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would be an easy matter to check abuses when the farmer is (as at Muracao) compelled to provide the machinery which at the same time protects his own interest against unlicensed competition and places a really efficient police at the service of Government in the localities everywhere it is most wanted. At present the unlicensed gambling houses are the spots where almost all crime is concocted.
Fees
11. By the Regula Generalis of 31st October 1854 a considerable reduction took place in Court Fees, which produced in 1854 £905 and in 1853 are estimated at only £430. But I am much opposed to the principle of levying Fees as connected with the Administration of Justice, oppressive as it is in the Colony from heavy professional charges. I shall therefore be desirous of relieving Suitors from charges as far as this Colony is concerned. It will be impossible wholly to remove the evil, and an impression prevails generally among the Chinese that it is necessary to avail themselves of the services of Solicitors in order to get the business done which public Functionaries are bound, and would...