labor for a term not more than one year, in the discretion of the Court.

$154. If any person or persons shall rip, cut, untie, unlock, or in any way open any mail bag, valise or portmanteau, containing letters or mailable matter of the Republic of Hawaii, without due authority of the Postmaster-General, said person or persons shall, upon conviction thereof, for every such offense, pay a sum of not less than fifty dollars, or more than five hundred dollars; or be imprisoned at hard labor for a period not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the Court.

$155. The fabrication, sale, distribution or utterance of any imitation of any foreign postage, revenue, or telegraph stamps, post cards, stamped envelopes, or other official impressions of fixed value, obtained by any process whatever, is prohibited.

$156. Any infraction of the preceding section shall be punished, upon conviction before any District Magistrate, by-imprisonment at hard labor for not more than six months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), or both, and the dies, material or other apparatus used shall be confiscated.

NOTE TO CHAPTER 17.

S$134-148 are P. C. Ch. 17 $87-15. $119 is S. L. 1882, Ch. 29, C. L. p. 96. $$150-154 are P. C. Ch. 17 $817-21. $$155-156 are S. L. 1890, Ch. 14.

CHAPTER 18.

EMBEZZLEMENT.

The protection of property, and all the business intercourse of society is based upon the trust which men repose in others; therefore the House of Nobles and Representatives do hereby

enact:

$157. If any person who is entrusted with, or has the possession, control, custody or keeping of a thing of value of another, by the consent or authority, direct or indirect, of such other, without the consent and against the will of the owner, fraudulently converts or disposes of the same, or attempts so to convert or dispose of the same, to his own use and benefit, or to the use and benefit of another than the owner or person entitled thereto, he is guilty of the embezzlement of such thing.

$158. Whoever, being a minister, collector, cashier, clerk or other person employed in the Government Treasury, or any other branch of the Department of Finance, or in any other department of the Government, is guilty of embezzlement of any money, note, or other effects or property belonging to the Government, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for life or any number of years, or by fine not exceeding five times the value of the thing or property embezzled.

$159. Whoever is guilty of embezzlement, other than is specified in the preceding section, if it be to the amount of one hundred dollars or more, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor not more than ten years, or by fine not exceeding

Amended 5.h.1903 Act 10

(Amended s. h. 1903 Act-10

five times the value of the property or thing embezzled; if it be to the amount of twenty dollars and less than one hundred, he shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor not more than five years, or by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars; and if it be to an amount less than twenty dollars, he shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding fifty dollars.

$160. Where the Where the person convicted of embezzlement is under sixteen years of age, the Court shall have the power to mitigate the punishment specified for the offense of which he is guilty, always having due regard to the welfare of the community of which the offender is a member.

NOTE TO CHAPTER 18.

§§157-160 are P. C. Ch. 18, unaltered.

Cases in Hawaiian Reports: Rex v. Swinton, 1 Haw. 55; King v. Chock Hoon, 5 Haw. 372; Extradition of McCarthy, 5 Haw. 573; Govt. v. Len Tai, 9 Haw. 73; R. v. Ah Cheon, 10 Haw. 469; P. G. v. Mossman, 9 Haw. 360.

CHAPTER 19.

EXTORTION.

$161. Extortion is the wresting anything of value from another by duress, menaces, or by an undue exercise of power.

$162. Whoever commits extortion by charging or threatening to charge another or any person in whom he is specially interested by reason of marriage, relationship, guardianship, friendship, or other tie, with any crime, is, in case such crime be capital, or subject to punishment by imprisonment for five years or more, guilty of extortion in the first degree; in case it be an offense of a lower grade, he is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

$163. In prosecutions under the preceding section, no evidence of the guilt or innocence of the party against whom the extortion is practiced, is admissible.

$164.

Whoever commits extortion by threatening to charge or impute any secret deformity or disease to him or any person in whom he is specially interested as aforesaid, is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

$165. Whoever commits extortion by threatening, directly or indirectly, by words, signs, or acts, to burn, destroy, waste, deface, or injure his property, real or personal, or that of another in whom he is specially interested, or to do him or such other any malicious injury, is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

$166. Whoever by violence, duress, or other threats, as aforesaid, compels or induces another to sign or execute, or to confess or acknowledge the signature or execution of any deed, note, or other writing, which, if voluntarily made, would affect the rights and interests of the maker and signor thereof, with intent to avail himself of such writing, or enable any other person to avail himself thereof, as being valid, shall be subject to the punishment hereinafter prescribed for extortion in the second degree.

$167. Whoever, being a public officer of any description, civil, judicial, military, or other, by color of his office, willfully and corruptly extorts from another for his own benefit and profit, any thing of value, knowing that he has not any legal authority or right to exact the same, is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

$168. Whoever is guilty of extortion in the first degree, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor not more than five years, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

$169. Whoever is guilty of extortion in the second degree, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor not more than two years, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

NOTE TO CHAPTER 19.

S$161-169 are P. C. Ch. 19, unaltered.

Cases in Hawaiian Reports: R. v. Thornton, 9 Haw. 45.