SMUGGLED CHINESE ALLEGED TO BE IN AUCKLAND POLICE INVESTIGATIONS.

Tlie Auckland police are making inquiries which they believe will unearth a conspiracy to smuggle Chinese labourers into New Zealand from Fiji, and have taken into custody two Chinese whom they allege have been already smuggled into Auckland from the s.s. Atua on the oocasion of that ship's visit on 13th March.

For some time past the Customs officers in Auckland have had suspicions of this class of smuggling, states the Star, and the Customs boarding-officer, Mr. W. D Grant, made special inquiries, in the course of which he dropped across circumstances which appear to him to merit definite action. He communicated his suspicions to Plain Clothes Constable Gourley, who keeps a special eye on waterfront activities, and Detective- Sergeant Issel, whose intimate knowledge of the finger-print system was likely to prove valuable in a matter involving identification of Chinese' coolies. The three officers paid a surprise visit to the market gardens at and beyond Mangere, where they required the Celestial labourers to produce evidence of registration. Eventually, iii a market garden at Mangere belonging to the Ah Chee Bros., they dropped on two Chinese of the coolie -class who could not make good with papers their, protestations that they had paid the £100 poll tax required of every Chinese immigrant, or that they had passed the education test. They were brought by motor to town, and produced to Mr. William Ah Chee, who disclaimed any knowledge of them, and they were then asked to tell their story through the medium of an interpreter judged to be more reliable than the interpreter available at the market garden. One of the men told a circumstantial story of having been in ' New Zealand about ten months, and having worked for eight months or so at the counter of a local fruit shop, but when he was invited to explain how he managed to do business for that time at the' counter without any knowledge at all of the English language he subsided into the "no savvy" defence of the Chinese. He could not manage to explain further how, with such a very extensive "no savvy," he managed to get past the reading and writing test demanded of the incoming Chinese immigrant.

The other prisoner then confessed that they had been smuggled into the country. He explained arrangements that he said had been made at Suva by the payment of £90 to an agent, detailed how they had been.smuggled aboard the ship to a secret room, and kept provided with food and conveniences, smuggled out again after the ship had berthed at Chelsea, brought over to Auckland by ferry boat, and sent on to the market garden. The police are inclined to accept this story, and inquiries are afoot to have it substantiated, with a view, if it bo found t_ be correct, to having the persons concerned in the conspiracy brought to book. The prisoners were brought before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., at the Auckland Court on Saturday, and charged with having landed in New Zealand without having paid the poll, tax of £100 apiece, and without having passed the education test. On the application of Chief- Detective McMahon, they were remanded till next Friday. Bail, which was applied for'on their behalf by Mr. Sexton (instructed by Mr. thingyson), was refused, the Chief Detective opposing the granting of bail on the ground that if the men were at liberty the success of important inquiries now being made might be jeopardised. Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 100, 30 April 1919, Page 10