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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
colony. There is another great objection. It has been openly avowed by some of the opponents of the Praya, that it is their purpose "to swamp" the surplus revenue by devoting it to other and hitherto unauthorized public works, and water-works have been prominently put forward for this very object. I doubt not that the question will be maturely considered by my successor, and that he will take care no sinister private interest shall prevail over or defeat a great public good. One of the peculiar difficulties against which this Government has to struggle is the enormous influence wielded by the great and opulent commercial houses, against whose power and in opposition to whose personal views it is hard to contend.
33. The provisional manner in which the place of Colonial Chaplain has been frequently but necessarily filled has been a subject of just complaint from the Bishop. I hope it will be obviated in future. I concur in the deserved compliments which the Colonial Secretary pays to the value of Mr. Beach's services during the absence of Mr. Irwin.
34. The outward appearance, discipline, and general efficiency of the police have greatly improved during the past year; and the complaints under this head which formerly were frequently addressed to the Government are now much diminished in number. Considering the indifferent materials from which the selection must necessarily be made, the present state of the corps is satisfactory and creditable to Mr. May.
35. I have referred elsewhere to the services of Mr. Caldwell; they have been so many and great, and he has been so cruelly and unjustly persecuted, that I should be glad if some mark of the favourable opinion of Her Majesty's Government, as to the value of those services, were conferred upon him; and I beg to call to your attention the honourable testimony borne to his deservings in a Despatch from the Admiral, on leaving this station, copy of which is forwarded by this mail. Mr. Caldwell has several times intimated to me his wish to quit the public service in the colony, his reputation having been so severely attacked and his influence damaged by Mr. Anstey; these attacks still finding echoes in our infamous public press. I cannot but say that the loss of Mr. Caldwell would be irreparable. I have used my personal solicitations to detain him here.
36. I have, in an earlier part of this report, referred to the question of the removal of the gaol, concurring with the opinion of the Colonial Secretary, that the present site should not be abandoned. There will be the means of enlargement, and to some extent of classification, and though there is much to be desired in the way of change, there have been notable improvements in gaol management during the last two years to which I can bear personal testimony.
37. The Acting Colonial Surgeon's Report makes suggestions to which becoming attention will no doubt be paid. He is quite right in stating that the registers of deaths, and the same may be said of births and marriages, are in an unsatisfactory state.
I had some conversation with the Bishop on the subject, and he assured me he was by no means contented with the existing state of things, and the attention of Mr. Anstey, while Attorney General, was called to the matter. I do not know whether the returns kept by ministers of the Church of England, either in this colony or in China, are sent to the Registrar General in London, as the Consular Records are. I believe not; nor in the case of Catholic or dissenting registers does any proper machinery exist, as far as I am aware, for reporting the statistics of birth, marriages, and mortality, to the metropolis. A question was sometime ago submitted to the law authorities at home, as to the validity of Protestant marriages celebrated at Macao; the question was left in so uncertain a state that many of Her Majesty's subjects, who had been married at Macao, have thought it prudent to be re-married in Hong Kong. As the Legislative Council of Hong Kong is charged with law-making for British subjects in China, and as no doubt the late treaties will necessitate the transfer of that power to some other authority, I hope steps will be taken to secure accurate records from the clergy of the Church of England in the various ports of China, which probably the Bishop of Victoria would not be unwilling to transmit to the proper authorities in England.
38. It may be stated, notwithstanding the mortality of the past year, which I deem exceptional, that there is a progressive melioration in the sanitary state of the colony. Chinese habits are difficult to change or even to modify, but there is no comparison between the general cleanliness of Hong Kong and that of any Chinese city which I have ever visited. I would add, that in Eastern regions generally there are few cities so free from nuisances in the parts occupied by the native population. Comparisons between the well-governed towns of Great Britain and the crowded parts of Oriental regions are scarcely just to those who have immense difficulties to overcome; but the present state of Hong Kong may be advantageously contrasted with that of many localities as they existed in England a generation or two ago.