An unemployed native was charged with being concerned, together with others not in custody, in stealing five steel girders, valued at. Tls. 200, from No. 14, Nankiny Road, the scene of the lst Huh Lee fire, on the 29th inst. A Peking Road shop-Keeper was also charged in connection with the same matter, with receiving the said steel girders on the 20th instant, well knowing the same t" have been stolen.
Taspector Matheson said that the first prisoner and two other men, ut arrested, took a wheelbarrow to the premises, No. 14, Nanking Road, loaded it with the steel girders, and carried them off. They then sold them.to. the second prisoner, who although the girders were of the value of Tls. 200, only gave them $12.80 for them. This was proof that he knew the property to have been stolen.
'A representative of Messrs. D. Sassoon and Ca, the owners of the stolen property, said that the recovered property was useless to his firm, as the girders had been cut into small pieces. They were made for a specific purpose, to a certain length, and were almost worthless in their present state. He could not as yet state their exact value, and asked that the receiver be remanded in custody until he hid ascertained the value of the stolen property. On the 29th instant he visited the premises where the theft occurred and noticed the first prisoner there. He asked him what business he had there, and his uusatisfactory replies led to his arrest.
Tu reply to the Court, Detective Moore said that the receiver had a fairly large shop, consisting of two Chinese hous: The stolen girders had been cut up there ins very quick time—less than an hour and a hvf—md concealed underneath other old iron and steel. The shop contained. other old iron which had probably been: stolen from the scenes of other fires, Dut there was no evidence to prove ownership.
'Phe first prisoner was sentenced to 400 blows and six months' imprisonment, and the receiver was remanded in custody for a week.
The Traffic in Children.—Kidaappers Fittingly Punished.
A native. braessmith was charged with kidnapping a native girl, 13 years of age, from the lawful custody of the complain at No. 163, Amoy Rosd, at 4 p.m. on the 3rd inst.
A woman was charged with receiving the said child and illegally detaining her at Ne. 163, Yunnan Road, from the 3ed to the 28th inst.
Tnspector Chilver sail that the child was seized by two apprentices employed by the first prisoner and taken to his shop. The brassmith took the child to the house of the seood prisoner, and agreed to sell her for $120. Payment was deferred until any enquiries as to the child should have ceased. The female prisoner pleaded that she was acting bond fide in yurchasiny the child, but in contradiction there was the evidences of the child herself, who sil she told the After hearing the plainant' anc the kidnapped child, the Court sentenced the male prisoner 10 300 blows and six months' imprisonment, and the female pris mer to 300 blows and two months' imprisonment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.