1841-1886
5 in No. 15.
ice, HONG KONG, during the Year 1849, with the Mode of Disposal.
Committed Deported. or Undecided. Bailed. REMARKS. M. 8 ** F. M. F. 383 17 22 145This Return includes almost the whole of the cases enumerated in the following Return for the Court of Petty Sessions, as very few are brought directly before that Court.
The civil cases decided were 293 claims for police rates (cognizable by the chief magistrate alone), and six claims for wages under Ordinance 6 of 1847, now repealed.
The criminal cases decided up to March, when the Court of Petty Sessions was established, were 61 larcenies and receiving stolen goods, 26 assaults, 5 demanding money with menaces, 2 passing counterfeit coin, 15 vagrancy; the rest were mainly breaches of police ordinances. In March the summary jurisdiction over small felonies, which had existed for 18 months previously, was taken away by the Petty Sessions Ordinance, so that the cases subsequently decided were simply assaults, breaches of police ordinances, and offences cognizable by a single magistrate under English Acts of Parliament. The committals and bailments include those to the Supreme and Admiralty Courts, as well as to the Court of Petty Sessions. Deportation by a single magistrate out of Sessions was awarded only under Section 13 of the Registration Ordinance (7 of 1846), in default of security to appear and answer for a suspected offence. The defaulter is simply ordered to leave the colony, and not return.
g (established 1st of March), during the Year 1849, with the Mode of Disposal.
130 5 2 2 15The civil causes were claims for debt or damages not exceeding 50 dollars, with one or two cases of estreated recognizances. The criminal cases were, larceny and receiving stolen goods 267, vagrancy 62, assaults 40, riotous assemblage 4, obtaining property by false pretences 3, uttering counterfeit coin 2, malicious injuries 2, demanding money with menaces 2, combination among workmen 2, extortion 1; the remainder were offences against police ordinances. All were decided under the provisions of Ordinance 1 of 1849, for the punishment of petty felonies and recovery of small debts.
The mode of proceeding is generally by summons taken out before a single magistrate; and in criminal cases the depositions are taken down at length as in committals for the Supreme Court; consequently, nearly the whole of the cases are included in the above Return for the Chief Magistrate's Office.
The Court of Petty Sessions has power under the ordinance to remit serious or difficult cases for decision at the Supreme Court; hence the column for committals.
Deportation is awarded under section 14 of the Ordinance for the Removal of Vagrants. A large number of those deported were mendicants who had crossed from the mainland to beg. The deportation consists in transmitting the persons to be deported to the Chinese magistrate on the opposite side of the harbour (which is Chinese territory), with a request that they may be forwarded to their place of settlement.
(Signed)
C. B. HILLIER, Chief Magistrate.