Mary
The Council net, according to appointment,
on Saturday, at 4 p.m.
THE GAMBLING HOUSES.
Mr. KESWICx wished to know if he should be in order in asking His Excellency whether anything could be stated in reference to the. money received under the gambling ordinance. The GOVERNOR said that properly speaking notice ought to have been given of a such a question. It was rather a difficult one to answer. There was a great deal which might he said, and a great deal which it was important that the Council should know, but if he were to limit himself merely to correcting the misstate- ments which had been made in connexion with the subject, all the time which they had at their disposal for legislation would be taken up. He was quite ready, however, (but only with the permission of the Conncil, as it would be a departure from the usual, routine) to answer Mr. Keswick's question. There had been no change whatever in the aspect of this matter. Nothing had been settled as to that particular point since the subject was first mooted. The original problem still remained unsolved, namely what to do with the money if it were taken, or how to achieve the results required if it should not be taken, He would like the Council to know how consistent the policy of the Executive bad been in this matter from the first. (He sent for a volume of dispatches, and read some extracts from 1866 to 1868.] As far back as the 9th of May, 1887, he had saud that if the Home Government could devise any simple method of relieving the police from the harrassing and demoralising duties of suppressing secret gambling-houses he would be glad to try it. He was far from saying that he had exhausted all the means which it would be possible to imagine, because he had tried all which he could think of himself. He went on, he said, in this dispatch to state that the Executive Council agreed with him in thinking that no other way remained, but that of enlist- ing the aid of Chinese on behalf of the objects which the Government had in view. Again, on the 20th May, he had argued that to expect the bearty co-operation of the Chinese, unless the amount charged for the licenses were sufficiently high to affect the profits of the licensees, by any fines for faults, either of omis. or commission, would be impossible therefore any project for the issue of licenses without fees would ex necessitate rei fail to accomplish the main purpose of such licenses. From that day to this (and there were some earlier dispatches on the subject which he had not at hand just then), the opinions of the Government on this subject had been precisely the same. He could not give Mr. Keswick a better answer than was con- tained in a speech of his addressed to the Council in August last, in which he said, “what- : ever addition comes to your means from that; source, can only be viewed as the accidental, and unsought result of a policy to which the Government is reluctantly driven in pursnit of an object of great public importancë, and one which is entirely distinct from the acquisition of revenue." Then he had gone on to allude in this same speech to the imputation of in- terested motives on the part of the Government which were easily made, but which were without logical force till it could be shewn that the Go- vernment were justified in folding their arms, and doing nothing to represe acknowledged evils, and put down illegal nurseries of crime, or till it could be shewn that the Execu- tion had a choice of any other experiment If anyone could invent a means of breaking up the confederations of bad character, and getting rid of the incubus with which the government was now hurdened, he would regard him as a great public benefactor. But no plan worth five minutes attention had hitherto been sug- gested. They must, moreover, remember that they were not dealing with any imaginary evil. He had long since furnished to the Secretary of State proof that, in 1865. although 45 illegal | gambling bannts had been broken up in that year, from 1st January to 1st September, there nevertheless were 35 in existence at the latter flate whilst all of the latter were the banuts of the worst characters in the place, and were the places where most of the burglaries aud crivies were planned. He would now venture to say that the experiment which had been tried had not been unsuccessful. His attention. from tha first, had been directed.
as his earliest despatches would prove,-to the danger lest the houses should be frequented by clerks and servants and thus lead to losses,
tempting people of that class to the commission of small robberies. He had instituted an in- quiry, however, as to the number of polar. conies which bad taken place during several periods, and he found that the average nunta by Sowat
of cases during thirteen weeks of each year. from 1865 to 1858, bad been as follows In the period for 1865 there had been 76 Bonvictions and 10 cases discharged; in 1866,58 convictions and 17 cases discharged; in 1867, in thirteen weeks previous to September, when the gambling-houses were first opened, 66 convicted and 21 discharged, and in thirteen weeks sub- sequent to the inanguration of the present sys. tem. 67 convicted and 15 discharged. Imme- diately after the present houses were opened, be drew attention to the necessity of prevent- ing servants from going to these places. The licenseos exerted themselves to prevent this, and he allowed them to recoup themselves for some losses which they thus incurred by a pro... portionate reduction of the fees. The fees, in- deed, had been reduced subsequently, until at the last payment they were at the rate of $14,500 a month. instead of $21,000, as at frst. Well, the result of the efforts which the licenses made was that the figures, taking an average of thirteen weeks for this year, bad come down to 40 cases in all, that is, to less than half what they had been for the same pe riod during the previous three years. Inelu- ding cases reported where the offenders had not been caught, the number was only 46 for the whole. There could be no record of course con- cerning the actual number of gamblers as com- pared with those of a former time, but it was only natural to infer that if there was a great diminution in the crime of larceny by servants, it was very unlikely that the loss of money by gaming could have increased. It had to be remember, moreover, in reference to the figures just quoted, that the police returns were much! more accurately kept now than formerly, and that we might be sure all cases were recorded now, though this could by no means be said in referencs to former yours, Very few of the better, or any class of servants or Chinese clerks, could now obtain admittance to the gambling bouses; to accomplish this the licensees no doubt incurred considerable loss, but the government was happily able to make it worth their while, in consequence of the present ar- rangement by which the amount of the monthly fees payable by the Licensees rise or fall in proportion to their exertions to carry out the objects of Government. They had now engaged a superior class of meu to watch the players. The difficulty bad been in the first instance to fix the license fees at such an amount that i while it would leave the licensees profits worth i baving, it would render them seriously appre hensive of any additional fines which might be imposed by the Government, One difficulty however could not be got over, but this of course existed before the present system was intro- duced, just as much as now. There were always private clubs to which the better class of com- pradores, and those really charged with large sums of money could go for the purpose of gambling. At some of these houses large sums were lost, far larger than which were ever staked in the licensed houses. Some people might ask how it was now, that there should be any illegal gambling-bonses left. That had puzzled himself at first, but the explanation appeared to be that while at the licenscal Lonses the bank charged a commission of 7 per cent.. the illegal honses held out the in- He ducement of only charging. 3 per cent. would certainly not encourage gambling by making the licenses reduce their coumission, moreover, no articles of jewelry could be staked at any of the legal houses. except the common Chinese gold rings, which, indeed, were not taken in pledge, but simply purchased for their weight as metal-the vendor staking money. Another reason why there were still some secret gambling houses was that a large class of persons, who were known to the police as notorious offenders, could not venture frequent the licensed houses. In reference more immediately to Mr. Keswick's question, must still inform the Council that none of the money received under the license could be considered available for public pur- poses. He would not deny that his reason told him that inasmuch as this money had really accrued accidentally, in consequence of a mea sure which was introduced solely for police purposes, it was unwise not to use it. Still he could not help a certain sympathy with those who cried out, however wildly, against the ac- quisition of a revenue from such a source as this, and the Council must not expect that he
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