(2)
I am instructed by my legal adviser that the alleged warrant, under the authority of which you are presumed to have acted in this case, comprehended the sale of as much of the materials as might serve to defray the due charges of abating the alleged nuisance and no more, and as I am further informed that the work of demolition and removal was effected by the unpaid labour of Chinese convicts, I shall feel obliged by your informing me specifically under the following heads,-
1stly. The actual charges, if any, incurred in the demolition of my houses on Inland Lot No. 41, and in the removal of the materials.
2ndly. Whether such materials were sold in market overt and upon due advertisement at their fair value, for the purpose of putting you into funds to defray the lawful charges incidental to the warrant.
3rdly. Whether there are any surplus proceeds of such Sale over and above the charges incidental, and if so, whether you hold the same at my disposal.-I have, &c., &c.,
Capt. Cowper, R.E., Acting Surveyor General.
(Signed)
(Copy) No. 3.
A. HUDSON.
Hongkong, 18th September, 1856,
SIR, I have to request an acknowledgement of the letter which I addressed to you on the 16th instant.— I have, &c., &c., &c.
A. HUDSON,
(Copy.) No. 20.
(Signed)
Surveyor General's Office, Victoria, 18th September, 1856.
SIR, Agreeably to your request of this date, I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th, but as I am of opinion that the questions therein arise from a misconstruction of the terms of Ordinance 8 of 1856, I must decline to answer those questions.-I am, &c., &c.,
WILLIAM COWPER, Acting Surveyor General.
A. R. HUDSON, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
Capt. Cowper, Acting Surveyor General.
(Signed)
(Copy.) No. 4.
Hongkong, 18th September, 1856.
SIR,-With reference to your letter No. 20 of date, in reply to mine of 16th inst., I beg to state that if you will be good enough to point out to me my misconstruction of the terms of Ordinance No. 8 of 1856, I shall endeavour to frame the questions which I require to ask in conformity with your amended reading.
Requesting your attention at your earliest convenience, as my stay here just now is solely occasioned by the necessity of bringing my correspondence with the local Government to a close.-I am, &c., &c.°
(Copy.) No. 21.
(Signed)
A. HUDSON.
Surveyor General's Office, Victoria, 19th September, 1856.
SIR,-In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of yesterday's date, I am constrained to decline furnishing you with my reading of the Ordinance No. 8 of 1856, for, if the perusal of any section of that Ordinance justified you in your legal adviser's opinion in asking me such questions as what was the cost of removing the adjudicated nuisance in Lyndhurst Terrace when, where, and how I sold the materials, and what part of the product I am prepared to place at your disposal, it follows that he and I differ considerably as to the meaning of many words in the English language, and therefore I fear that any attempt at explanation on my part would but elicit additional and more eccentric queries.—I have, &c., &c.
WILLIAM COWPER, Acting Surveyor General.
(Signed)
A. R. HUDSON, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
Captain Cowper, R.E., Acting Surveyor General.
(Copy.) No. 5.
Hongkong, 19th September, 1856.
SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge your letter No. 21 of this date, in which you refuse and finally decline to give me any information whatever as to how you have disposed of the materials of my confiscated property.
This would seem to be sufficiently discouraging to any further queries on my part, but it is not, as I find occasion to put the following further queries, even though they should turn out as unproductive as the first, and even be exposed to your ban of being "eccentric."
I see the materials in question deposited on the site of the new Police Station in Wellington Street and being worked up in its construction. The contract price of that new work is said by common report to be $15,000, which must be taken accordingly as the full and fair market price of the work to be done. My materials being placed in the hands of your contractor ought to make a very considerable difference either to him or to the public in the benefit of that contract; and as my object is to ascertain, (or at worst find that I cannot ascertain,) how far the Colonial chest has been eased and this public benefited at my expense, I take leave to put to you the following further queries.
1stly.
-What sum of money or other consideration has your contractor given for the materials of my late houses which he is working up in the construction of the new Central Police Station?
2ndly. What has been the form of that consideration? Has a fixed sum of money, and if so in what amount, been paid for the materials, or has their appraised value been abated from the original contract price of the new Government buildings. If so, the date when the value, if in money, was paid into the Colonial Treasury,if in abatement, the date when that abatement was indorsed on the original contract, and when the same was officially audited.
3rdly. In what amount has your Department reimbursed Her Majesty's Government for the labor of its convicts employed in removing the materials in question to the site where they now lie?
4thly.-Finally, and again, whether after disposing of the materials up to the intent and purposes of the warrant, namely the abolition of the alleged nuisance and defraying all due charges incidental to its execution, whether in the shape of reimbursing Government for convict labor, or in any other shape, you do or do not hold any surplus proceeds at my disposal on demand.-I have &c., &c.
