For displaying a quite original conception of police duties, four members of the Pootung constabulary appeared on Thureday before the Magistrate of that district. Tt was related to the Magistrate that early on Wednesday morning the four policemen chartered a sampan at the Bund and crossed to Pootung, failing in the important detail of paying their fares when they had landed, near the River Police hulk. Then occurred what is known in police parlance aa an " altercation," and Sgt. Anderson, of the River Police, soon appeared on the scene to investigate matters, Three of the defaulting policemen ran away. One was arrested. Shortly afterwards, the other three again appeared, each with a rifle in his hand to support a demand for the release of the man in custody. There was parley, and in the meantime, other native constables came up and arrested the would-be belligerents. The Magistrate sentenced each of the men to fifty blows with the bamboo, and dismissed them from the force.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.