*
Enclosure 1.
The Hongkong, Hansard Report.
153
Page 7.
מו
HIS EXCELLENCY---I will ask permis- sion of the Council to say a word or two, with regard to the papers laid upon the table, more especially concerning the sub- ject of sessional paper No. 3. It contains a report of the committee appointed by me to investigate the possibility of es- tablishing a public house trust in this Colony. The paper is really the nature of a ballon d'essai. It is intended to frame a policy with regard to the retail sale of liquor in public-houses and bare in this Colony. It is not our intention to introduce any legislation in the im- mediate future, but rather to frame a policy which shall be introduced per haps some five or six years hence. The only reason for bringing it forward at the present time is in order that we may give due notice and thereby reduce any claims for compensation which may arise from the inauguration of suco policy and on the other band to avoid creating new liabilities. Later on, when the members of this Council and the community have had time to study these proposals, it will be feasible to introduce resolutions in this Council to give effect to general policy. The papers are laid on the table with a view to giving plenty of opportunity for everyone to study the proposals.
I consider, gentlemen, that this subject is of really vast importance, because it affects our national credit. I read the police reports every day and constantly, almost daily, I see cases of British sailors and others being robbed when they are in a state of drunkenness. Yesterday I saw a case of a man being robbed of every- thing, including his boots, when lying dead drunk in a side street in this Colony. The object of this scheme is to improve the class of liquor sold in public houses and also to afford some counter-at- traction which shall supersede the taste for drink. No doubt the scheme 58 outlined will be improved after considera- tion, but I do trust that this Council will eventually accept the general principle which is involved for the sake of the Bri- tish name in a Colony in which the vast majority of the inhabitants are of eastern
race,
Our thanks are due to the committee whose names are signed at the foot of the report, for they have had to handle a thorny and difficult question. This sub- ject has been under my consideration for the past two or three years. The report has not therefore been produced in a hurry and without mature delibera- -tion.
C.O.
11854
10 APR 13,