115
B
In exculpation of the charge against me I beg to say that I totally deny having uttered a single word of that, which Aoan in his evidence makes me to have said, and it is perfectly apparent to me, that he has made his accusation for the sole purpose of screening himself:-That far from wishing to injure the character of the Honorable Major Caine, in the course which I have taken, my object in bringing the matter to the notice of the Government was, with a view to enable that Gentleman to have the circumstances properly investigated, and I respectfully urge that the course I took was a proper one, and calculated to effect that object, and put an immediate stop to the reports getting so current, and which it would have been criminal in me to have passed over longer unnoticed, and that there could be no conceivable motive for my wishing to injure the Honorable Major Caine, either in his private or public character.
The evidence of Wei-A-foon at the Magistrate's Court was not at all variance with fact; I freely admit that I insisted upon his stating to Mr. Cleverly (the Head of my Department, and the proper channel for the commencement of an investigation) what he had repeatedly told me and others, but I am entirely at a loss to discover the criminality which exists in my having taken this method for the performance of what I conceived to be my bounden duty to the Honorable Major Caine, and to the public service generally.
In conclusion I have to express my deep regret, that before the charges made against me have been investigated by a jury of my countrymen, (by whom I am convinced my innocence will be fully shown) His Excellency the Governor in Council should have deemed it necessary to suspend me from my Office, and I earnestly hope that His Excellency the Governor in Council will see fit to moderate this extreme degree of censure, and to reinstate me in my Office until the charges are either substantiated or dismissed, for, suspension from office is to me punishment for an alleged offence, of which until I am proved guilty, I ought to be looked upon as innocent.
I have particularly to urge upon the attention of His Excellency the Governor in Council, that my long and tried services under the Government, and the character which I have always sustained for uprightness and integrity, accord to me some degree of consideration, when my word is placed in competition with that of a Chinese, incited to charge me with a false accusation from evidently interested motives.
I have, &c.
LEONARDO D'ALMADA E CASTRO, Esq.,
SI
Victoria, Hongkong, 15th June, 1849,
On the 23rd December last, I was favored with an extract of a despatch from The Right Honourable The EARL GREY, in which his Lordship stated that I should receive an answer to my letters (on the subject of my suspension from employment, and claim for pay up to the period of his Lordship's pleasure being known in this Colony) as soon as the necessary information had been obtained for the purpose.
Having had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday's date, informing me that his Lordship had confirmed the abolition of the Office which I held, and ordered me the pay due from the date of my suspension to that of its abolition (One Month and twenty-six days,) but no reference being made to his Lordship's promised communication: I trust I shall be excused in begging to be informed when it is probable that the same may be sent to me, or whether His Excellency the Governor has received any further information on the subject.
The Honorable Major CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
TO
I have, &c.,
Clerk of Councils.
SIR,
Victoria, 23rd December, 1847.
After a suspense of four months and a half, the case in which I was held to bail (referred to in your Letter of the 5th August last) has fallen to the ground, and the reasons for which I was suspended from Office being thus done away with, I have to express the hope that His Excellency the Governor in Council will see fit to give me immediate employment, further delay being of serious consequence to me.
Having reason to believe that His Excellency is in a measure under a misapprehension as to the necessity for my acting in the way I have done, on the supposition that Major Caine's late Comprador drew such monies only from the Market as he may have been entitled to, I beg to be allowed to state, that the share held in the Market by Lo-keen-teen, alias Lo-yun-suy, alias Lo-chong, the individual in question, was merely a nominal share, either solicited by him to give a colour to his malpractices should they be discovered, or given to him as a bribe to obtain the interest of his master, and in either case affording him no justification for taking from the Market Lessee, the large sums of money which have been received; (the death of the original Lessee precludes the possibility of arriving at the truth of this point) Further however, on examination into the Account Books of the Market the following entries are distinct and incapable of being misunderstood:-
21st July, 1845, (6th Moon 18th day,) Nap-Caine-hiang-n'gun, Paid Caine Duty money, $100.00 (7th Moon 4th Keaou-Caine-hiang n'gan, Delivered Caine Duty money, $500.00 27th 31 24th Caine-nap-hiang-n'gun, Caine, Paid (him) Duty money, $455 11 29th 26th $200 35 2 + 13 Paid Caine Duty money, Rupees, $200 1st Augt, 29th $200 " 5th $15 200 " 8th $11 17 Į 7th $11 } 14th Paid Caine Duty in English money, $300 11 15 " ( 10th $100 }) } :: Amount paid within 22 days, $1,600The Lease having been issued on the 17th July, the whole of the foregoing payments were thus made within one month from that date, and good grounds are afforded for the assertions made viz; that a bonus was given for the license of the Market, similarly to the abortive attempt made by Chow-Aoan the Treasury Comprador upon 'T'am-Achoey.
