March 23, 1901.)
Wednesday, 20th March.
CRIMINAL SESSIONS.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR. SIR JOHN W. Car-
...RINGTON, C.M.G. (CHIEF JUSTICE).
MURDER CASE,
THE PATROCLUS * The hearing of the Patroclus murder case was resumed. The accused was a Manilaman named Louis Aroganti, employed as a fireman or stoker on board the British ship l'atroclus, and he was charged with the wilful murder of another fireman on board the same ship, named Chui Wah, on the high seas on the 7th Febru-
ary.
The following composed the jury-Messrs. Alwin Goecke, H. E. Hammon, J. M. Jensen, A. M. Phillips, E. Arndt, W. J. Wright, and W. C. Pyne.
Mr. V. A. Salis (clerk and usher) acted as Spanish interpreter.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. Thursday, 21st March.
CRIMINAL SESSIONS.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR JOHN CARRING. TON, C.M.G. (CHILE. JUSTICE).
THE WANCHAI MURDER CASE. -
A widow named Wong Po, residing at 143, Queen's Road East, Wanchai, was charged with Cheung, of the same address, formerly a the wilful murder of a man named Kwong messenger in connection with the Supreme Court, on the 5th February,
The case for the prosecution being closed, The Hon. Dr. Ho Kai addressed the jury for the defence. He said the prisoner at the bar was charged with an offence of the gravest kind and one for which, if found guilty, he would be visited with the severest penalty the law provided. Therefore it behoved them to exercise the utmost care, and if they found that there was any reasonable doubt in connec- tion with the guilt of the prisoner it was their duty to give the man the benefit of that doubt and not to find him guilty of the charge. The prosecution would have them believe that the prisoner had committed murder of the foulest nature, and not only so, but without the slightest provocation whatsoever. posed to have committed that murder not only in The prisoner was sup- cold blood but without any provocation whatso- ever. After reviewing and criticising the evidence for the prosecution, the learned counsel asked what were the real facts. He was sorry to say that, as the affair happened in the middle of the night and while the engines were working, it was impossible, or very improbable, for any of the European staff to hear the noise, and conse- quently they had no reliable account of what actually passed But it seemed to him that he was not asking the jury unduly to stretch their imagination when he asked them to believe that a dispute of some kind was going on between the prisoner and the Chinese firemen-that from big words they came to blows, and that in tue small confined space of the stoke hole somebody used a knife by which the de- ceased was stabbed. It was to be expected that when a man had been knocked over or someone killed or injured the noise would subside, and a scapegoat had to be found. It seemed to him that there was a general inclination among the Chinese firemen to implicate not only the pri- soner but another Manilaman who was on boari. He could not say for what reason, except that the Chinese resented the employment of these men to do work hitherto done by men of their own race, At any rate there was evidence of a fight. One of the witnesses for the prosecution stated positively that the men were fighting. First of all the jury must be satisfied that the prisoner killed the deceased man. If they had any doubt at all on the point it was their duty to acquit the prisoner; but if they found that there was sufficient evidence to show that the prisoner killed the deceased he would ask them to consider further whether he killed him with malice aforethought, that was to say intention ally, in cold blood, or whether he killed him after having been provoked by a blow received in a fight. If they found that the prisoner killed the deceased while fighting with him and others it would be quite competent for them, to bring in a verdict of manslaughter; and, further more, if they found that the prisoner, as sented by one of the witnesses for the prosecu- tion, was surrounded by half-a-dozen Chinamen All striking at him and that he whipped out a knife and struck a blow in self-defence, they would still bring in a verdict of manslaughter, out it would be excusable manslaughter.
The Attorney-General followed, after which His Lordship summed up.
repre-
The jury found the prisoner guilty of man- laughter only, and he was sentenced to 15 years' mprisonment.
[
appeared, pleaded not guilty.
The prisoner, for whom Mr. E. H. Sharp
P. A. Cox, John Galbraith, Wan Ki Mei, The following composed the jury:Messrs.
Patton, and Gustave Meyer. George Hunter, F. A. C. Hahn, George
his Lordship that that was the third jury he Ou Mr. Cox's name being called, he informed had been called upon to serve that week.
His Lordship-I am afraid you must take your chance.
255
of the morning. He did not know what he was doing. It had been
on suggested that he was rather fond of gambling. At all øvents he did onlar morning he got, home at about two not keep the best of hours, and on this parti. o'clock. He and his wife and boy had their morning meal of rice, drinking some sam- shu with it. The deceased drank about half a bottle himself. The wife appeared to be an industrious sort of woman. She got her living by mending clothes as she was seated in house. After breakfast this morning the wife the street underneath the verandah of the and the deceased had a quarrel about a woollen jacket, which had been given her to mend and
the wife went downstairs, and was afterwards which she said the prisoner had stolen. Finally, about nine o'clock in the morning, seen sitting under the verandah. There was then no one left in the flat but the deceased and he thought the jury would be of opinion and the accused. The latter was in her cubicle that the deceased went in to her and lay down on her bed. Nothing particular occurred until à little before 11 o'clock, when the prisoner came ou to the verandah and began to call out. "Save life!" and that there were thieves and rob-
The evidence was then called.