(Signed)
A. HUDSON.
(3)
No. 22.
Surveyor General's Office, Victoria, 22nd September, 1856.
SIR,-In answer to your letter of yesterday, I express my regret that mine of that date failed to put you in possession of my intentions, viz: to end the correspondence between us; for as I wrote before.
If from the perusal of Ordinance 8 of 1856, you think yourself justified in asking me such questions as are contained in your letters, it is evident to me that we differ considerably as to the meanings of many words in the English language, and that therefore questions propounded by you and answered by me would only produce a compound misunderstanding. I have, &c., &c.
WILLIAM COWPER, Acting Surveyor General.
(Signed)
No. 2.
+
Hongkong, 20th September, 1856.
The Honble. W. T. Mercer, Esq., Colonial Secretary.
SIR,I have the honor to request that you will lay the accompanying correspondence between the Surveyor General and myself before His Excellency Sir John Bowring.
My letters in address are numbered 1 to 5,-the Surveyor General's in reply 19 to 21.
The information which I have thus in vain applied for, I require for the purpose of being embodied in a memorial of this transaction which I am preparing for the Secretary of State, and I now address myself with all respect to His Excellency, requesting that he will either be pleased to command this information to be given to me, or else to justify the acting Surveyor General in his refusal to give it, and take upon himself the whole responsibility of that refusal.
I allege that materials which cost me over nine hundred dollars, were carried away by the Surveyor General and his gang of convicts, while the actual charges of abating the nuisance adjudged, did not amount to thirty dollars. I ask for the purpose of laying my case more clearly before the Secretary of State, and the Imperial Parliament-What became of the surplus? and am told, that my enquiry is an "eccentric" one.
I again and finally ask, with all respect, whether His Excellency is prepared to justify that answer, either directly, or by refusing to interfere with it.—I have, &c., &c.
A. HUDSON.
No. 681.
(Signed)
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 22nd September, 1856.
SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge your letter No. 2 of 20th instant, and am directed to reply, that the question involved in it implies an accusation against the Acting Surveyor General, which,, if you believe there are grounds for it, may be referred to the decision of a Court of Law,-1 have, &c., &c.,
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
A. R. Hudson, Esq.
(Signed)
No. 3.
Hongkong, 22nd September, 1856.
The Honble. W. T. Mercer, Esq., Colonial Secretary.
SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 681 of this day's date, in which His Excellency refers me for redress for injuries I have suffered to the decision of a Court of Law-that is to say, His Excellency first passes a law confiscating my lawful property, and legalizing that confiscation, and then tells me to appeal to a local Court, in which he knows that all redress is for the present impossible.
I decline to prosecute His Excellency's Surveyor General, but I pledge myself, failing full compensation and redress at the hands of the Imperial Government, to prosecute His Excellency himself at the bar of the British Parliament. I have, &c., &c.,
A. HUDSON,
(Copy.) No. 4.
Hongkong, 25th September, 1856.
SIR,Towards completing my correspondence with the local Government, and before addressing myself to the Imperial, I am advised that it is necessary for me to make the following proposition, and which I request accordingly may be submitted to His Excellency Governor Bowring.
I claim at His Excellency's hands the sum of Two thousand dollars as compensation to me for damages accruing from the operation of a new Law which he brought suddenly upon me on the 16th of April last, the specifications and requirements of which I could not possibly have anticipated when I commenced my works prior to its promulgation.
If His Excellency thinks proper to entertain this claim, and holds me fairly entitled to reimbursement out of the Colonial Chest, I am prepared to authenticate the actual amount of the loss and damages sustained by me, and to accept that amount in adjustment of my claim.
However, holding, as I do, that the outrage committed in this case, is one affecting not merely myself as an individual, but in my person every faithful subject of the British Crown in this colony, no settlement of my claim by His Excellency here shall operate as a compromise of the duty thus thrust upon me, to my infinite reluctance, namely, to lay bare this outrage before Her Majesty's Government, and if necessary before a higher tribunal.—I have, &c., &c.
The Hon. The Colonial Secretary.
(Copy.) No. 693.
A. HUDSON.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 25th September, 1856.
SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge your letter No. 5 (4) of this date, and am directed to reply that the proposition therein contained cannot, as must be plain to yourself, be entertained by His Excellency The Governor.I have, &c., &c.,
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
A. R. HUDSON, Esq.
The Honorable The Colonial Secretary.
Copy.) No. 5.
Hongkong, 26th September, 1856.
SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 693 of yesterday's date, in which His Excellency declines to entertain my claim for compensation for my property in this colony, which he recently caused to be destroyed. This is sufficiently definitive.
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