7009
518
3.
I would, however, remind Your Lordship that the distinction between free and contract labour is more one of name than of fact, as the so-called free emigrant is in the great majority of cases induced to emigrate upon the representations of the agent of some employer of labour, who advances the necessary travelling expenses upon the understanding that the labourer will upon his arrival at the port of destination contract his services to that employer.
4.
A further point in which the Ordinance needs revision, namely the restriction imposed upon the carriage of Asiatic passengers in Mail Steamers not holding Emigration Licences, has been discussed at length in correspondence ending with Your Lordship's Despatch No. 61 of the 4th April last. It was stated in that Despatch that for the purposes of the required amendment it would be necessary to alter the definition of a Chinese Passenger Ship as contained in the Chinese Passengers Act 1855, and that it was not possible for the present, at any rate, to introduce the necessary legislation into the Imperial Parliament.
5.
Yet other amendments, which for various