[xx]
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An illustration will perhaps show more clearly how the Society carries on its works. Supposing the detectives of the Pó Leung Kuk have ascertained that there is a woman or girl in the Colony liable to be dealt with under the Women and Girls' Pro- tection Ordinance, they have, in the first instance, to communicate their information to the Committee, who, in their turn, report to the Registrar General. If that officer is satisfied with the information, he issues an order to a European Inspector of Police to enter the house where the girl may be, and remove therefrom any person liable to be dealt with under the Ordinance. As a rule, when a girl is brought before the Registrar General, she will not tell her true story. She has either been coached as to what to say or she has been so long under duress that she is afraid to speak the truth. The idea of her being a free agent is so novel to her that she can hardly realize it. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that it requires time to elicit the truth. The girl is detained by the Registrar General, and entrusted to the care of the Society. The Committee, who are her countrymen, are able to ascertain the truth with regard to her more easily than could be otherwise done. They find out where her relations are in China through one of the various charitable societies in China or through inquiries among Chinese from the same district or village from which she comes, and arrange for them to come to Hongkong to take back the girl, but not without the sanction of the Registrar General, who is invariably consulted; or, if the girl is friendless, arrangements are made for her adoption or marriage after consultation with the Registrar General, in whose presence a bond is entered into by respectable persons recommended by the Committee and approved by the Registrar General. If the relations of the girl are too poor to pay for her passage, the Society defrays the cost of it. And this brings us to the financial position of the Society.
During the first two years, viz., Mo Yan and Ki Mau years (1878 and 1879), the expenses of the Society other than the cost of providing its inmates with food were borne and paid out of the pockets of Mr. FUNG MING SHAN and other members of the first Committee of the Society, and so no books of account for these two years were kept. In the Kang Shan Year (1880), owing to the large increase in the work of the Society as well as in its expenditure, a meeting of the Chinese residents was held, when it was resolved that each member of the society should contribute the sum of $10 towards its funds. We enclose for your information a statement of the receipts and disbursements* for the twelve years from the 6th moon of the Kang Shan year (July-August 1880) to the 6th moon of the San Mau year (July-August 1891), from which you will observe that when we entered on office last year, we only had handed over to us the sum of $28.50, so that it was with great difficulty that we managed to keep the institution going. The question may be asked why the Chinese had been so backward in subscribing towards the Society if it did good work. For this, there are several reasons. One reason, which, for some time, prevented subscriptions coming in, was the resumption by the Government of the site in the Chinese Recreation Ground which had been granted. This caused a good deal of discontent. As a consequence, no one cared to endeavour to raise subscriptions among the Chinese Community. Another reason was that many of the Chinese considered that, as the Society was aiding the Government, it should receive assistance from the public revenue, But in answer to frequent appeals for Government aid, the Committee were told that before the Government could do any thing, the Chinese Community must first raise a subscription in aid of the Society. A still further reason was that each succeeding Committee did not like to undertake a duty which their predecessors had avoided, even though the Committee of the Tung Wa Hospital wished the girls to be housed in some more suitable place, and though the Government, through the late Dr. STEWART when Registrar General, had frequently urged them to try to raise a subscription. When your Chairman returned to his post last year, he again urged the Committee to raise a subscription and though they felt disinclined to do so, in view of the depression existing in the Colony, and because they did not care to attempt what their
* See Appendix 15.