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30th May 1868.
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The Daily Press
BONGKONG, MAY 6TH, 1868.
The Legislative Council.
Present:
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, THE CHIEF-JUSTICE.
THE ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY, THE ACTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL. THE AUDITOR GENERAL.
THE ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER. HON. P. RYRIE
HON. W. KESWICK.
HON. J. P DUN WAON. *
A meeting of the Legislative Council was held yesterday afternoon, at three o'clock,
THE PIRACY COURT.
The GOVERNOR said that they met together once mor”, as usual, at this time of year. There was not so much business before then as there had been previously, but some circumstances would always arise rendering legislation neces- sary. The first Ordinance he had to lay before! them was designed to amend, in a very slight particular, the Piracy Court Ordinance. There had been a correspondence with the Home Go. verament on the subject of this Ordinance, and the Admiralty had expressed itself averse to the idea of allowing naval officers to form part of the court. It was quite willing that they should give their assistance if required as assessors, but it had become necessary to amend the clause which provided that two out of the five persons constituting the court should be naval officers. He had considered it best to repeal the former Ordinance, andjembody it in the new one, to- gether with the. Ordinance passed last session, conferring special power in piracy cases on the Supreme Court, so that all the law on the sub- ject might be found within the four corners of this new Ordinance. By the proposed arrange- ment the court would consist of the Chief- Justice, the Julge of the Summary Court, and three persons to be appointed by the Governor as unofficial members. Although, under the actually existing courts Piracy had been very satisfactory dealt with, still it might be desirable" to have the special powers of this Ordinance at hand in onse of need, and he therefore thought it would be unwise to give it up.
The Ordinance was read a first time. THE DISARMAMENT OF CHINESE VESSELS.
The GOVERNOR said that in connection with this subject he had Dow forward one which enabled the Government to bring to co-operate with the native authorities in making arrangements for the disarmament of certain native vessels. Ever since he came to the colony he had been in correspondence with the Chinese authorities through the Con- sul at Canton and H.M. Minister at Peking, &. concerning the necessity of some measure for the disarmament of native vessels, on the ground that, numerous and heavily armed as they were in general, they gave shelter to those of a really piratical character, by making it difficult to distinguish one class of vessels from the other. It was urged, he knew, that if you disarmed the honest vessel you would simply expose her to greater risk than that which she peviously ran, and this consideration opened à wide field for discussion. It was very rare however, that auy vessels which were attacked esouped by bein armed. Experience showed that while all veasels went about armed, the pirates gained much more by the arrangement than the honest traders. That at all events was the opinion of persons who bad a wide ex- perience of China. He was very anxious that the experiment of disarmament should be tried. In Sir Harry Keppel he had found a very powerful ally. When he went north, he bail seen the Minister at Pekin and some members of the Foreign Board, and much interest in the subject had been telt. The Admiral had in-
duced the authorities to write to the Viceroy at Canton giving him instructions, and the Consequence of this step was a proclamation, which was lately issued, prohibiting Fishing- vessels from carrying artus, or munitions of war, on paia of confiscation. He confessed that he could not regard the regulation, as ori. ginally proposed by the Viccroy, as entirely satisfactory. One great advantage, which would arise from a more general disarmament, would be that it would enable us to distinguish pirates from other vessels, whenever they were searched. While applied to fishing vessels only, the mica sure though a step in advance, and in the right direction, was not very effective. The proclama- tion, as it stood at present, did indeed contain one very important clause in addition, which prohibited all vessels from carrying stiuk-pots. This addition was one which he bad pressed the admiral to have inserted, and it gave us a fair chance of seeing the experiment properly tried. Stiak-pots were exclusively the weapons of pirates. No pirate was without them, and we would now be enabled to fix a piratical character, after examination, on every vessel which was really a pirate. The Ordinance gave the Governor in Executive Council power to frame regulations to prevent all Chinese vessels from carrying arına. In this way it would be possible to keep abreast of any reform introduced by the Chinese. It would not be convenient to go far in advance of them, and have stringent laws in force in this colony, while such regulations might be a dead letter only a few miles off. Instead, there fore, of proposing an Ordinance with fixed pro-' risions, which it might be difficult to handle, he brought forward the present measure, which gave the Governorin Council power to frame whatever regulations might be necessary. It was the duty of this Government not to go further than the Chinese Government in this matter, as they would otherwise put the native vessels in Hongkong at a disadvantage as compared with those frequenting a Chinese port. He offered this explanation in order that the Council might fully understand the reasons which compelled the adoption of the peculiar measures proposed,
This Ordinance was read a first time.
KIDNAPPING.
The third Ordinance, the GOVERNOR then said, was, he regretted to say, rendered neces- ary by an increase of crime, almost the only kind of crime which had been on the ncrease of late in the colony, that of kidnapping, r stealing persons, chiefly children In the year 1868, the cases of this crime known to the police had been 30, (21 girls and 9 boys.) In 1867, the decrease was so remarkable that be almost doubted the accuracy of the return. Only 12 cases were shown (4 boys and 8 girls), but in the first quarter only of the present year the numbers had risen to 11 girls and 3 boys. It was certainly, necording to all English ideas, a smaller offence to steal a man's purse than to rob him of his child. The previous day he bad received a number of respectable Chinese mer- chants, and bad discussed the matter with them. telling them that he had been much grieved at the increase of this crime, but that it was im- possible for the executive to do anything if they would not take measures for co-operating with t. He asked them plainly what they suggested should be done, and they were in favour of logging the male offenders, as was proposed by this Ordinance. Solitary confinement would probably be the punishment which might in corresponding cases be inflicted on women guilty of the crime, and women, no doubt, were largely concerned in the commission of such offences. Some of the Chinese suggestions proposed that the offenders should be publicly xhibited, and their offence proclaimed, but these modes of punishment were not very Eng. lish in their character, and could hardly be in corporated in an Ordinance.
THE FIRE BRIGADE.
The next Ordinance was one which won 1, probably, be anticipated. It related to the es- tablishment of a fire brigade It would not be necessary to enter into a very long explanation: on the first reading. The Council and the com
munity at large, were, no doubt, fully as much convinced of its necessity as he himself. It
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