280
6
He had gone on to allude in the same speech to the imputations of interested motives on the part of the Government which were so easily made, but which were without logical force till it could be shown that the Government would have been justified by some abstract principle of a lazy and easily satisfied morality in folding their arms, and doing nothing to repress acknowledged evils, and nurseries of crime, or on the other hand till it could be shown that, so long as he was bound to consider himself free to use the funds accumulated from License Fees, he was not also bound to consider how that money, like any other money in the Treasury, could be best applied, whether in payment of the Colony's liabilities, relief from taxation, or otherwise. Once the money was in the Treasury he had no choice but to deal with it, in some way, as he could not possibly ignore its existence. The necessity, however, for so dealing with it gave neither fairness nor force to the argument occasionally put forward that because he had alluded, as bound to do, to the palpable duty of appropriating in some way public money accidentally accruing from a Police measure, he had therefore framed the Police measure for the purpose of creating a Revenue. Nevertheless that assertion had been frequently, and probably would be again repeated, though all the correspondence from the earliest date and the whole tenor of his policy gave it the most complete contradiction, for to no one would it be such a relief as to himself personally to find that either through the action of Her Majesty's Government or some other cause the experiment had become suddenly freed from the invidious and embarrassing questions attached to receipt of money.
7
If anyone could invent some preferable and equally effective means of breaking the confederations of bad characters in illegal Gaming Haunts, and getting rid of the incubus of increased Revenue with which the Government was now burdened, he would regard him as a great public benefactor.
The Council however was aware that no such plan worth five minutes' attention had hitherto been suggested.
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 Haunts had been broken up from time to time in that year, from the 1st January to 1st September, nevertheless 35 were known to be in existence at the latter date, a number thought to be even somewhat in excess of that at the commencement of the year, thus proving that all the efforts of the Police never sensibly affected the number of secret Gaming Haunts formerly in existence, places which as the Council was aware were the rendezvous of the worst characters, and where most burglaries and serious crimes were planned. On the other hand he would now venture to say that the experiment which had been recently tried had been successful in effecting at least the almost total suppression of illegal Public Gaming Places.
His attention, from the first, had been directed,--as his earliest despatches would prove,—to the danger lest the Licensed Houses should be frequented by clerks and servants and thus lead to losses, tempting people of that class when they lost by gaming to commit robberies. He had instituted an inquiry, however, as to the number of larcenies by all classes of servants which had taken place during several periods, formerly and recently, and he now laid on the Council table, a return which he had transmitted to Her Majesty's Government of the average number of cases during thirteen weeks of each year, from 1865 to 1868. There appeared that for each thirteen weeks in 1865, there had been 76 convictions 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 subsequent to the inauguration of the present system, 67 convicted and 15 discharged. Hence it appeared that the average number of larcenies by servants had not increased on opening the Licensed Houses.
7
That was a satisfactory commencement, but the Council would perhaps scarcely be prepared for the remarkable decrease in that class of offences which had since resulted.
10
In connexion with that important subject he would mention that immediately after the present Houses were opened, he had drawn attention to the necessity of preventing servants from going to these places. The Licensees exerted themselves to prevent this, and he allowed them to recoup themselves for the losses which they thus incurred by a proportionate reduction of the Fees. The Fees, indeed, 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 first. Well, the result of the efforts which the Licensees made was that the figures, taking an average of thirteen weeks for this year, had come down to 40 cases, that is to less than half what they had been for the same period during the previous three years. Including cases reported where the offenders had not been caught, an item not in the old returns, the number was only 46 for the whole of last Quarter.
There could be no record of course of the actual number of gamblers as compared with those of former times, 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 theft, occasioned by loss of money through gaming could have increased. It had to be remembered 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, though this could by no means be said in reference to former years. Consequently the argument in favor of the probable recent diminution of larceny by Servants was all the stronger. Very few of the better, or of any class of servants or Chinese clerks, could now obtain admittance to the Gambling Houses. To effect 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 arrangement by which the amount of the monthly Fees payable by the Licensees rose or fell in proportion to their exertions to carry out the objects of Government. The Licensees had now engaged a superior class of men to identify the players, and the difficulty would probably be soon surmounted of fixing the License Fees at such a figure that, while it would leave the Licensees profits worth having and working for, it would not render them indifferent to any additional fines which might be imposed by the Government.
One difficulty, however, could not be got over, but this of course had existed before the present system was introduced, just as much as now. There were always private Clubs to which the better class of compradores, and those really trusted by Foreign Firms with large sums of money could go for the purpose of gambling. At those Clubs large sums were lost, far larger than any were staked in the Licensed Houses, and it was obvious that the risk incurred by Mercantile Firms through gambling losses by their employés, would be but little diminished, if every Licensed House was suppressed so long as the Compradore Clubs were left open and the high play which took place there continued.
Some people might ask how it was, that any illegal Gambling Houses should be occasionally opened now. That had puzzled himself at first, but the explanation appeared to be that while at the Licensed Houses the bank charged a commission of 7 per cent, the illegal houses held out the inducement of only charging 3 per cent. Now as to that point he would certainly not encourage Gambling by making the Licensees reduce their commission. 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. At the other houses stolen jewelry, and every sort of property, could be pawned and staked against. Moreover, there was a