THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH JUNE, 1879.
Forwarded to the Honourable the Acting Chief Justice, Chairman of the Select Committee.
26th November, 1878.
289
C. MAY, Acting Colonial Secretary.
I find the Acting Colonial Secretary forwarded this document to the Acting Chief Justice, as Chairman of the Select Committee, and then I find the following minute from the Chairman:-
The last meeting of the Committee was held July 3rd, when it was arranged that the Bill should be printed as revised for final consideration, and the Attorney General undertook, as I understand, to revise the revised Bill and prepare it for the press. This required two or three days' preparation.
I have mentioned the matter on several occasions to the Attorney General, but owing to press of business, I presume, and lately from ill-health he has not had time to attend to it.
I have written to ask the Attorney General when he can resume the business, and will let His Excellency know.
27th November, 1878.
The minute made upon that was:
F. SNOWDEN, Chairman.
Write in substance to Messrs. BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE, adding that I shall do my best to expedite the proceedings of the Committee.
28th November, 1878.
Well, gentlemen, for the reason stated by Mr. SNOWDEN in this, namely, the illness of the Attorney General, I am sorry to say I have not yet received the report of that Committee. I think it would perhaps be convenient if the Acting Attorney General, who I think has seen the draft of the report, and who is probably familiar to some extent with what was done by his predecessor in office, would let us know what is now the exact stage of the proceedings of the Committee on these two Bills. I may add my own wish would be to pass as speedily as possible the Bill for the survey of steamships and boilers. The ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL.-Your Excellency, when Mr. PHILLIPPO was about to leave I tried to see what was exactly done with reference to these Bills, which he told me had been referred to a Committee of the Council, but I really found his state of health was such that I could not get much from him without going to the members again, The personnel of the Committee has changed so much, owing to Mr. SNOWDEN'S absence, and other changes which have taken place, that it was impossible to get together all the members and draw up such a report as I should like to have been able to do. In the first stage I see there was some evidence taken, and the first thing discussed was this small Bill for the survey of steamships and boilers. A number of suggestions were made, but it was finally resolved that as it was to form part of the larger measure, the complete discussion should be adjourned until the larger measure was considered. There was one point noticed, which was that it did not refer to foreign steamers, and that consequently if this measure were carried out British vessels would be placed at a disadvantage as compared with vessels under foreign flags, and most of the members thought this was so inequitable that they would not be prepared to pass it. However, at this stage the matter was left over. The outcome of the whole of the discussion of the Committee was a draft report which Mr. WODEHOUSE made; this was sent to the Acting Chief Justice, who returned it to me a few days before he left. It appeared from what Mr. SNOWDEN told me that Mr. PHILLIPPO was to arrange and draw up the report, but nothing was done, and that is exactly the state of affairs at present. If the small Bill is passed in the original shape in which it was brought before the Council, I don't think there could be much difficulty, with the exception of a few omissions of schedules, but if you go into the larger question it is a very difficult one and would require much consideration. However, the other gentlemen here who took part in the discussion can go more fully into the subject than I can from what I gather from the records.
Honourable P. RYRIE.-Your Excellency, I was present at the meeting and my understanding of what took place is not exactly as Mr. RUSSELL states. My impression was that the Committee had done with the Bill until they saw it again in Council, or until they saw the report; that there was nothing to be done but to draw the report; my impression was that there was to be no more proceedings at the Committee.
Honourable W. KESWICK.-Your Excellency, the conclusion we came to at the last meeting, ac- cording to my recollection, was this, that the Attorney General should draw up the report, revise the Bill according to the suggestions of the Committee, call another meeting to revise in printed form the draft we had made, and consider and discuss the report, and, if approved of, pass it and submit it to the Governor. Therefore the detailed particulars that have just been given by my honourable friend the Acting Attorney General, to the best of my recollection are correct.
His EXCELLENCY.-Gentlemen, you understand that I myself, not having been a member of the Committee and having only received the communication I read to you, don't know exactly what passed, but upon the whole, I think the members are agreed upon this, that no doubt a great deal of pains was taken by the Committee in going through the Bill, but that the matter was not finally settled. So far, that appears to be the state of things with regard to the Merchant Shipping Bill.
Honourable W. KESWICK.-It was thought that as the small Bill was an integral portion of the larger Bill we should take them together.