Smuggling
p. 51 · Read in the full issue
Japanese Caught
£70 Fine in Tongan Court
From Our Own Correspondent
Nukualofa, July 15.
A JAPANESE, Kinzoo Yamashita, trader and fisherman, of the vil lage Belehake, Tongatabu, was fined £7O by the Chief Police Magistrate for having smuggled into the country a prohibited and an undeclared article.
Evidence disclosed that Yamashita, with two Tongans in his employment, stole out, under cover of night, on his motor launch, from Belehake, which is on the shore of the lagoon, Fagauta, to the Japanese steamer, “Momoyama Maru”, when she was recently in Nuku alofa to shift copra for the Japanese firm of Banno Bros. Ltd., and took from her a large cask of Japanese sauce.
A sergeant-major of the Tonga Defence Force, Jiosifa Tolu, having sus pected the movements of the Japanese and his men, waited on the shore at Belehake for their return, and caught them when they landed with the cask.
This is the first time this Japanese has been caught smuggling. Movements of certain Japanese, during the visits here of Japanese vessels, have for some time past aroused, not only a suspicion that certain articles have been smug gled from these ships to the shore and from the shore to the ships, but that they were acting as under-cover men for some other persons in this nefarious business.