Carried Opium

American in Gaol for Six Months

From Our Own Correspondent.

SUVA, Sept. 29.

A FINE of £lOO, in default six months’ imprisonment, was imposed on Lewis Uentis Stanford, a young American, by the Chief Justice (Mr. O. C. K. Corrie) in the Supreme Court, when Stanford pleaded guilty to a charge of being in possession of four tins of prepared opium.

Stanford, who was a passage worker on the Mariposa, came ashore with a towel over his arm, and when asked by a Cus toms Officer as a matter of form to un roll it, disclosed a bathing costume and two tins of opium. When taken before a senior official, he produced two more tins from inside his shirt.

Counsel for the defence in the Supreme Court said that defendant had previously missed his ship in Suva, and had been sent to gaol for a month for being a pro hibited immigrant. He had been put on board the Mariposa on her southbound voyage as a passage worker, and it was on her northbound trip, when she arrived at Suva, that a Chinese, whom the ac cused thought to be from the shore, had offered him five dollars to bring the par cel ashore that he had got into trouble.

He had no money. He did not know what was in the parcel, and had not seen the Chinese since.

The Attorney-General (Mr. R. S. Thac ker) said that though the offence was re garded as a serious one, he did not, in the present circumstances, wish to press for a heavy penalty. Accused was liable to a fine of £lOOO and/or 10 years’ imprison ment.

Stanford is serving his imprisonment at Korovou gaol, Suva.