Wednesday, June 8, 2011

THE CHINAMAN SHOOTING CASE— SKETCHES IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT New Zealand Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 275, 7 October 1905, Page 11
SUNDAY GARDENING.CHINESE BEFORE THE COURT.
press association. AUCKLAND, November 4.

Fourteen Chinese -were charge at the Police Court to-day with gardening on Sunday. Ah Napier, for the defence, contended that the men were engaged in a work of necessity. They were not digging new if 1 ground or engaged in the various ways of the market gardener, but were taking up vegetables. They were engaged by Ah Chee who had something like fifty contracts to fill early Monday morning to various steamers and clubs, and it was impossible to carry out the work except by raising the vegetables on Sunday. He considered it would be Sabbatarianism run mad, much as he respected the Sabbath, to make it criminal to perform so necessary a work. Decision was reserved. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9480, 5 November 1907, Page 7

Monday, June 6, 2011

Thomas Quoi 1895

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 856, 25 May 1895, Page 12

Saturday, June 4, 2011

THE CENSUS RETURNS. EDEN AND MANUKAU COUNTIES.

The returns for the counties of Eden and Manukau and islands of the Hauraki Gulf were completed last evening by Mr John King, census enumerator, and assistants. Compared with the returns for 1891, the Auckland borough Bhows an increase of 2,650, Parnell borough 462 and Newmarket borough 343. The Onehunga borough shows a decrease of 11. In some portions of Arch Hill and the Mount Eden Road districts seme of the population had to be transferred to the City of Auckland. This was necessary on account of those districts being in the City of Auckland electorate.

Chinese population is as follows .-— Borough of Auckland (including 5 females) 49 Borough of Parnell (including 1 woman) 23 Borough of Newton 9 Borough of Newmarket 18 Arch Hill 11 Total .110 Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 130, 4 June 1896, Page 2
A BANKRUPT CHINAMAN.AH CHONG'S CREDITORS AN AMUSING MEETING,
An unsual scene was enacted in the office of Mr J. Lswson, Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, thia morning, when a meeting the creditors took place in the estate of Ah Chong market gardener, of Epsom, a banrupt. The following Chinese creditors were present : Mong Chee, Ah Kow, aod Ah Ong (gardenera of Epsom and Newmarket), Harry Wong (agent Wakefeld - Street), Ah Cbee market gardener, Mechanics Bay), Ah Kew Queen St merchant), and Pon Hing(secured creditor), of Mount M, gardener; The total debts unrated, were stated to be £250 16s lOd, the secured creditor's amount being £121 3s

A squabbling in a corner of the room revealed the fact that a couple of fowls were tied up there in a kit ready for the lighter accessary for the taking of a iie oath.

Mr E C Beale appeared for the debtor, Chong, Mr Cotter for Pon Hing, and Mr. Hesketh for Ah Chee. T. Quoi (Mas interpreter. It was proposed to examine Pon Hing, is secured creditor, on oath, and Mr Hesketh asked that he shouid he put on In the orthodox Chinese style by the biting off of a cock's head. Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 274, 18 November 1896, Page 5

A CHINESE FUNERAL.

A CHINESE FUNERAL.

A Chinese burial is of such infrequent occurrence in Auckland that the funeral of a young Chinese woman, which took place on Wednesday afternoon lash, aroueed considerable curiosity. The deceased waa a relative of Ah See, about 23 or 24 years of age, and she was buried as nearly as possible in conformity with Chinese custom. The corpse was dressed in a shroud of white liberty silk, made at the D.I.C, with a new frill round the neck and gathered in at the waist, and deposited in a coffin. The coffin was placed in a hearse and taken to Waikomiti at the fastest possible speed consistent with safety. Behind the hearse there were live carriages, the foremost occupied by a female relative of the deceased and the remaining carriages by Chinamen. As the cortege passed along the road fragments of rice paper were thrown broadcast to propitiate the erode on behalf of the deceased. On arrival at Waikomiti the coffin was deposited in a grave without ceremony, and after it had been covered large quantities of rice and other food were placed on top of the grave to keep the departed from starvation during the journey she had undertaken for another world. Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 94, 24 April 1891, Page 3

"OFF WITH HIS HEAD."

