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POLICE COURT.
Monday, 27th July,
DARING THEFT.
On Sunday night about half past nine o'clock a Frenchmani named Achille Chemin was walking up Battery Pathway when bis watch and chain were snatched by one of two Chinamen who made a dart at him from the side of the road.|||Mr. Chemin were his chain on the outside of his jacket, and it was therefore an easy. (ask for the rascals to catch hold of it. They an off in different directions, one running up the hill and the other down. Mr. Chomin set off in pursuit of the former, and his ories attracted the attention of * Portuguese gentleman, who stopped the Ree
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
CRUELIT TO A PONY.
The case in which a mafoo at the Chung Wa stables, Wongueicheong, was charged with cruelty to a pony, under circumstine's already narrated in these columna, came up, again on remand. Mr. H. W. Looker, solicito (Messrs. Deacon & Hastings), defended. had given evidence, the accountant there was After one of the proprietors of the stables called and deposed that the defendant was in charge of the pony and gharry on the day when the alleged acts of cruelty were committed
He was followed in the witness-box by the head mafoo, who declared that he saw the defendant take part in the levering of the po y by means of bamboos and in the subsequent slinging-up of the animal to a tree, whers it hung for three-quarters of an hour.
all the proceedings.
The
[Angust 1, 1903.
sequence of the outbreak of plagne amongst fowls, and it was to the interest of the witnesses and of the guild theyfrepresented to have him removed. But beyond all that, was it lskely that if a man wanted to take a bribe He was going to manufacture evidence against himself by accepting it in the presence of probable, concinded Mr. Sade, and he asked witnesses? The whole thing was most in- his Worship to discharge the accused.
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His Worship was of opinion that the prosecu- tion had failed to prove their case with sufficient certainty, and he disobarged the defendant,et
THE CURRENCY OF INDO-CHINA.
ing thief as he came pähting along. On the defendant, he added, was pres ut throughout ¦ question of the currency in French Indo-China
why to the Central Police Station they passed the
spot where the larceny had been committed, and defence one of the Chinese passengers in the known, says the L. & V. Express, that it
here the watch, which had fallen on the ground and been allowed to lie there, was picked up,
After hearing Mr. Looker, who called for the
gharry,
the chain, was in the possession of the second of ¦ oræel ill-usage and fined him $50, or in default of what has been suggested, and this shows
the two thieves, and has not been recovered, the the scoundrel being still at liberty.
His accomplice was charged with larceny from the person and convicted; his sentence was a fully-merited and exemplary one- three hours' exposure in the stocks at the place where the offence was committed, twelve months' hard labour, and seven days' solitary confinement during the last week of the sen tence. The first part of the punishment was carried out immediately, and the spectacle attracted large crowds of chrious Chinese upon the lawless one, among whom, as well as upon the pulprit himself, it is to be hoped the lesson will not be lost.
POINT OF LAWOR, FACT?
A few days ago a fortune teller at West Point had an interview with young girl, upon; whose superstitions she is alleged to have so successfully worked as to extract from her two dollars to keep evil spirits away; the penalty of non-payment of the money was death at sunset the same day Full of the my sterious dread imparted by the incident, the girl on arriving at her mother's house in Kowloon City told her parent of the awful fate she had so narrowly escaped, and received the practical advice to go and tell the police. This the girl eventually did, with the result that the fortune-teller was arrested by Inspector McNab on a charge of obtaining money by false pretences.
Mr. O. D. Thomson, solicitor, defended, and submitted that as a fact the accused was no guilty of the offence alleged against her.
His Worship contended that the defendant was guilty in that she obtained the money by professing ability to ward off evil spirits.
Mr. Thomson-But how do we know that she does not possess that ability?
His Worship did not pursue this line of argument, but granted a remand until to-day at 2.15 p.m.
CREATING A DISTURBANCE,
On the complaint of PC. 28 Blown, of the Water Polic, six cargo boat owners were fined $10 each for being ashore at Tsimshatsui and working cargo between the hours of 9 p.m. and
a.m.
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL.
On Saturday last a native entered the cabin of the chief officer of the United States traus- port Ingalls, in dock at Kowloon, and stole a gold watch and chain and two trinkets -one half-a-sovereign||| ant
the other
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gold cash-of the total value of $500. got clear away, but came to grief when he attempted to pawn his ill-gotten gains. The trinkets he had already converted into ready money, and he had the pawn-tickets in his pocket when he walked into another shop and passed the watch over the counter with the remark, “How much!" The pawn broker immediately suspected his customer, and called in a passing lukong, who had a stern chase after the already decamping thier, but caught him at last. When searched the Police Station he was found to be wearing the stolen chain.
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His Worship convicted the accused and committed him för trial the next Criminal Sessions.
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His Worship found the defendant guilty of
two months hard labour. The fine was paid.
An appeal may be lodged.
