566
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 23RD NOVEMBER, 1878.
expensive and most injudicious.
Now that is one reason--and a very good reason-why the Government should reject this Water Supply scheme. They had it all before them; they had also before them the requirements of this prison, and it is the latter that Her Majesty's Government presses on our attention. My Honourable friend remarked it is better to tell the truth about the site to the Minister of State. He thinks Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH imagines the Gaol is built on a plain. Well, my Honourable friend cannot have read, I think, all the despatches that were laid before him recently, or he would find in the despatch I wrote to Lord CARNARVON in November, 1877, forwarding Mr. PRICE's plans and estimates, that I had said :-"As to the works particularised by Mr. PRICE, I may remind your Lordship that this town is built on a strongly marked slope, and that once a building site has been levelled and laid out it is a matter of extreme difficulty to effect subsequent extensions." Of course I told the truth to Lord CARNARVON, but I can assure my Honourable friend the Colonial Office did not require to be told by me that the Gaol was on a slope. They have had it before them for years-in fact, it goes with the Blue Book every year-a plan showing the structure of the Gaol, and the height of the land. In one of the earliest despatches I wrote, not important enough to be printed, I said the houses in Chancery Lane overlooked the prison yard. All these things were known to the Government. They know what is required. Whether they are right or wrong, about the necessity for Gaol extension, of this the Council may be sure, whatever instructions Her Majesty's Government may give me, will be given with a full knowledge of the facts. They have had plans from my Honourable friend the Surveyor General and his predecessors, and they know what is required.
Now my Honourable friend (Mr. KESWICK) approved of the change I made in the dietary scale, but I think I gathered from him that the he expressed a little doubt as to whether the Chinese made a suggestion to me that the amount of food was excessive.
Honourable W. KESWICK.—Not that they had made a suggestion, but that it had been the first.
His EXCELLENCY.-The Gaol Committee reported before I arrived. The Gaol Committee's report was carried into effect before I arrived as far as the approval of the Government went, and they reduced the amount, I think we may say speaking roughly, from 30 oz. to 26 oz. I was not responsible for what I found when I came here. I found the scale as framed by the Committee and approved by the Governor. The Chief Justice hands me a paper showing the amount was 1 Hb. 13 oz. before the time of the Gaol Committee, and they recommended a reduction to 26 oz. Well, that was done before I came.
The Honourable P. RYRIE said some members of the Committee were in favour of a further reduction.
His EXCELLENCY.--I was coming to the fact that I know one member of the Committee did recommend a greater reduction. I know my Honourable friend Mr. RYRIE thought a catty would be sufficient. Well, I visited the Gaol several times. I had a conversation with some of the leading members of that Chinese Hospital my Honourable friend (Mr. KESWICK) has spoken so severely of, and they all, without exception said to me, "You cannot expect to reduce the number of prisoners in your Gaol as long as you give them 26 oz. There are short sentence prisoners who go in for a month or two; why no ut them down more than that?" Well, I had a consultation about that. Then I reduced the Committee's scale by the sa amount they had reduced the former scale, which made it 23 oz. The next step I took, which applies to the vast majori of prisoners, was to reduce it to 16 oz., so that therefore I acted on the advice of these Tung Wah Hospital Committee gen en, and I find, as far as it has gone, their advice has been very sensible. The Gaol Committee were not disposed to bind themselves to 26 oz., and I believe no gertleman heard with greater satisfaction the change I had made than did his Honour the Chairman of that Committee (the Acting Chief Justice). Well, I reduced it to 16 oz., but I may again remind my Honourable friend (Mr. KESWICK) what I found in existence when I arrived; that was the scale with which I had to deal. It was 26 oz.; I cut it down to 16 oz. Well, the Tung Wah Hospital Committee are responsible for that piece of good advice, but I must tell my Honourable friend that if he refers to the despatches--the ordinary Blue Book reports of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY and Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL he will find a very different account given of that hospital from what he has now given. Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL and Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY describe the institution as most creditable to the Colony. It was only the other day that the Surveyor General said in Executive Council, in referring to the buildings of this Colony, by far the best constructed and the finest building in Hongkong is the Tung Wah Hospital. And what did Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL say? In a public address he said "We would indeed be fortunate if the Civil Government possessed an hospital as capacious, and as well ventilated as the Tung Wah Hospital." I do not know who the anonymous authority of my Honourable friend is, but I myself have visited that hospital more than once and I agree with Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL and Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY that it is a credit to the Colony. It is not merely about the dietary of the prison that the Tung Wah Hospital Committee have given good advice to the Government. Now that they have been criticised here to-day I must also remind the Council that on a question that excites a great deal of interest in England, and very justly-Chinese emigration-the Tung Wah Hospital Committee have always given sound and valuable advice to the Government. My predecessors have over and over again borne testimony to the merits of that Committee. But in my own experience what have they done? There were a certain number of emigrants prepared to go to the Sandwich Islands. There came from the Committee of the Tung Wah Hospital a letter calling attention to the fact that the licences under which these men were going were not in accordance with law, and that there was something wrong about the passage tickets. I directed an inquiry by the Harbour Master, and he found on examining, a number of Chinamen who had got passage tickets (our Ordinance says, whatever the amount may be it shall be received in full payment), that the passage tickets stated what was not true. Forty-five dollars was put down on each ticket as having been paid in full; but in point of fact they had only given $8, and, more than that, the $8 was only to pay for their rice on the passage, and they were expected to enter into a contract of service on arriving at their destination. Well, I did more than that. I sent a letter to the Consul-General at Honolulu asking him about it. He is a great advocate for the emigration. He says the Chinese are the most industrious people they have there, and it is very important they should get Chinese. But he told me this. When a vessel comes in the Chinamen are not allowed to land. There goes on board an agent of the landowners of the Sand- wich Islands and accompanying him is a Government officer, and no Chinaman is allowed to land unless he there and then signs a contract of service for two or sometimes three years, but never less than two. More than that, I got a copy from the Consul-General of the contract of service. It contained a clause to which reference had also been made by the Tung Wah IIospital Committee that the men who signed that contract would be compelled, at the option of the landed