THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH JUNE, 1879.
297
Upon that there is a minute of mine which I will read. But in the meantime this official answer was sent to Mr. Lowcock :—
Colonial Secretary to Mr. Lowcock.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 28th April, 1879.
SIR,-In reply to your letter of 24th instant, requesting me to inform you whether the correspondence which you moved for in Legislative Council on 21st December last has been prepared yet, I have the honour to state that this correspondence is not yet quite ready.
I am authorised, however, by his Excellency to inform you that he hopes to be able to lay the papers relating to Deportation before the next meeting of the Legislative Council, and I am to add that if you will do him the favour of calling at Government House he will be very happy to put them into your hands and let you see the various minutes and orders issued in deportation cases from September, 1876, to the present date.—I have, &c.,
The Honourable HENRY Lowcock.
(Signed,) W. H. MARSH,
Colonial Secretary.
Furthermore, there was a little semi-official note which Mr. MARSH addressed to Mr. Lowcock in these terms:-
Mr. Marsh to Mr. Lowcock.
Hongkong, 28th April, 1879.
MY DEAR SIR,—I send you an official reply to your letter on the subject of deportation. I understand from the Governor that he had a satisfactory interview with you yesterday on this subject, and that in fact the latter part of my letter has been already acted on.
All the papers are, however, ready for your perusal again if you wish to see them.-I am, &c.,
The Honourable HENRY Lowcock.
Upon Mr. LowcOCK's first letter was this minute of mine :---
Minute by His Excellency The Governor.
(Signed,)
W. H. MARSH.
In accordance with the request Mr. Lowcock makes in this letter, I gave him an opportunity of seeing the whole of the papers and correspondence relating to every case of deportation from April, 1877, to the present date. Mr. Lowcock went carefully through those documents, as well as some others of an earlier date. Having done so he said he was perfectly satisfied, and that if he had been in my place he would have acted in every case precisely as I had done. He thanked me for having allowed him to read minutes of the Executive Council and legal opinions, in addition to the correspondence for which he had moved, and he said it was now clear to his mind that I had acted according to law and to the instructions of Her Majesty's Government in dealing with deportation cases.
27th April, 1879.
(Signed,) J. POPE HENNESSY.
Well, it afforded me no small satisfaction to know that an honourable gentleman who had been for a long time labouring under grave misapprehensions-but, as I told him, because he did not come to me and ask to see these papers, I then would have put before him all the papers that were before the Police Committee and documents going back to the earliest history of the Colony, but it was only at the last moment that he did that frankly, which I hope every member of the Council will do, come to me as the head of the Executive, not go behind my back, but come to me frankly and say "I should like to see the documents." There are no documents kept back from the members of this Council. No doubt I have shown Mr. LowcoCK minutes of the Executive Council which ought not to be printed, but I have no objection to let any gentleman see these documents, and it is satisfactory to know a gentleman who laboured under a wrong impression simply because he did not do me the honour of calling to see me at an earlier date, was satisfied with my action in that matter.-His Excellency then entered into a long explanation of his action with regard to deportation, stating that every man had been deported whose case was considered by the Executive Council to require deportation and whose sentence was legal according to the opinion of the Attorney General. The only case as to which Mr. Lowcock disagreed with him was one where he had deported a man whose offence the late Mr. MAY, one of the members of the Executive Council, considered too trivial to call for deportation; Mr. Lowcock agreed with Mr. MAY. His Excellency concluded by inviting observations from honourable members.
Honourable W. KESWICK.-I would just remark that until after a perusal of the documents it would be premature to express any opinion in contradiction to what your Excellency has expressed so fully and so satisfactorily.
SPIRIT FARM.
The Spirit Farm Ordinance was read a second time.
EXPENDITURE.
A number of vote passed by the Finance Committee were approved.
REVENUE AND THE TRADE OF THE COLONY.
His Excellency. Now, gentlemen, it may be proper I should close the sitting of to-day by stating the result of our audit of the accounts for 1878. I addressed you on this subject in October and November last. I am now happy to ell you that the accounts of the year 1878, as audited by Mr. MARSH, show that our total revenue amounted to $947,63 2. The total expenditure amounted