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SUPPLEMENT TO THE
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NEW SERIES.
Government
GAZETTE.
VICTORIA, TUESDAY, 22D APRIL, 1856.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
VOL. I. No. 43.
The Contract for publishing this Gazette, entered into on the 24th September, 1853, was terminated on the 30th ultimo; and notice is hereby given, that a NEW SERIES of this Gazette will be published hereafter, to commence from the 7th instant, under a New Contract, and that
“THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE”
will, as before, be the only Official Organ for Proclamations, NotificatIONS, and PUBLIC PAPERS, of this Government.
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No. 50.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2d July, 1855.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
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With reference to Government Notification No 23, of 25th February last, His Excellency The Governor is pleased to direct, that the authority for the Constitution of the Bowring Praya Commission, together with the Report now delivered in by the Members of that Commission, be published for general information.
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By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 16th April, 1856.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
WHEREAS for the furtherance of the works projected by my Government in and about the formation of the Bowring Praya, certain preliminary enquiries are necessary, and whereas such enquiries will be most conveniently and expeditiously prosecuted by means of a Commission: Now therefore know ye, that I, SIR JOHN BOWRING, Knight, LL.D., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, do hereby, under my hand and the Seal of the said Colony, appoint you, Thomas Chisholm Anstey, Esquire, Her Majesty's Attorney-General for the said Colony,-William Cowper, Esquire, Captain of Her Majesty's Royal Engineers, and Acting Surveyor-General for the said Colony,-and Julins Charles Power, Esquire, or any two of you, to be a Commission for instituting and prosecuting all needful or proper enquiries in that behalf, and to take evidence (but not upon Oath) in And I do hereby require you to com- the premises. And to report to me all evidence so taken by you, and also your opinions thereon. mence your said enquiries forthwith, and to proceed therein continuously, and to make your Report to me as aforesaid with all reasonable despatch. And I do further require you, in executing this your Commission, to address yourselves particularly to the questious specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed; And I do hereby empower you, during the course, and for the purposes of your said Commission, to demand and, obtain access at all times to all and all manner of Papers, Records, and Documents relating to the subject matter of the said Commission, and in the custody or under the control of the several Public Departments within this Colony. And from time to time to call before you and examine all persons superintending or employed in or under any of the said Departments. And I do hereby charge all persons in the Public Service to be aiding and assisting unto you herein.
Given under my Hand and under the Seal of the Colony of Hongkong, at Victoria in the said Colony, this Twenty-fifth day of
February, A.D. One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Six.
JOHN BOWRING,
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ty-six
, Ons
THE SCHEDULE IN THE ABOVE COMMISSION REFERRED TO.
I. Whether the Government of this Island ought or ought not to undertake the entire construction of the said Praya, or of any and what part
thereof t
II. After what rate or rates ought the present holders of Marine Lots to be admitted into the possession and occupation of the ground lying
between their proper boundaries and the Praya, where the construction shall have been undertaken by the Government !
III. In the event of some of the holders of Marine Lots being willing, and others of them being unwilling, to undertake the construction at their own expense, ought or ought not the Government to undertake the construction of so much of the said Praya as shall lie to the front of the lots of the unwilling holders, and to allow the willing holders to undertake or proceed with their proportion of the work in respect of their own lots IV. Ought or ought not the Bonham Strand portion of the said Praya to be commenced together with the other portions thereof, or when else I V. What provision ought to be made for the shipping and landing of goods, and the embarking and disembarking of passengers at and along the
said Prays when completed i
REPORT
OF THE
BOWRING PRAYA COMMISSION.
May it please Your Excellency,--We, the Commissioners appointed by Your Excellency's Commission under Seal of the 25th day of February, A.D. 1856, for instituting and prosecuting certain preliminary enquiries in furtherance of the works projected by Your Excellency's Government in and about the formation of the Bowring Praya, particularly addressing ourselves to the Five Questions specified in the Schedule to the said Commission annexed,-
Have considered the matters referred to us, and have agreed to the following Report:--
The Five Questions above specified appear to us to have embraced every substantial matter of enquiry; and it will be seen from the Minutes of Evidence contained in Appendix I, that the witnesses whom we called in and examined also entertaiqed that opinion. There is but little to be found, either in their evidence, or in the body of documentary evidence compiled in Appendix 11, which does not range itself under one or other of those Five heads of Enquiry. In reporting our opinions, together with the evidence taken, as required by our Commission, we shall therefore follow the order of arrangement suggested by those questions, taking care of course to specify, in their ppropriate places, all such matters as came incidentally under notice in the course of the enquiry, and did not necessarily arise out of either of those Five Points.