THE H FILES

Apacket of opium, a wild car chase across Auckland and a Chinese gambler who was murdered by axe blows to the head — this is the case of Lee Hoy Chong.

Lee, 46, had retired from market gardening at Te Papapa and had a share in a gambling syndicate at 61 Greys Ave, in the central city, where the roulette-style game fan-tan was played. He lived in a dilapidated, twostorey timber house at 11 Baker St.

From Canton, China, he had come to live in New Zealand in 1925 and had made two return visits to his homeland. He had a brother living in Auckland and a wife and 17-year-old son in China.

Known to locals as “Jimmy”, Lee gave icecreams to children and was liked by his neighbours, who said he was a quiet fellow.

Baker St no longer exists. It was consumed by the construction of the council’s City Works Depot, now a precinct of shops and restaurants in an area below Nelson St described as “industrial and chic”.

But in 1950 Baker St was part of the Freemans Bay slum which, a year later, the Auckland City Council decided would be demolished for terraced housing, industrial and commercial development — and the motorway.

In the mid-1940s, from a dwelling in Greys Ave, a safe was stolen in which Lee had about £4700 (worth about $383,600 today).

He also smoked opium and there was evidence he had tried to sell the drug. Both activities had been illegal since 1901.

Francis Patrick O’Rourke, a 35-year-old labourer who worked briefly at the Westfield freezing works, in 1950 moved into a boarding house in 79 Vincent St, less than 1km from Lee’s house.

On Monday May 22, 1950, O’Rourke spoke in a pub with Ronald Hugh Malcolm, a 22-year-old freezing works hand who lived in a single room in Hobson St with his wife.

According to the police in the Supreme Court, Malcolm had said O’Rourke told him he was hard-up and was going to “do a job”. Malcolm explained when Lee would probably be away from his home.

Initially reluctant, Malcolm agreed to keep watch. At first, around 7pm, Lee was still at home. When they returned later O’Rourke forced a window open and the pair searched the house, finding a small amount of money and a paper parcel containing opium that O’Rourke estimated to be worth £400 (about $27,760 today).

Back at Malcolm’s place, the opium was hidden in a chimney — and Malcolm played cards with his wife.

O’Rourke went home for a while. When he returned, he said: “I’m going to do the Chow, as he must have a bit of dough on him.”

Malcolm was again reluctant, he later told police, but agreed to keep watch while O’Rourke, at about 10pm, planned to go through Lee’s clothes.

O’Rourke was rummaging through the house when Malcolm said Lee was back.

“O’Rourke says, ‘Right, pass me the axe’.” Malcolm refused and went into the back yard. He heard “three heavy thuds or smacks. I did not hear any yelling or shrieking, just a sort of groaning, and then everything was quiet”. He heard three more smacks.

On O’Rourke’s calling him into the torch-lit kitchenette, Malcolm saw