The case for the prosecntion was not con cluded when the Court rose,
REVIEW.
From Portsmouth to Peking via Ladysmith with a Naval Brigade. By G. C., HONGKONG, Daily Press Office.
Wong Po, was charged with having, on the The Attorney-General said the accused, 5th February last, felonionsly and wilfully bers in the house. Sanitary Inspector Hogarth, murdered one Kwong Cheung, who was for hearing her cries, rushed up the stairs, and the nected with that Court. In December last thieves had broken into the place and killed a good many years one of the coolies con- woman admitted him into the room. She said he retired from the Government service, re- Kwong Cheung. ceiving a gratuity of $100. The deceased had cubicle Hogarth found the deceased lying across On going into the second still alive. This affair had upset the woman so been twice married, and his second wife was much that she might not prove as good a
the bed. There was a nasty bruise on the fore- head which Dr. Thomson said might have stunned witness as she might have done before receiv-penetrating the liver and the other the lungs, him. There were two stabs in the chest, one- ing the shock caused by this affair. deceased man lived on the first floor of No. 143, Queen's Road East, together with his
The and Dr. Thomson would tell the jury that death was caused by these wounds. There was also a rented the whole of the first floor. There was wife and little boy.
wound in the abdomen. The evidence of Dr. The man and his wife Thomson pointed distinctly to the fact that the no possibility of getting into the room at the bed. The police were sent for and Inspector back, the only means of entrance being the Ford enquired into the woman's story about man was stabbed when lying on his back in the stairs in front. The deceased lot out some beds thieves having broken into the house and killed to varions men-respectable working men, who the deceased, but could find nothing to show according to her own statement, was at one sion, the learned Attorney-General pointed out were ont at work during the day. The prisoner, that this story was at all likely. In concln- time a prostitute. She then went to live with that this was not a case of manslaughter. It said he left her $500. In April of last year death by being stabbed, the main question the a foreigner at Macao, and when he died she being perfectly clear that the deceased met kis she went to live with the deceased and his wife, jury had to decide was, Did the accused murder and occupied the second cubicle (marked on the plan supplied to the jury). From that
the man? time there were various dissensions between the deceased man, his wife, and the ac- cused. Seeing that the deceased used to sleep in the same cubicle as his wife slept in the next one, the jury would the accused, while readily understand that there was likely to be had a certain amount of money and jewel- ill blood and quarr Hling. Then this woman ry, and he thought the jury would find and the prisoner iu relation to money matters, that there were quarrels between the deceased He would have to call their attention to three in the fifth moon.
matters principally, One occurred gated and cleared ont in consequence of there The place had been fumi- having been a case of plague there, and two boxes belonging to the accused and containing some $240 were brought round to the Court by the deceased, who was at that time in the Go- back the woman complained that some of the vernment service, and on the boxes being taken money was missing. Then in the seventh and some bank notes. moon there was a quarrel about a gold bangle | quarrel a day or two before the death of the There was another deceased. At about two o'clock in the morning the wife said she heard the prisoner and the deceased quarrelling in the cubicle next to the accused tell the deceased that she did not want one which she occupied; that sho heard the him, and that if he would give her $100 they would separate. Although it was not incumbent these things because he could only suggest to upon him to show any motive, he mentioned them as a possible motive for the murder the quarrels which took place from time to time between the accused and the deceased over money matters. On the 5th February, the day at about two o'clock in the morning. He of the murder, the deceased had come home did not seem to have made very good use of the $100 given to him by the Govern ment as a gratuity. He appeared to have been in the habit of coming home in the small hours
1
A publication which deals with the stirring" events leading up to the relief of Ladysmith, and those connected with the march to and | relief of Peking, althongh late in the day, will reading public, and find a foremost plase ever be welcome to the vast body of the British among the principal treasures of the book-shelves of the day. From Portsmouth to Peking via Ladysmith with a Nuval Brigade is a wel- come addition to the current literature deal- by a naval man, who, under the cognomen of ing with the same subject, and is written G. C., gives a succinct account of the work done by the Naval Brigade in South Africa the events which have happened during the and China, as well as a faithful illustration of t commission of HM.S. Terrible which is just drawing to a close. It contains much that is new, and from cover to cover abounds ches, alike instructive, and zi in anecdote, incident, description, and sket- gives its readers & sound technical view of the means employed in the great gunnery amusing. It
disturbing the continuity of style and conse- achievements of the "Handy-man,” withont entiveness in the narrative, and without invol- ying the reader in a maze of nautical or technical bright, crisp, and interesting, here and there terms. The style aimed at throughout is
passing scenes, and interspersed with maps relieved by postical sketches illustrative of outlining in every detail the geographical positions taken by the Brigade on their meritorious journeys a in his explanatory note
afoot. The
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