Enclosure N. 6.
THE
HONG KONG TIMES.
HONG KONG, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1875.
POLICE COURT,
BEFORE JAMES RUSSELL, Esq.
Thursday, October 21st, 1875.
EMIGRATION TO ACHERN.
WONG-A-CHEUNG was charged with assaulting the complainant.
Pan-young-Kai, a head district watchman belonging to No. 2 District, said that yesterday morning, about seven o'clock, he was walking in First Street just outside of Yu Luk Lane, when he heard a noise, and understood from what he heard, that there was fighting going on; he went up the Lane, to see if it was so, but he saw no fighting but a number of persons making a great noise. About 10 o'clock, he went to the Registrar General's Office, as was his custom, and made a report to Mr. Osmund as Mr. Tounochy was not there. There are a number of houses for emigrants to Acheen in Yu Luk Lane. There are four houses in Yu Luk Lane,-Nos. 3, 5, 8, 10, and they have placards that they are emigration offices, or offices where men can get work. The noise occurred in houses Nos. 3 and 10. He told Mr. Osmund about this, and he (Mr. Osmund) told him that he could have the men arrested if he saw them fighting, and if it was needed, he could get the assistance of the Police from the Station. He went away and about 11 o'clock went to Lai Shek Kai, a special constable attached to the Registrar General's Office, who asked him what he was doing; he said he was going to Yu Luk Lane to make some enquiries concerning a fight in the coolies' houses that morning; he (Lai Shek Kai) said he would go with him, and they went to house No. 10, and asked some coolies who came out of the house, what the noise in the morning was about. Several men came out of the house, and from one of them they understood that they had made an agreement to go to Acheen with the master (by the master, was understood the master of the house) and that the Harbor Master was their security, but since making the agreement they had heard that the committee of the Tung Wah Hospital and an officer belonging to the Registrar General's Office had explained to them that the Harbor Master was not security for them, nor the Government of Hong Kong. The men they saw were carpenters. There were about ten men present during the conversation, one man spoke for the whole of them. The men came out of house No. 10. They said they would not go to Acheen now, and the complainant had told them that if they would not, they would have to pay for their lodging, and meals that they had taken in the house, during their stay. They said that they had not any money to pay with, and that the prisoner had beaten them. He asked where the master was and one of the men called him from house No. 5. A man came out, and they said the prisoner was he, called A-Ken, charged the prisoner with beating him, and said he could not find the police at the time of the assault, but wished him now to be taken to the Station. The man A-Ken had a lump on his face. Witness told the man A-Ken he had better go to the Station, and he and Lai Shek Kai, prisoner, and eight others went to the station. There are three emigration houses in Third Street, two in Wai On Lane, and one in Battery Road. He only saw one house in Yu Luk Lane with Chen Kin Kun on it, and that was No. 3. On the same paper are the words Chen Kin Kun and besides the statement of term of employment. He had not got that paper or a copy of it and he believed it had been torn down. He noticed four houses in Yu Luk Lane for men, and he saw one in Wai On Lane, but did not go to Battery Road. He knew of three houses in Third Street. He knew the prisoner had been living in house No. 8, for a month, but he had no previous knowledge of him. He said that he had not seen any houses in the Colony for emigration for years. He remembered a house, eight or nine years ago, in Wan Chai. Yesterday he saw, in house No. 3, Yu Luk Lane, fifty or sixty men, but some of the houses had sixty or seventy men, whilst others had forty or fifty. The master of the house and his employés had been collecting men for about a month. The men in the houses did nothing.
Cheung-a-Keu, a carpenter, said he came to Hong Kong on the 22nd day of the 9th moon, and since that time had had constant employment. In passing down Yu Luk Lane one day, about the middle of September, he saw a paper setting out a statement that men were required to go to Acheen. That paper was on house No. 8. He went in and asked the prisoner, who seemed to be the accountant, how much the pay per month was and the prisoner told him that if he was a carpenter he would get $18 a month, and that he would be secured to go to Acheen and brought back and whilst there receive the before-mentioned wages. He told him that the Harbor Master of this port would sign his name as security and he would have a passage down and back. He said the statement he had made was true, and he had not been "coached" as to what he was to say by anyone. He said he knew the Harbor Master was a Government officer. Pang-a-Sau and others of his fellow workmen were with him when he had the conversation with the prisoner. The prisoner told witness he would be at Acheen two months, and witness said that that was too little because after the passage there and back had been paid he would have made no gain. The prisoner then said he would pay the passage down and back. The witness said the time of agreement had better be a year and the prisoner agreed to it. He said he lived in house No. 10, of which the master was How-a-Cheong; he had lived there since the 4th moon of this year and paid rent to the master and got his rice free. But from the 9th instant he had not got his rice at the prisoner's. There were some men in house No. 10 who got rice from prisoner, who had taken their cook and allowed him to have his rice and sleep there. The other men all paid rent to How-A-Cheong. The agreement between prisoner and witness was that he was to go to Acheen and get $18 a month for a year certain and have his passage paid there and back and that the Harbor Master was to be the security. Witness said that had he not been offered the terms mentioned he would not have gone, or rather not have consented to go. On Monday the 18th inst., several Chinese with Mr. Osmund came to make enquiries about the emigration, and he then heard that he had not been secured, and there was no security for the carrying out of the agreement. He heard that the Harbor Master was not security for him and he thereupon made up his mind not to go to Acheen. Yesterday morning he did not get free rice. He passed No. 3, Yu Luk Lane, where the prisoner lived and he (prisoner) came out and asked him if he was going to Acheen or not and the witness replied in the negative, adding that there was not, as he had stated there was, a security; therefore he would not go. Upon hearing this the prisoner struck him a blow in the face, and witness, not wishing to take the law into his own hands, said he would go to Tung Wah Hospital and tell the Committee of the treatment he had received. He knew that some of the Tung Wah people had been making enquiries about the migration. The prisoner told the witness that he should go to Acheen even if he sold him like a pig, and he would have to go; witness was firm in his resolution and said he would not go, come what might. This was about seven o'clock. Witness did not go to the Tung Wah Hospital. Prisoner went into the house and he went to No. 10. Witness said he had omitted to state that the prisoner had told him, on his refusing to fulfil his agreement, that he would have to remit the cost of the provisions he had consumed during his stay in the house, and he said he would not and could not, for he had not the money to do it with. He had not any knowledge of the prisoner until his entrance to the house where the paper was posted up. He was shown a paper of a yellow color with a red stamp on the back the same as produced (marked A). He had not seen any like the white one produced. After the assault when the District Watchman came he told him that he wished to give the prisoner into custody and called him out of the house. Witness said he would go to Acheen now if the Harbor Master would sign the security paper. He did not know if his name was put in the book produced (marked B).
Pang-a-Sau, another carpenter and a native of Sun On said he had lived in Hong Kong since last year. He was in Yu Luk Lane, when he was shown a paper posted up on the door of No. 8, the poster intimated that men were wanted for Acheen and he went with the last witness to make enquiries about it. On the 5th or 6th inst., he asked prisoner if he would give him employment at Acheen and he said he would and he asked him his trade; witness answered that he was a carpenter, whereupon the prisoner said he would engage him, give him $18 a month and a passage to Acheen and back and said the Harbor Master would be security. Prisoner said that the engagement was for one year and if during that time he should fall sick he would be placed in Hospital and cured; for witness made arrangements to go on the...
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