194
an opportunity, by notice, of complying with the law.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
We may have been lax in the past in supply. ing the Public Works Department with notices and plans of our contemplated buildings, which has arisen from the magnitude of the works causing pressure on our staff that it has been impossible to surmount. But that department cannot state we have ever objected to supply them with all the information they demanded when any omission on our part has been pointed ont. The Government might further provide for the magisterial bench gentlemen with a competent knowledge of law, and not persons capable of committing the blunder made by Captain Hastings. Neither of the Magistrates have any legal qualifications whatever, and yet they are invested with powers and jurisdiction which no highly trained stipendiary in the city of London possesses. We have never suggested that Captain Hastings was animated by any personal feeling whatever in the course of these proceedings, and we regret that you should in your letter seek to imply that we did so.
We regret that we cannot concar in the opinion expressed in your letter, paragraphs 5 and 8, as to the publication of our letters. An appeal to the public is sometimes, as in this case, much more expeditious and effective, besides being much less expensive, than an appeal or rehearing, and, on suitable occasion, we shall still reserve to ourselves the right to make use of it.
Your remarks in paragraph 6 of your letter are not to the point. Captain Hastings ap- plied the provisions of subsection 3, not sub- section 2, of section 77 of the Ordinance to us. That subsectiou declares-doing violence to the ordinary meaning of words-that "every act, failure, neglect, omission, or refusal whereby aby section of this Ordinance is contravened" shall be deemed a nuisance. The Magistrate held, therefore, that our omission to give notice was a nuisance, and fined us $50 under section 85 to which you refer. He inflicted precisely the same penalty for the simple omission to give a notice as for a trespass and encroachment on Crown Land. This seems to us to show a very lamentable want of discretion in the apportion- ment of rumjabmant to offence.
PRESENTATION TO DEPUTY
SUPERINTENDENT
HORSPOOL.
The clock bore the following inscription :- "Presented to George Horspool, Esq.; J.P., Deputy Superintendent of the Hongkong Police, by the members of the Force on his retirement after twenty-eight years' service, as a token of esteem and regard. 6th March, 1895."
[March 14, 1895:
!
longkong Police service, and I am very proud of my position in it. I particularly regret hav. ing to leave just at present when our re- spected Chief is about to take a well-earned holi- day, and when I should, in all probability, have AN INTERESTING RETROSPECT.
the honour once more of commanding the Force; of Police, retires from the Hoogkong Police Force I should remain. But I am sorry to say and I Mr. George Horspool, Deputy Superintendent and if my own health was the only consideration this week, and on Tuesday afternoon (5th inst.) he feel sure you will be sorry to hear-that my wife's was made the recipient of a very handsome carriage health has completely broken down. It is ur- clock and an address from the officers and men gently necessary that she should go home at once, of the Force. The presentation was made in the and I feel it to be my duty to accompany her; Deputy-Superintendent's room in the presence and acting upon medical advice, I have asked for of a large number of the members of the Force. permission to retire on pension. I must tell Chief Inspector Mathieson, in making the pre-yon that when in England two years ago I was sentation, said-Deputy Superintendent Hors-strongly advised by two eminent medical men pool, I am requested by the members of the not to venture through another summer in Hong Police Force to-day to ask you to accept from us kong. You remember what last summer was. small souvenir in the shape of an address and a The colony was visited by that terrible plague carriage clock on the eve of your departure on epidemic and when so much hard and disagree leave and retirement from the service. We are able and dangerous work was thrown upon this quite aware of the fact that the Hongkong Police department, I could not think, for a moment, Force is going to lose an able, zealous, and pains of asking to leave. You will doubtless expect taking officer, and an honest, straightforward, | me to say something about the Force as I found and conscientious man. You came here twenty-it twenty-eight years ago, and the changes eight years ago from a good old school, the Me- which have since taken place. I will try to do tropolitan Police Force. Yon came here with a so. but must confine myself to the European thorough training in Police work, and you have Force. Well, I found the Force a very un- given the benefit of that training to the public popular one. With the exception of the Assistant and Government of Hongkong. We know you Superintendent and three or four Inspectors have had to send in your papers at this time on and Sergeants, there was not a man who account of Mrs. Horspool's health, but we hopey had been five years in the Force. Recruit that the return to the old country will enable ing was done locally, and the Force was her to regain her health. I now ask you to comped of men of nearly every nationality receive this carriage clock and address on behalf-pribipally from merchant ships and old of the Police, which we will take as read soldiers. The pay at the time was considered to (applause).
