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COURTS (4) Continuation.
in prison instead of the rattan, which had succeeded the bamboo as an instrument of chastisement.
It might be mentioned that branding and stocks were also in vogue.
Incidentally, the law-abiding Chinese residents fully approved of these measures taken in an effort to suppress violent crime.
We find, however, that the sentiment against flogging in public, or drastic corporal punishment within prisons, which had gained ground in Europe in the Seventies, spread to this Colony, and Sir John Pope Hennessy, the Governor, practically abolished flogging shortly after his arrival, in 1877. Only a few whippings were henceforth carried out, privately within the prison walls. Yet only a few years previously we find an extract like the following, from the Hongkong Times in June, 1873:
"Yesterday afternoon, four Chinese prisoners received their third instalment of lashes to which they were sentenced, at the whipping post, close to the building being erected for the Harbour Master's Office.
They all cried out more or less lustily, as the whip came down on their backs, but after it was all over, they did not seem to care much, took a drink of water, put their jackets over their backs, and were marched back to Gaol. Dodds was in attendance.
Dr.
Then on January 30, 1874, the same paper reports another public flogging at the "public whipping post" opposite the new Harbour Office (then at Praya West to seaward of the Western Market).
It is recorded that crime increased after 1877, but more rigorous imprisonment was substituted for corporal punishment, and in 1880 the Home Government sanctioned the final abolition of all branding of criminals, the permanent discontinuance of public flogging, the repeal of Ordinances providing for such punishment, and the restriction of flogging within the gaol to certain crimes, such as merited sentence of the law in the United Kingdom. So Hongkong's whipping post, standing on the Praya West, passed into the category of forgotten things.
Reference was made the other day (see 20-9-33) to flogging of criminals, in many cases in public under sentence of the Hongkong courts. It was shown that public flogging ended in 1880, and at the same time corporal punishment within the gaol was restricted to special cases. Some further research into the matter discloses fresh aspects of the practice of public flogging which might supplement the earlier article.
It appears that European British subjects were dealt with under those old laws of the Colony, being treated similarly to the Chinese, on conviction of serious crime.
For instance, in 1842, the punishment for serious offences, mostly robberies, was from sixty to a hundred strokes with the bamboo, besides imprisonment. Later, as we have seen, the rattan and cat-o'-nine-tails were introduced.
On April 25, 1846, a large number of bad characters were not only publicly flogged but they also (in accordance with former practice) had their queues cut off.