contained what they might call numbers, | that is to say a Chinese character from the thous and character classic denoting the book and an- other Chinese character from the same classic denoting the column of the book containing the surnames upon which the purchaser of the ticket had staked. After the examination a list of the successful candidates was published and, according to his instructions, the money was paid at the head-quarters at Macao. With regard to the facts of the case, on the 23rd February Inspector Hansen and a number of other officers went to 97, Bonham Strand. The ground floor was occupied as a druggist's shop and the first floor was used as a store-room in connection with the same. On this floor were found three the fourth, fifth, and sixth-defendants. The fourth defen- dant was sitting at a table on which were 77 Chinese envelopes, and in these envelopes were Wai Sing lottery tickets representing sub- scriptions to the amount of $403. The fifth defendant was sitting on a bed from which he got up as the police entered, and upon this bed were a number of envelopes and papers which, as his Worship would see, were connected with the Wai Sing lottery. The sixth defendant was standing by a bed on which were laid a large quantity of envelopes containing Wai Sing pa- pers. There were also some tickets and a number of other papers. Apparently at the time the police entered the house there was nothing on the first floor except a locked up room contain. ing druggist's stores and these three defendants, who had in their possession a large quantity of Wai Sing papers of different kinds. On the second floor were the second and third defen- dants. On that floor were two rooms, one in front of the house and one at the back. The second defendant was in the back room and was hold- ing in his hand a slip of paper on which was written apparently a request to alter a stake which had been made, and following this request to alter the stake it was written that the stake could not be altered-it was too late, that the books were being printed, or something of that sort. In the front room was the third defendant with his hands over a large number of envelopes. Sixty-five of these envelopes contained 157 Wai Sing tickets. On the third floor the first defendant was lying on a bed. He was the man who went round to collect the orders for the tickets, and in this particular case he went to a house in Jubilee Street and collected a number of tickets. From there he went to two or three other houses, and was subsequently followed to 97, Bonham Strand. As a matter of fact in the whole place there were found 1,296 tickets-Wai Sing lottery tickets which would cost the purchasers $2,362.50.
business of any such place," and he expected to be able to prove to his Worship that the six defendants were assisting in conducting the business of this house. A gaming house was defined as meaning and "including any place opened, kept, or used for the purpose of a lottery or otherwise," and it was stated" a place shall be deemed to be kept for the purpose of a lottery if tickets are sold, prepared, or distributed there."
The lottery they had to deal with was known as the Wai Sing lottery, and it was a device whereby money was distributed in a manner deter- mined by the result of a contest for academical degrees in a public competitive examination in China. The words " Wai Sing" explained to a great extent the meaning of the lottery. They meant "grouping surnames." The person who succeeded in grouping together the largest number of surnames, being those of the success- ful candidates at the examinations, was the per- son who won the lottery. The prizes payable were distributed in sums of 60 per cent., 30 per cent., and 10 per cent. of the value of the tickets applied for, a commission of lu or 15 per cent. being charged by the establishment which got up the lottery. He was not contending that 97, Bon. ham Strand, was the establishment which got up this lottery. That establishment would be shown to be in Macao, where the Wai Sing lottery was a licensed institution, but what he said about 97, Bonham Strand, was that it was an agency, and that it came under the definition of a "place." He thought his Worship, after hearing the evidence, would come to the conclusion that at 97, Bonham Strand, on the 23rd of February, and probably for a long time past, there had been established an agency for the Wai Sing lottery--that from that house man or men were sent round to collect what might be called the stakes from people who took tickets in the lottery. These stakes consisted simply of pieces of paper on which were written with reference to some examina- tions 20 names and with reference to others 16 names, there being 16 names in this particular C888. These 16 names were written on a piece of paper and put into an envelope which was called for by a man from 97, Bonham Strand, who took it to that address. The contents were then taken out and sent over to Macao to the head establishment. The head establishment got this list of names and printed it in a book when they had one thous and tickets of the same value with regard to the same examination applied for. That was to say, supposing a man bought a one dollar ticket. He wrote the names down on a piece of paper, which was taken to 97, Bonham Strand. From there it was sent to Macao, and at Macao, when they had got a thousand of these pieces of paper with surnames on them they printed them into a book, each lot of surnames chosen being in a separate column. There were a thou sand of these columns in each book, and each of these columns was headed by a certain character. When these books had been printed, copies were sent to 97, Bonham Strand, and there tickets, and books were "distributed," to word of the ordinance. These use the tickets did not contain the face of them the names of the scholars who had been chosen by the person-laying the stake, but the same time he found the 16 circulars pro.1
