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In the afternoon of the 27th of February four men entered the room of the caretaker of a bungalow near No. 1 Tank, gagged him and robbed him of money and clothing to the value of $26. No arrests were made.
On the night of the 24th of May four men, one of whom was armed with a revolver, entered a house in Tsang Shan Lane by means of the skylight, and carried off money and clothing valued $80. One of the men was subsequently arrested by Inspector STANTON, convicted, and sentenced to three years' hard labour.
On the 15th of August three men entered by night a matshed at Ma-ti Kowloon, tied up the occupant a gardener and carried off a quantity of clothing.
Three men were subsequently arrested with the pawn tickets referring to the stolen property in their possession but were discharged by the Magistrate for want of evidence.
On the evening of the 16th November four armed men, who had engaged a small boat at Yau Ma Ti to convey them to Sham Shui Po, seized the occupants of the boat and robbed them of a $10 dollar note and a gold ring.
The following day Inspector HANSON arrested one of the men who was convicted at the Supreme Court and sentenced to 9 years' hard labour. Two more of the gang were arrested by a Customs Officer of the Frontier Guard while endeavouring to make their escape into Chinese Territory. In the mouth of one of them was found the stolen $10 note.
They have been tried by the Chinese Authorities, but I have not yet learned with what result. The fourth man has not been discovered.
In three out of the five cases of Highway Robbery arrests were made.
One of these was committed on the Shau Ki Wan Road and of the two men engaged in it, one was arrested and sentenced to twelve months' hard labour.
In the second three men robbed a domestic servant on the Magazine Gap Road. One of the three was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to three years' hard labour.
The third case occurred on the Aberdeen Road. There were three men implicated in it and one arrest was made, but the prisoner was discharged at the Criminal Sessions for want of evidence.
In the remaining two cases no arrests were made. One of these occurred on the Stanley Road, and the other on the hill side close to the new reservoir in course of construction behind Tsat Tsze Mui. It was probably committed by some of the coolies engaged on the work.
Except in the last mentioned case when a considerable sum of money was alleged to have been stolen, the value of property reported as lost was small.
5. There were 72 cases of kidnapping, under which category are included offences against the Women and Girls' Ordinance.
In the large majority of cases the prosecutions were successful and 72 persons in all were convicted. The Detective Branch has worked hard in this direction, and obtained nearly all the cases, the remainder being credited to District Watchmen.
6. The number of larcenies reported shews a decrease. The return would probably be much more satisfactory, but for the presence in the immediate neighbourhood of the City of the gambling dens in Chinese Territory at Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City. During the whole of last summer larcenies of personal property by Chinese servants in European employ were very frequent, and I have no doubt that losses at the gaming houses referred to led to the commission of the offences.
It may be of interest to state here that the number of passengers conveyed by free "gambling" launches from Victoria to Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City in one day last summer were 2,616 and 728 respectively.
But whether the gambling dens at these places are suppressed or not the community will always suffer from such larcenies until they take more trouble in the matter of engaging their servants. At present masters and mistresses rarely know the names even of their servants, and to my knowledge servants that have stolen in one house find re-employment in another. This would not be possible under a system of registration.
7. The number of gambling cases shows a decrease of 46% on the return for last year. This is due to the energy in the suppression of gambling displayed by the Inspectors in the various districts and by the Detective Inspectors. As far back as August last I was able to report that gambling on a large scale had ceased to exist in the Colony, and the same may be said to-day.
8. The Dogs Ordinance has worked smoothly, and so far appears to have produced good results. 2,071 dogs were licensed under it in 1893, 35 of the number being licensed as watch dogs. Seventy- one dogs were destroyed and about 1,000 sent by the owners out of the Colony. Only four cases of dog bites were reported between the 31st of July (the date upon which the Ordinance came into force) and the 31st of December. During the period from 1st January to 31st July, there were twenty-three such cases.