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Colony, respecting the alleged ill-treatment of certain Chinese passengers from "Hongkong" by the S.S. Ocean in June and July of this year at the hands of Government Officials at Sydney.
2. Without at all questioning the accuracy of the statements made in the various enclosures of Mr. Ryrie's letter, and which would seem to indicate a determination on the part of some subordinate officials in Sydney to treat the Chinese passengers from Hongkong with needless severity in the matter of Quarantine regulations, I am bound to admit that Sir Henry Parkes and the members of the New South Wales Government, as well as the leading and independent members of the Legislature, such as Sir Patrick Jennings, repudiated the harsh proceedings of the subordinate officials of the Quarantine Department.
3. The harsh proceedings in question appear to have commenced on the 26th of June, and to have had their origin in an unfounded report that small-pox was raging in Hongkong and had been introduced into Sydney by Chinese passengers. But on learning, on the 19th of June, that Hongkong had been proclaimed, at Sydney, to be an infected place, vessels from which should be quarantined for small-pox, I called for a report from the Health Officer, and...