7
3
274
** 30.
¿
BA $ 2. GET OU
who was using the Tramway and who was not. The Chinese
who made themselves conspicuous by using the Tramway
might have been counted on the fingers of a man's hand,
There was one hero, and only one, who defied the
intimidation he was subjected to, and the indignity of
having the door of his lodging plastered during the
night with human excrement, by continuously using the
Tremway throughout the trouble. He was a humble rent
collector.
On the other hand the Company itself had a record of
its subscribers--the Chinese shopkeepers and other
business people who had been in the habit of buying
monthly and punch tickets. The holders of these tickets
ceased to use the cars. The Company's employees on the
cars had an intimate knowledge of the number of passengers
they carried under normal conditions within different
areas of their extremely simple route.
4. In view of the above facte I trust that you will
be able to modify your view that the powers vested in
the Governor in Council by the Ordinance, in this case
at any rate, exceed the limit of the discretion with
which the highest Executive authority in this Colony
may be trusted: and I would again draw your attention
to the provisions of Ordinance No.10 of 1910. Under
that Ordinance special rates have frequently been
imposed on poor villagers the majority of whom were
probably innocent of the comparatively venial offence of
stealing firewood from Government plantations. Under
the Boycott Ordinance it was proposed to impose a special
rate upon the comparatively rich inhabitants of parts of
Victoria and its suburbs, the vast majority of whom
were guilty of an open defiance of the currency law of
the Colony.
5.