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imposing sentences of flogging from the buperintendent, and from the ordinary unofficial Justices, to the
Police
-
Magistrates, and in other respects __
assimilating
the Gaol Ordinance to the
Act recently passed for the Government
of
the Prisons in England.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most Obedient
Humble Servant
Enclaws M. Iin forema dir Hen Pore Hermes's Despatch 1.60 op 18th May 1880-
9807
REPORT OF HIS HONOUR THE CHIEF JUSTICE ON THE REFORMS INTRODUCED WITHIN THE LAST THREE YEARS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR IN THE
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS.
THE SUPREME COURT, HONGKONG, 19th April, 1880.
SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Documents which, by direction, you sent
, 10th March, 1890,
No. 288.
Hongkong Government
F-226.
-Hongkong Government
Baste, 10th March, 1880,
pp. 127-281.
Government Notification
No. 29.
to me under cover of your letter dated the 13th March, 1880, comprising:-
(1.) Return made by the Honourable C. B. PLUNKET, of Criminal Cases heard in the Supreme Court of Hongkong during the year 1879.
(2.) Abstract of Cases under cognizance of the Police Magistrates' Courts during 1879, with analytical Tables.
(3.) The Criminal Statistics in Hongkong for 1879, dated 23rd January, 1880, with Tables A., B. and C. appended thereto.
Hongkong Qoscwment
dande, 10th March, 1890,
P.D. 222-225.
thereon.
(4.) The Report and Returns by the Honourable M. S. TONNOCHY, shewing the state of the Prison and the number and class of prisoners in 1879, with his remarks
You especially note paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 which I have carefully considered as well as paras. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
I am obliged by the transmission of these documents which bring the past and present position of the Colony in regard to crime and criminal matters into a comparatively compact form so as to facilitate the consideration of the nature and effect of the changes which have been introduced.
In a Colony like Hongkong it is, I must say, extremely difficult to arrive at very safe conclusions as to the causes of crime and as to the best means of suppression. In a large Country like England, or, in a very small Colony like St. Helena, separated as it is by great sea distances from other countries, the causes which influence the growth or diminution of crime are almost entirely internal, An inquirer may reasonably expect to find crime increase or diminish with the varying prosperity of the country and of its industries, with the greater or less activity of the Police, with the greater or less severity of the punishments inflicted for crime. The causes being thus internal are more easily recognizable and more under control so that one may reasonably hope to be able to find a remedy for whatever is found defective.
But the circumstances of Hongkong differ from each of these examples. They are so special that principles and rules generally applicable and effectual in England or St. Helena are entirely inapplic- able and ineffectual in Hongkong.
It seems to me that the public and even officials, by ignoring these broad distinctions have, not unfrequently, been led into false conclusions and they have, from time to time, attributed the greater or less prevalence of crime here to internal causes, when it was really attributable to influences at work outside the Colony, to the state of prosperity or distress and destitution in Kwang Tung; to the stringent or relaxed supression of crime there, and to the greater or less facilities for passing from that province into this Colony.
It seems to me that all these external unfavourable circumstances existed to a marked extent towards the end of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY's government, during the interregnum and for some time after His Excellency Governor HENNESSY's rule commenced, and that they gave rise to that "tide of crime," as it was called by an eminent person here, which created the panic that led to the public meeting in 1878, when I was in England. I write from my personal experience of the state of crime here before that date and after my return.
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