of this Colony.
1.
As I am of opinion that Her Majesty's Government who regulate the sending home of district returns contemplate their being sent as speedily as circumstances will admit, I cannot but think that the direction given by His Excellency Sir Rutherford Alcock in the letter referred to are not in accordance with the provisions of the Statutes in that behalf, and are likely to render the working of those Acts in Hong Kong a matter of considerable difficulty. – The nature of that difficulty will
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appear from the accompanying
letter addressed by the Registrar-General of this Colony, in reply to a letter dated 30th March 1865, to the Secretary of the Board of Trade.
3. I also transmit to your Lordship for your information and
also
inclosure, for your Lordship's perusal, the Copy of an answer to that communication, as well as the Copy of a letter addressed by Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Office to the Secretary of the Board of Trade. As I cannot reconcile the directions in these last mentioned letters with the views now put forward by His Excellency Sir Rutherford Alcock