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evidence, an amended Bill for the incorporation and endowment of the Pó Léung Kuk was introduced and read a first time. I moved the adjournment of the first reading to allow time for the perusal and consideration of the Blue Book, but without success.
7. The second reading was taken on the 2nd June, when I voted for the second reading of the Bill, as I approved of the incorporation and endowment of the Pó Léung Kuk, the investigations of the Committee of Enquiry having removed all my objections, but I intimated that I should move certain important amendments when we came to the consideration of the clauses of the Bill, without which I was of opinion that it ought not to pass into law.
8. The Bill was forced through Committee of Council at the same sitting and reported with some trifling amendments, although the senior Unofficial Member of Council, who had undertaken to second and support my principal amendment, was absent through indisposition and although a request had been privately made to the Governor to postpone the Committee stage of the Bill to enable him to be present. His Excellency the Governor informing me that it was useless to discuss it, as his Council—in other words, the whole of the Official majority of the Legislative Council—had made up their minds on the subject. I, nevertheless, moved several amendments to the Bill in Committee but they all fell through for want of a seconder. My principal amendment, to which I shall presently call Your Lordship's attention, was kindly seconded pro formâ by the Colonial Secretary, but it was rejected by the whole strength of the Council without even a shadow of discussion or any attempt to answer my arguments or remove my difficulties. There was some discussion on the second reading, but it consisted, in the main, in personal attacks on myself for my opposition to the Bill, and in commendation of the Pó Léung Kuk and of the Registrar General. The question of the organisation and government of the Pó Leung Kuk was also referred to, but my arguments on the main point were not fairly met; indeed, at that stage, the discussion was irrelevant.
9. I have, therefore, formally to complain that the Pó Léung Kuk Ordinance was passed through Committee of Council with undue haste, and without adequate consideration of its clauses, and of the amendments suggested by myself. It will be for Your Lordship to say if my objections to the details of the Bill were well founded or otherwise, and if they were not at least deserving of fuller consideration and discussion than they received. Your Lordship will see from the annexed newspaper cuttings that a large section of the community share my principal objection to the Bill.
Newspaper extracts.
10. To complete the history of the Ordinance, it was read a third time on the 19th June instant, and I annex a copy of my speech on the occasion.
Copy speech.
11. I have now, therefore, to submit for Your Lordship's consideration my objections to the Ordinance as read a third time and passed by the Legislative Council and now before Your Lordship for Her Majesty's approval, and I beg to assure you that, in so doing, I am animated simply by a desire to do my duty to the Colony, that I believe in the reality and validity of the objections I am urging on your attention, and that I am supported in my views and opinions by many gentlemen in the Colony of much greater knowledge and experience than myself in dealing with the Chinese and Chinese questions. I was, as Your Lordship may see, very strongly opposed to the Pó Leung Kuk in the first instance, and would neither have incorporated nor endowed it. Becoming better acquainted with it, through the investigations of the Committee of Enquiry, of which I was a member, I have proclaimed my conversion. Recognising the valuable services rendered by the Society, I have voted for its incorporation and endowment, and I ask Your Lordship to believe that it is in no spirit of obstinacy, nor with any feeling of annoyance at my treatment in Council, that I now approach you, but in the full assurance that the Ordinance, if passed into law as it now stands, will do far more harm than good, and will very considerably weaken the Government control over the Pó Léung Kuk, which it is the professed object of the Ordinance to strengthen and secure.
12. I assume that Your Lordship has before you Ordinance No. 13 of 1893, and the Blue Book containing the Reports of the Special Committee appointed by the Governor by his letter of the 28th April, 1892, to investigate and report on certain points connected with the Bill for the incorporation of the Pó Léung Kuk, the evidence taken by that Committee, and the Appendices, 47 in number.
13. The Ordinance provides for the incorporation of the Pó Leung Kuk, for its organisation and government, and for its endowment with a sum of $20,000, the Society having raised by a subscription a sum of $30,000. The Ordinance empowers the Government to hand over that sum of $20,000 to the Pó Léung Kuk without any limitations, conditions, or restrictions. I suggested an amendment to the effect that the money should not be paid over to the Pó Léung Kuk until it was certified to the Government that the above-mentioned sum of $30,000 had been collected and paid to the credit of the Pó Leung Kuk. I called attention in my report, a copy of which I annex hereto, to the fact that although the money was alleged to have been subscribed there was no evidence before the Government or before the Special Committee that it had been paid. Considering that the main object of the grant is to relieve the Government of the obligation imposed on it by section 17 of Ordinance 11 of 1890 to provide a home for women and children dealt with under that ordinance and to throw the obligation on the shoulders of the Pó Léung Kuk, it seems to me that no payment should be made to the Pó Léung Kuk until it has built and finished a Home to the entire satisfaction of the Government. The Society undertook the same obligation in 1878 at its first formation and has not yet complied with it. If the Church of England was about to erect a grant-in-aid school in the Colony it could not get a cent from the Government towards the building till the school had been finished and approved. Why should a Chinese Society be treated more liberally, or with less precaution? This is my first main objection to the Ordinance, and I beg of Your Lordship to direct its amendment in some way that will prevent public money from being paid over to the Pó Léung Kuk without ample security for its proper expenditure according to the intention of the Ordinance. It is useless to say that of course the Executive Government will see to that. I submit that all proper conditions and limitations should be imposed in and by the Ordinance which authorises the grant.
14. My main objection to the Ordinance is, however, its inclusion of the Registrar General as one of the Governing Body of the Pó Léung Kuk, and against this I most strongly protest. I shall have to go a little at length into this part of the subject, but I am sure Your Lordship will be patient with me.
15. The Pó Léung Kuk was originally established and is now maintained and re-organised for two separate and distinct purposes: although having a common object, they are often dealt with and spoken of as if they were one. The first is to assist in the detection and repression of kidnapping and child-stealing and of all kindred offences against women and children. The other is the assistance and protection of women and children rescued from kidnappers and child-stealers, while their cases are under investigation and afterwards if for any reason they need shelter and protection, and the establishment of a Home where women and children can be housed until returned to their friends or relations or otherwise provided for. The second of these objects is far and away the most important, and is the one in respect of which the Society has claimed and now receives a special status and a money grant. Its detective functions are of comparatively little importance.
16. Now in 1890, by Ordinance 11 of that year, the laws of the Colony for the protection of women and girls were amended and consolidated. By that Ordinance the Registrar General was empowered (section 14), whenever he had reason to
Lug.