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justice, in August, 1876, who saw the records, if he did his duty properly and looked at the books when hevisited the prison,
was the Honourable gentleman himself. Twice only in
that year, in April and August, did
he act as visiting justice. Did he go through the books and see if any
illegal punishment had, in the
interval, been inflicted? If he did,
he saw the illegal punishments and
took no notice of them. But I presume
the answer is that he did not. And
in the opinion of Mr Phillippo, who,
I must say, always gave his opinion
with great reluctance in cases
of this kind, the floggings were
illegal. From a return prepared for me by Captain
Ducat, there were, according to the
Attorney General's opinion, no less
than 828 illegal floggings, of one
class of illegal floggings alone, in ten
years in the Hongkong Gaol.
Mook Akwai was committed
for trial for returning from deportation. He died before he could be brought to the Supreme Court. An inquest
was held. The Colonial Surgeon
swore he had been suffering from phthisis for years. The jury found he died from phthisis. I called for the records of the Gaol relating to him. I saw he
had been flogged four times. The
last one being in October 1876. The