COURTS (3) Continuation.
246
"In England documentary evidence is the most valuable where damages are sought for the unfulfillment of a promise to marry and as in Hongkong evidence of a like nature would most probably be of equal value, we would recommend Miss Foong-a-leen to try and rake up a correspondence corroborative of the unity of mind that, at one time, existed between herself and the defendant.
Which when we read it to-day seems rather unking.
In looking up old records there are discovered numerous references to flogging or whipping of criminals. This form of punishment continued until comparatively recent years as a matter of course, and as late as the middle Seventies there are reports of public chastisement of this nature. It is a moot point whether the present confining of caning to certain types of criminals, and light caning only to juveniles, is better than the somewhat rough-and-ready justice of the early years. On the founding of the Colony, a gaol was hastily erected, apparently almost on the site of the present one, and the Chinese punishment of bambooing was adopted. It appears to have been a most effective deterrent, for we read that the gaol was never crowded while this system was in force for all minor offences.
So much for 1841.
By 1844 the sentiment of the community - or certain sections of it had been aroused; and there seems no doubt that much unnecessary flogging was taking place, even beggars, some of them decrepit, being given a sound beating, in public, before their deportation. (See 13-7-33). In extenuation it must be pleaded that the Colony was in its infancy, and had been invaded by hosts of brutal criminals and bad characters from the mainland, so that a strong hand was essential. In 1846, the matter of flogging criminals in Hongkong was brought up in Parliament by Dr. Bowring, member for Bolton who was destined to take an active part in the administration of the Colony at a later period. Public flogging was suspended, in consequence from January to May, 1847, which is not a very long concession to sentiment! In fact in October that year about a dozen paupers were rounded up, flogged in public at West Point, and taken across the harbour and put ashore on Chinese territory. This action by the police caused much criticism.
A draft Ordinance to regulate the flogging of criminals was published by the Governor, Sir George Bonham, in January 1849, but the matter was shelved as public opinion was definitely in favour of drastic treatment for certain types of lawbreakers, at a period when violent crime was common, and it was unsafe for foreign residents to step abroad beyond the city limits after dark.
COURTS 4
During the administration of Sir Richard Macdonnell in fact, corporal punishment in Victoria Gaol was made a definite deterrent for in 1865 and again in 1868 Ordinances prescribing whipping and solitary confinement were introduced for dealing with cases of armed robbery with violence and kidnapping (including child stealing) and in 1870 this punishment was extended to criminals who returned after being deported. It was at this period that the Governor ordered the use of the "cat.
4
It was