The existence of these Books for a space of two and a half years, open as they were to the inspection of any one, (although I was not aware of there being such entries in them, until I read of such being the case in the Hongkong Register of the 27th July last. from the Editor of which Paper I borrowed the Books to get a correct translation) contain irrefragable proof, if there was none other, of the necessity which existed for an enquiry into these extortions, in which the name of the Colonial Secretary is used with such impunity; the haste also with which Major Caine's Comprador has absconded, and the pains he has taken to hide himself, add considerably to the suspicion which attaches to his delinquency; and I trust that from a consideration of these circumstances, I shall not fail in receiving the renewed good opinion of His Excellency the Governor in Council, which can alone afford me any return for the injury I have sustained through the performance of an act of imperative duty.
I have, &c.
LEONARDO D'ALMADA E CASTRO, Esq..
Clerk of Councils.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL GREY,
HER MAJESTY PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES,
&c., &c., &c.
The Humble Petition of William Tarrant, of Victoria, Hongkong.
RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH,
That your Lordship's Petitioner has been paid by the Colonial Treasurer the amount of Salary due to him as Clerk of Deed Registry from the 5th August 1847, the date of his suspension from Office, to the 30th of the following month, or for One Month and Twenty-six days only.
That your Lordship's Petitioner is highly sensible of the favour accorded to him by your Lordship in having signified a disapproval of his suspension, but the period for which the full rate of pay has been awarded is so exceedingly short, that your Lordship's Petitioner is constrained to pray that some further and other compensation may be made to him, for the long interval of one year and three-quarters, during which he has waited (without employment) to know the pleasure of Her Majesty's Government,
And your Lordship's humble Petitioner respectfully craves permission to state the following reasons on the subject, and he trusts your Lordship will take the same into your most favourable consideration.
First. That your Lordship's Petitioner was suspended from Office distinctly pending the pleasure of the Home Government, and this pleasure could not, by any possible means, be known in this Colony, until several months after the period to which pay has been awarded to him.
Secondly-That in January 1848, a letter was sent to your Lordship's Petitioner in which the Colonial Secretary stated that "under all the circumstances of the case, His Excellency (Governor Davis) considered it desirable that your Petitioner should await your Lordship's decision which, (it was added,) might be looked for by the then ensuing Mail" and that acting on this advice your Lordship's Petitioner waited in anxious expectation until the month of December in that year, when he had the honor to receive an extract from your Lordship's despatch to His Excellency the Governor, by which he learnt that an answer to his Letters to your Lordship (on the subject of the suspension) would be sent as soon as the necessary information for that purpose had been obtained.
Furthermore-That when on the 2nd of October 1847, a letter was sent to your Petitioner by the Surveyor General, informing him that a portion of his Establishment had been curtailed, and that in consequence. the Office then hitherto held under the denomination of "Clerk of Deed Registry and Keeper of the Leases and Records" had been abolished from the 30th of the preceding month, your Lordship's Petitioner supposed, from the peculiar nature of the duties of that Office (which may not be left unperformed, unless the Ordinance No. 3 of 1844 establishing a Deed Registry Office, be also done away with, and which it is superfluous in your Petitioner to remind your Lordship is not the case) that they (the duties of the Office) had been amalgamated with those of the Office of Book-keeper; and as the person now performing the conjoint duties had been taken into the Government Service (some Eighteen Months previously) on the express understanding that when the engineering works were completed, the Office of Book-keeper would be abolished, and his services no longer required, your Petitioner from the fact of being senior to every one in the Department, and having always performed his duties to the satisfaction of those above him, naturally concluded that the amalgamated offices would be his as a matter of concordance with the published regulations of the Colonial Civil Service, and that if the suspension was ultimately disapproved of by the Home Government he would be treated altogether as though that suspension had not taken place, and would receive the full pay of the amalgamated Offices up to the time when the pleasure of Her Majesty's Government was made known in this Colony, and according to what he conceived to be the spirit and usage of the regulations of the service.
And your Lordship's humble Petitioner is further borne out in this position from a knowledge, that the person performing the conjoint duties was in the habit of signing Documents, requiring to be indorsed, as "Clerk of Deed Registry and that even up to the present time, receipts for fees taken at the Colonial Treasury expressly state that such fees are taken on requisitions issued out of the Deed Registry Office, and such requisitions are invariably signed by the person now performing the duties of Clerk of Deed Registry.
I
K