"OFF WITH HIS HEAD." An Interview With a Chinese High Executioners,

I once visited Canton with some companions, and, of course, we did the sights there. We visited pagodas and temples galore, silk factories, an artificial duck-egg hatching company's premises, jade and ivory shops, pawn shops, cat and dog butchers' shops, and the city water-clock, all of which have been "done" and described before, times innumerable. Dur ing our mc-inderings in the city our ears were assailed with the Cathay synonym of the Egyptian bakseesh cry, till the caverns of our brains resounded and echoed with it. " Cumshaw! cumshaw!" yelled by immature possessors echoed the sound wherever we went. -When the youngsters' requests were not complied Trith, they, after a little, invariably changed their cry to "Fanc[uai! fanquai!" (foreign devil, foreign devil). We marched into the magisterial yamun to the accompaniment of the cumshaw' tune. Here were shown the instruments whereby bamboo chow is given to the nadal callosities of the wicked, also ratans and short bludgeons for slappingtbe face of untruthful witnesses, thumb-screw's and racks for exacting confessions (no criminal can be executed according to the laws of China until he has confessed his crime), canquls, a species of collar which foirlargeness and imcomfortableness even outstrip the masher's, and which are rectangular planes df wood with neck and hand holes. The gloomy, small depository-room of these torture- implements we thought to be a fair representation of what a European mediaeval chamber of justice has been.

We were next taken in our sedan; chairs through an overcrowded busy part of the city to the execution ground, passing on our way the new Roman Catholic Cathedral, whose gigantic spires pierce the clouds. The execution ground we found to be a small enclosed rectangular space, about fifteen yards by fifty, entered by a gate. On the right on entering ran a row of small squalid houses, the habitation of potters whose lough, unbaked work lay all abouton the ground, drying 1 in the sun, but we were informed that it was cleared away when an execution was about to take place. Facing the potters' houses was a high wall, at whose base, and leaning against it, were some large crocks, all of which had their mouths earthed over except one. Here' our guide introduced us to three poorly-dressed Chinamen, whom we noticed gambling at a fan tan table near the gate on our 'arrival. One, a big, brutish-lookingfellow with avillainous cast in one of his eyes, was the hfead executioner, and the other two, who were smallish men were his assistants. Through our guide we told the head executioner that we wished to see the instruments of his calling, and thereon he produced a short, very heavy two-handled sword and a long knife. The following conversation was carried on between' us and this "boss" through' the medium of our guide:—

How; do you use this sword ? Where is the block?"—-"We don't use a block. What we do is to make the prisoners kneel down in two rows facing one another, and bending their head down. Then I take the sword, and chop, chop, one on each side, and the heads fall off;; so on, till they're all done, as you'd switch the tops off green weeds with your walking-stick." '

" But you don't always chop a head off with one blow ?"—" Always." . "What is the knife for?"—" For the ling che or death by many cuts. We tie the culprit who is condemned to this death to that cross there (pointing to two rough unbarked sticks roughly crossed),, and. we commence by cutting off the eyelids, ears, nose, and so on, ending by sticking the knife into the heart. The cuts vary in number from eight to a hundred and twenty, according to the seriousness of the culprit's crimes.". "What class of criminals are condemned to the ling che?" Parricides,matricides, and women who have killed and mutilated their husbands form the majority." "Do the executions interfere with your appetite and sleep ? The three executioners grinned sardonically at this question, so we asked : " How many persons have you executed in a day ?" " I have chopped twenty heads off myself in two minutes. See that darklooking place on the ground over there ? that's caused by the blood of the last batch we had." . " What is done with the bodies .-?' " The friends take the bodies away, but we keep the heads in the crocks over by the wall there, and when we have a large number which are no longer identifiable, Aye bury them. Would you like to see some of the heads ?" We declined, and one of my companions began to grow pale and complain of hot feeling well, so wo ordered the guide to lead us away. " Gentlemen, give twenty cents each, cumshaw, to the executioners," said the guide,vwhich we gladly did to escape from the staring of the " boss " butcher's swivel eye ; and so ended our interview with these High Executioners of the Great Chinese Empire. Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 148, 25 June 1887, Page 2