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on
Inspector Hansen said that on the 23rd Feb., at about 1-40, he went to 97, Bonham Strand, in pursuance of the warrant produced. He was accompanied by Inspector Moffat, Sergeants Gidley and Collett, Constable Faherty, and three Chinese constables, 265, 291, and 284. The ground floor was occupied as a Chinese drug gist's shop. He went straight upstairs to the second floor, passing the first floor, Inspector Moffat accompanying him. There were two rooms on the second floor, one in front and one at the back. In the front room were three beds, two with mosquito curtains and one without. There were also some trunks, a few stools, and one table. The third defendant was in this room and sat on a stool by the bed which had no curtain. His hands were on the bed, and by his hands were spread out a line of Chinese envelopes (produced). They were 65 in number. Inside 57 of these envelopes were 153 Wai Sing lottery tickets bearing the heading Fu Yi Kwai. The other eight envelopes con tained similar tickets bearing the heading Ming Lee Chau. He took possession of these. He then put his hand into defendant's pockets and took out the tin box produced in which was a wooden chop containing in red the characters O Mun Fa Yi Kwai, Mun meaning Macao. He left the defendant in charge of P.C. 265 so that he might look round the room, and as soon as his back was turned the constable called out, He is putting something away, Inspector." Witness then found behind the defendant on the bed eight slips of paper each of which contained 16 Chinese surnames, with the words two dollars or three dollars and bottom. At
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On the bed close to the defendant was also the book produced. Defendant claimed a box standing by the side of the bed, and on opening it witness took out the parcel produced. The parcel contained circulars quoting the value of tickets, and referred to the examination in question. Upon one of the onrtained beds at the opposite side of the door from the defendant he found the bundle produced containing two books, one containing the list of successful candidates at the various examinations, a black envelope, and another envelope, six tickets and other documents referring to the lottery. The basket produced he found under three trunks which stood at the end of one of the beds. The trunks stood on a stool and the basket was un- der the stool. The basket contained a Wai Sing book, that was a book containing a thousand columns, each column being headed by a particular character. He also took pos session of a box containing money.
In reply to Mr. Francis, the witness said he was in plain clothes when he went to the house in question, and he believed he was wearing his ordinary boots. He went up the stairs about two steps at a time and as noislessly as possible. He thought he took the man in the room by surprise. He did not know anything about this defendant.
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At this point the case was adjourned. The hearing was resumed on the 31st, when Commander Hastings fined three of the pri- soners $500 dollars each, or six months' hard labour, the other three being discharged.
HOW THE PORTUGUESE BECAME ·
THE PIONEERS OF DISCOVERY.
BY F. A. CORDEIRO.
With the exception of the two Poles, which still defy all attempts to explore their secrets, the world has been so completely laid open that the work of discovery may be said to have now been brought to a close. The movement that gradually led to this result in the nineteenth century began in the fifteenth, and the impulse to it was imparted by the Portuguese. How Portugal, one of the smallest countries of Europe, ever became the pioneer in the work of laying open the world, has puzzled many writers. Among the explanations given by them the most extraordinary is the explanation that in the fifteenth century the Portuguese were, as a race, superior to any other in Europe. We know that never at any period did the Portuguese excel the rest of the Europeans in science, literature, and arts. In what, then, consisted that superiority? That is the ques- tion, the answer to which these writers do not supply. Another explanation, perhaps no less extraordinary, is that the Portuguese were indebted to the interposition of B kind providence. The truth is that a combination of circumstances enabled that people to make those great.undertakings that resulted, directly, in the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope and the discovery of the sea-route to India, and, indirectly, in the discovery of America and the circumnavigation of the globe; to make those memorable voyages, discoveries, and cop- quests that carried their name to the farthest parts of the earth.
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Portugal was a maritime country. Living on the shores of an apparently boundless ocean, the Portuguese must ever have had present to their minds some thought or other of exploring it. But there long prevailed in Europe notion, handed down by tradition, that if a one were to venture forth on the ocean, would, at a certain distance from the land, over its side and would thus never return. the supposition that the Portuguese early formed some project for enlarging the bounds of the kuown world by undertaking voyages of discovery by sea, that and similar notions must have hindered them from carrying into effect any such project. These absurdities accounted for the lateness of the work of discovery, They were gradually dispelled by the progress of knowledge, and in the beginning of the üfteenth century were more or less discredited.
Close neighbours of Africa, which, excepting the part bordering on the Mediterranean, altogether unknown to the Europeans, the Portuguese long desired to learn something about it, and-having read in the works of Hero!
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