EVIDENCE.
FIRST MEETING
of the Commissioners to inquire into the circumstances attending the alleged smuggling into China, from the Colony, of Opium and other Goods,
held on the 10th January, 1883, at the Council Chamber.
Present:Sir GEORGE PHILLIPPO, Chief Justice, (Chairman).
Honourable J. RUSSELL, Colonial Treasurer.
P. RYRIE, M.L.C.
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F. B. JOHNSON, M.L.C.
It is proposed by Mr. JOHNSON and carried that His Excellency may be asked for the services of Mr. LOCKHART, as Secretary to the Commission.
Preliminaries were discussed and the plan of the inquiry arranged.
The Meeting is adjourned till Tuesday, the 16th instant, at 2.30 P.M.
SECOND MEETING,
16th January, 1883.
Present:-Sir GEORGE PHILLIPPO, Chief Justice, (Chairman).
Honourable J. RUSSELL, Colonial Treasurer.
P. RYRIE, M.L.C.
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F. B. JOHNSON, M.L.C.
Mr. J. H. STEWART-LOCKHART, (Secretary).
H. G. THOMSETT, R.N., Harbour Master and Marine Magistrate, attends and is ex- amined, and when asked by the Chairman what information he could give the Commission with reference to the smuggling of opium replies as follows :—
My only means of knowing of any vessels conveying opium from the port is when the Police arrest junks for endeavouring to leave the harbour without clearances, when the Masters are brought before me as Marine Magistrate, and in the evidence it has come out that they have been conveying opium. During the whole of my career as Harbour Master, now about 22 years, it has not come under my notice that any junks have been specially built or equipped as to armament for the purposes of smuggling opium. The vessels having opium on board in the cases that have come before me have been armed in the way that every ordinary Chinese trader is. In a return sent in to the Government, dated 13th November, 1882, I reported on the vessels that had been found with opium Se post on board from 1877 to 13th November, 1882. These vessels varied in size from 4,000 piculs to a small rowing boat. Their armament was the usual armament carried by all junks, and the quantity of opium carried was smaller as regards the larger vessels than it was in the smaller ones. For example a junk of 4,000 piculs, about 236 tons, had 40 balls of opium: a fishing junk of 124 piculs, about 7 tons, had 350 balls of opium. A small rowing boat, about 30 feet in length by 4 feet in breadth, with a crew of four men, armed with two loaded revolvers, had on board 90 balls of opium.
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