The mode of examining provisions must depend on the accommodation of the harbour, but in this Country the usual practice is to have the casks or barrels ranged alongside the ship for the officer to select what he wishes for examination. Unless the officer has all the provisions before him, so that he selects indiscriminately, his examination is worthless. After the examination, provisions ought to be at once put on board, and some person attached to the Emigration office should be left on board to see this done.
The Emigration Officer would afterwards have no difficulty in ascertaining by a cursory inspection that the number of barrels that he had passed were on board. So much trust, as the Emigration Officer at Hongkong appears to do, to the penalties of the bond is illusory. It is very difficult to obtain the necessary evidence to enforce the penalties of the bond for anything that occurs after the ship sails, and in the meantime the mischief has been done.