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explained to them, and that, I submit, may be due to the expense entailed in travelling to Hongkong. I would, therefore, ask your special attention to the particular evil the Ordinance is intended to correct, and to the character of the remedy to be applied to it.
10. The main object of the Ordinance is to enforce on the Chinese in the Colony's New Territories the registration of their lands and the disclosure of their title deeds. It is, no doubt, intended to operate in conjunction with the survey of the New Territories now being made, and with the special "Land Court" now in course of constitution for the settlement of all claims in connection with land in the New Territories. A Bill entitled "The New Territories Land Court Ordinance" was read a second time on 30th November, 1899.
11. This Ordinance places in the hands of the Government an inquisitorial power far exceeding that possessed by any tribunal or by any judge. It infringes in every possible direction on the recognised rights and liberties of the subject. It exposes a inan to the most serious consequences, civil and criminal. It enables an interrogatory to be pushed into matters hitherto beyond the reach of all investigation by the law; it may compel a man to criminate himself or to disclose his title. The power is without any limitation, and there is no limitation whatever as to the subject matter of the enquiry. It is not confined to matters of general interest or of public policy with reference to which ordinarily a Government seeks to obtain information by means of a Commission. If this were the sole purpose there is an Ordinance in force (No. 2 of 1889) which gives a Commission power to take evidence on oath and to punish falsehood. It is not confined to civil matters exclusively; it may therefore be used at the instigation of the Captain Superintendent of Police to enable him to conduct, through the Registrar General, a secret enquiry into a man's conduct with a view to a criminal prosecution. A man may, under the operation of this Ordinance, be compelled to criminate himself and to answer questions which the highest Criminal Court in the Empire has not the power to put and would not allow the Attorney General to put. A man may, when before the Registrar General under this Ordinance, be compelled, contrary to the very first principles of the administration of Civil Justice, to disclose his title deeds and all the defects in his title to his lands, all his books, letters and accounts and papers, and that to a possible opponent and in anticipation of litigation. Such secret enquiries are conducive to excite against the Government in the highest degree the suspicions and distrust of the Chinese who in their business affairs are constitutionally secretive. The widest powers of Discovery entrusted to the highest Court in the Realin do not extend so far. No man is compelled to disclose his affairs except in a suit properly instituted, under the protection of clearly defined laws, under the supervision of trained Judges and only in so far as such discovery can legitimately aid his opponent's case.
No man is compellable to disclose his own case. The unlimited powers given by this Ordinance may be used in aid of a civil suit to which the Government is a party. The person examined has no right to legal assistance or advice and has no power of appeal to any Court for the ordinary protection afforded by the law and by every Court to persons under examination. The power is without any limitation and it is placed in the hands of a person who may be wholly unfit to exercise it. If given to one of the Judges it would be objectionable. The power is given to an official who may be, and who often is, without the knowledge or training necessary for the judicious exercise of such power, Comparatively junior members of the Civil Service not unfrequently find themselves in the position of Acting Registrar. The Registrar General's Department with the mass of Chinese influence around it is the least qualified of any Public Department to exercise such a power.
It can never be impartial. The authority to enquire is given secretly. There is no publication in The Gazette as in the case of a Commission. It need not be with.