Tuesday, 28th July,
The report of the Inter-Ministerial · Com- mittee appointed in Paris to consider the
has not yet been made public, though it is
has been drawn np. Sufficient seems to have leaked out, however, to give an indication that the statement we have previously made is the correct one. It is proposed to get rid of the Mexican dollar as rapidly as possible, and to have the commercial dollar as sole legal tender. Sufficient of the latter dollars would be provided with the least delay to suffice for CONSTABLE SENT TO PRISÚN.
the wauts now serv d by both classes of dollars. duty at Taikoktsui accosted a Chinese boy and demonetised. Thereafter a similar course to
One night recently an Indian constable on
Ju this being achieve the Mexican would be asked him for a cigarette. The boy said he had what has been pursued in Iudia, since the clur - none, but the constable did not believe him and ing of the mints in 1893, would be adopted, and searched his pockets. He found 33 cents, five the commerical dollar worked up to 2,50 francs cants of which he kept to buy cigarettes, and (it is said) by the starvation process. This
'I be banded back the remaining 33 cents.
figure would be in consonance with the proposed boy objected to being thus robbed, and was
rate for the dollar in the Straits Settlements, promptly knocked down by the Indian. He and for such other parts of the Far East as ran away, and when he got home told his have carried out the process of conversion, or master what had happened. A report was subsequently made to Inspector Macdonald scheme is, of course, as feasible as that being are engaged in doing so at present. The at Yaumati Police Station, and that offi er put in force in the Straits, but it has the prior instituted enquiries that ended in the constable's advantage that there is a coiu ready at hand to being charged with larceny from the person and also with assault. He pleaded not guilty, and was defended by Mr. E. J. Grist, solicitor (Messrs. Wilkinson & Grist).
The evidence in support of the charge of larceny was weak, and the charge was with- drawn by the complainant; on the second charge the accused was sentenced to one month's hard labour.
藏着 CHIN-CHIN JO88.
His Worship beard the arguments of Mr. O. D. Thomson, solicitor, in the case in which a Chinese woman was charged with obtaining by false pretences the sum of two dollars from a girl whose death she foretold as the penalty of non-payment.
The girl stated in evidence that the defendant told her she would meet a hanging-by-the- neck" devil, and this his Worship took to mean a suicidal devil-s devil that would prompt the girl to commit suicide. That devil the defen. dant said she would drive out, and by such profession of ability to work magic she played on the superstitions of the girl and obtained from her the sum of two dollars.
Mr. Thomson contended that the defendant hardly professed the power of a magician; she simply meant that she would “chin-chin joss," and that the effect of her prayers would be the driving cut or keeping off of the particular devil in question.
His Worship found the defendant guilty as charged, and sentenced her to one month's hard labour, without the option of a fine.
BRIBERY CHARGE.
The case of N. A. Johsunsen, overseer of the Central Market, who was charged with accepting a bribe of $10 from certain stall- holders in the market to influence his conduot as a public servant, was proceeded with.
The case for the prosecution being completed, Mr. Slade, who called no witnesses, addressed his Worship on behalf of the accused. He sub. mitted that the charge against the defendant had not bean substantiated, and that the evidence for the prosecution could not be relied upon. The whole story of the three witnesses called by the Crown was a pure concoction; the very unanimity of the men pointed to that. There was a very strong reason to get Johsunsen out of the Central Market; he was one the officials enforcing the measures adopted in con.
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be established.
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HONGKONG.
The City Hall Library and Museum were visited. last week by 2211 non-Chinese and 79 Chinese and by 66 non-Chinese and 1,953 Chinese respectively.
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A couple of Filipino barbers ́ in Messrs. Campbell, Moore & Co.'s had a set-to in the shop on Wednesday, and were fined $5 at the Magistracy on Thursday for disorderly conduct
Captain J. B. Arbuthnot, A.D.C. to the Governor, and Mrs. Arbuthnot sailed for after a mouth's holiday there will proceed to Japan at daylight on the 31st alt, sud England cia the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Mr. L. d'Almada e Castro, the popular Acting First Clerk of the Supreme Court, goes to the firm of Mr. G. K. Hall Brutton, Mr. A. B. Suffiad, Acting Second Clerk of the solicitor, next month, and will be succeeded by
Court.
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· Among those "called " to the Bar from the Middle Temple on the 25th June was Mr. R. E. Belilios, of Hongkong; and Mr. J. W. Jones, Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court of Hongkong, was "called" at the same time as a member of Gray's Inn.
A British passenger from Borned by the German steamer Borneo reported to the police
on Wednesday that he had been robbed of $200ʻon board the vessel during the passage to Hongkong. The act, he states, was committed one night whilst he lay asleep on deck, where he had gone on account of the heat.
Only one of the nine lots of lands in Kow- loon advertised to be sold by Mr. Geo. P. Lammert in bis auction rooms, Duddell Street, on the 28th alt., found a purchaser. That was Lot 6, and the price fetched was 95 cents a foot. The other lots were withdrawn on account of the low bidding.
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Mr. William Howat, chief officer of the 8.8. Bentarig, died in the Government Civil Hospital on Tuesday after a month's illness and was buried at Happy Valley. He was a palive of Kilmalcolm, Scotland, and had been mate of the Benlarig for four years. His death was the result of an abscess on the liver.
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