be very small-from a third-class Police Consta ble at $24 to a first-class Inspector at $70 per mensem,-but considering that the dollar was worth 4/4 or 4/6, I must say it compares favour- ably with the present rates. There had been cases in which men recently discharged from gaol for deserting from their ship, or some- thing of that kind, bad been taken on the Force. Very little, if any, attempt (was made to instruct them in their duties; they were put in suits of old uniform, given a We, the undersigned members of the Hong- trancheon, which they used to carry in the hand, kong Police Force, in view of your retirement and sent into the streets "on duty."||At night We venture to suggest that the subsection in from the service after a lengthened and meri- these men carried loaded muskets, and I have question should be removed from the Ordinance, torious career of twenty-eight years' service, de- been told that it was customary for them, from or explained, and that the direct conflict besire to give expression to the great esteem in all parts of the city, to meet each morning be. tween sections 84 and 85 as to penalties should which we have always held you, for the success fore going off duty at a public house, known as be amended Under the combined operation of with which you have held your various respon- Portuguese Joe's at Queen's Road Central, pile subsection 3 of section 77 and of section 85, sible appointments, and the justice with which arms ontside on the side-walk, then go inside, to every possible breach of the Ordinance is made you have carried out the duties of those positions. break their fast, i.e., drink (laughter). You can subject to a fine of $100, while the preceding, We one and all heartily concur in giving expres-imagine what would, in all probability, become not a subsequent, section-limits the powers of sion that to you is due in many respects the of such policemen, especially if they, unfor the Magistrate in regard to the very gravest effloient state of the Force at the present time.tunately, came across any of their old drinking offences that can be committed against the "We have invariably found in yon a most chums in the neighbourhood of the grog-shops. Ordinance breaches of the important sections conscientious and straightforward officer in your where the policemen could get almost unlimited 54 to 66-tó a sum of $50.
duties both to the Force and the Public, and drink. The old soldiers, as a rule, did not last although the Force is composed of various long, drinking being their terrible stumbling nationalities, yet the whole has worked har-block. If a man got over the first month he moniously together under your supervision on might possibly stay two or three years, but the the several occasions when you performed the average length of service, I should say, was about arduous duties of Captain Superintendent of a year or eighteen months. It was a comfortless of Police.
sort of place. There was no library, no read- ing rooms, no billiard room, no mess room, or
Each man even bath rooms.
catered for took his food on his bed himself and or his box. Of course, to a young man of ability and good character, promotion was very rapid. I remember one or two cases of men being pro- moted from Police Constable to the rank of In- spector in less than two years (laughter.) This state of things continued up to the end of 1871, when, with the exception of the Captain Super- intendent, there were only three men who had five years' service. Since then all has been (Here follow the signatures of the whole of changed. In the fourteen months, from Janu
the Europeau, Indian and Chinese mem-ary, 1872, to March, 1873, sixty-five trained bers of the Police Force,)
The following is the text of the address: "To George Horspool, Esquire, Deputy Super
intendent of Police and Assistant Superin- tendent of Fire Brigade.
In conclusion, we beg to repeat that we were, in our opinion, unjustly and erronengsly fined in respect of two at least of the three summonses against us. and that we are not satisfied, in spite of the explanations contained in your letter, that the very extensive rowers vested in the Public Works Department have in these We cannot allow you to depart from the cases been exercised with that amount of discolouy without expressing our great sympathy cretion and common sense the public are entitled in the cause which necessitates your learing, and to expect, and we beg to point out that the we sincerely hope that Mrs. Horspool will soon indisoret exercise of these powers by
regain her health after a short stay in the old acting without advice or direction from superior country. authority, may become a greator nuisance than any the Ordinance is aimed at We have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servants,
BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE. Hon. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, Acting Colonial
Secretary.
men.
It will be remembered, says the N. C. Daily News, that the Emperor, having his own opinions as to the energy of the Viceroy Li Hung-chang in endeavouring arrest his protegés, the three runaway Generals of Port Arthur, viz.:-Wei Ju-ch'eng (the decapitated General Wei's younger brother), Tsao Huai-yi, and Huang Sz lin, ordered the Governor of Anhui to search for Wei and Tsao to see if they had escaped to their homes in that province, at the same time ordering the Governor of Kiangsi to hunt for Huang Salin and confiscate any property be- longing to him in his native town of Fêugch eng. It is now said that Huang has died from hard- ships and wounds, but that his property when confiscated amounted to 1ls. 50,000 in cash and TIs. 100,000 in land and houses.
"In conclusion, therefore, may we hope that wherever you may chance to reside, you and your family will enjoy such peace and happiness as will compensate you for the length of years you have spent in the trying and enervating climate of this colony of Hongkong."
police constables arrived from home forty-five Mr. Horspool said-Chief Inspector Mathieson, from Edinburgh in January and February, Officers, and Men of the Hongkong Police 1872, of whom only four remain, and twenty Force I have to tender you, on behalf of Mrs. from London in March, 1873, of whom also four Horspool and myself, our heartfelt thanks for remain. One is Chief Inspector, six are In. this very flattering address and very handsome spectors. and one is Acting Inspector. These clock you have just presented me with. I cannot officers received $40 per month; the pay of a lat attempt to describe with what pleasure I accept Class Inspector was increased to $100 per month them. was always a poor hand at making a laud the pay of the other grades increased in speech. I have had, during my service. many proportion. Since then batches of recruits ifficult tasks set me, but I cannot remember have been sent out from home from <time one half so hard as this, for I think, if there is to time, as required. and only a few men- one time more than another calculated to cause for the Water Police have been enlisted a sort of fulness in the throat, it is when one in the colony. The comfort of the men is now is called upon to say good-bye to something studied by the heads of the department. You they prize very highly. That is exactly my have a library, reading-rooms, billiard-room- position now, for I prize very highly indeed the mess-rooms, &c., &c., tennis-ogurts, and a