792
Enclosure 5.
The N.-C. Herald and Miscellaneous Articles.
THE PETITION OF THE HONGKONG RATEPAYERS.
Sind May,
C. O. 12013
-360
C. & C. Gazette, MAY 25, 1894.
of the Colony; a majority in the Council Hongkong ratepayers refer in a delicate of such representatives; perfect freedom and indirect fuper, though some of of debate for the official members, with their advocates in the Press take stronger power to vote according to their con- ground.
scientious convictions without being called to account or endangered in their ple in the circumstances was no doubt The difficulty of applying the princi- positions by their votes; complete con- the reason why the petitioners laid such The ratepayers of Hongkong, or suchtrol in the Council over local expendi- slight stress on it. They want British of them as have signed the petition to ture; the management of local affairs; representatives, exclusively, but as the the House of Commons which was and a consultative voice in questions of ratepayers are British only to the extent printed in the N-C. Herald of the an Imperial character."
of 7 per thousand of the population of 11th instant, have resorted to a strong This somewhat extensive order will the Colony, where would the represeu- measure for the redress of their con- be apt to appal the House of Com-tative government come in?
stitutional grievances. In passing over mous, to which these innocent-look- These and other difficulties, of theory all intermediary agencies, the Governoring propositions may open out the and practice, will no doubt crumble of the Colony, the Colonial Office, and vista of another Home Rule Bill. away before the triturating force of free even Her Majesty's Government, the Taken in detail, every one of them discussion. As to the broad question petitioners have emphatically expressed bristles with difficulties which no whether democratic government is suit- their distrust of the powers that be, House of Commons can solve, and which able, desirable, or practical for so unique and have intimated that a case of such must eventually be referred back for a community as that of Hongkong, it paramount importance can only be local solution. For instance the first, would probably depend less on general worthily dealt with by the ultimate the free election of representatives of considerations than on the personnel. depository of authority in the empire British nationality." What, it will "That which is best administered is the British people. It is undoubtedly naturally be asked, is "free election?"best" and the practical effect of any
a bold move, luastmuch as the slight and by whom? and what exactly is kind of government is very much # passed on the local officials will naturally British nationality? Is it synonymous question of who administers it. arouse their opposition to the scheme, with British race? The only allusion The outside view of Hongkong, the and if the petitioners fail to enlist the to any electoral coustituency is in the view of visitors and short time resi- House of Commons in their cause caption of the petition itself, where the dents, appears to be that it has on the they fail altogether, as the faculty petitioners describe themselves generally whole been very well governed. The of appeal has been deliberately dis- as "ratepayers." The ratepayers, how- Colony compels the admiration of friend pensed with.
ever, in Hongkong, as in Shanghai, are and foe alike. Undoubtedly there are Of the severity of the grievance of all nationalities and races." And if and must be flaws. We hope never to which it is sought by this exceptional they are all to unite in electing repre- live in a place which is free from them. effort to redress it would be impertinent sentatives who must be of British But it is sometimes easier to perceive for any but an experienced colonist to nationality, a new anomaly may be the slight evils we are actually suffering express an opinion. The petition itself introduced 13 little conducive to from than to realise the greater evils gives no clue to it, for it confines itself the welfare of the Colony as any which may follow. If Hongkong had a to a priori inferences, abowing by that are to be got rid of. Obviously homogeneous population of 250,000 argument the evils which might be ex- there is a difficulty here which the Englishmen, or even of any kind of peated to arise from the anomalous partiality in the distribution of power which the actual constitution of the Colonial Government perpetuates.
House of Commons is to be left to find out for itself, and then to overcome the best way it can.
every Europeans, there would no doubt be a sufficient number of them eligible for public functions and competent to fairly As to the freedom of conscience on 66
represent" the people. But out But the anomalies of the British the part of the official members of of seven hundred busy men the chances Constitution extend to all its offshoots. Council, by what power or machinery of getting the requisite number who Being the product of expediency and is the House of Commons to secure will honestly devote the necessary experience alone there is scarcely any this? Au official voting against the time to unpaid public business must feature in it which can be correctly Governor would probably not consider always be small. True, in diguified with the name of a principle. himself any more secure for a govern- Council for the last fifteen years there It possesses the flexibility of an organic mental declaration that he was allowed has been oue-rarely two-uuofficial thing, and not the rigidity of an iron freedom of speech. His promotion or members who have not only given their casting. It is never therefore success-bis leave might be stopped, or his time, but have entered heart and soul- fully attacked on abstract grounds. social relations embittered, without any into the affairs of the colony. But a Even hereditary legislators are safe one being required to give the reason. specific wrongdoing is brought "The management of local affairs," home to them, or at the very least, would necessitate a definition of local formally alleged. So far, however, as affairs; which also would be required can be gathered from the text of the in order to distinguish the local from Hongkong petition the wrongs of the Imperial expenditure.
petitiouers are hypothetical; consequent the necessity of reform may easily lose itself in a haze of theoretical dis-
until some
cussion.
No doubt these difficulties are fully recognised by the petitioners, who may have purposely avoided details in order to gain a first hearing for their case in the abstract. And this may be good tactics. All depends on the agency by which the House of Commons is intended to be worked upon.
continuous succession of such men can scarcely be reckoned on. The fluctuating vigour of Chambers of Commerce, which usually depend on the personality of one man, is not of good augury for an honorary and yet efficient public reprosentation. Even the example of directorates of local companies, which do pay, scarcely affords a certain guarantee of a perfectly effective representation.
Another weak point in the movement
There is one principle of more appears to ns to be the somewhat, per-
universal application than that of haps unavoidably, pointless conclusion
taxation and representation; it is of the petition. In the twelfth and last
self-interest. The one active man paragraph, where by the laws of con-
We have said that out of the British chosen out of a small constituency may struction of documents of that kind one Constitution and its colonial offspring it be found in the long run to represent would
expect to find the force of the is hard to deduce any fixed principles himself, his family, his firm, or bis whole concentrated like the point of a which may be safely applied universally; clique rather than the general public steel shell,
we find the wauts of the what are called principles being mostly and that is a danger to which small petitioners somewhat spread out.
word-fetishes. If an exception may be democracies are peculiarly liable. Even "They ought to be allowed the free made it would be in favour of the eternal as regards Hongkong itself it has been election of representatives of British principle of right that "taxation implies said the only things in the job line nationality in the Legislative Council representation." To this principle the ever perpetrated have been done, not