HKG-CAR1844-1886

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24

Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941

REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE

34. Independent, moreover, of the legislation of last year placing the Executive in a position to ascertain the probable movements and real character of all native craft entering and leaving these waters, your Grace will perceive that much collateral information of a highly useful and interesting nature, never before attainable, is now placed within reach of the Government, as to the number of vessels engaged in the native trade, and of their passengers, crews, &c. &c., topics to which I shall presently advert more fully when alluding to the tonnage frequenting this harbour. I must, however, draw attention to the special administrative ability of Mr. Thomsett, the Harbour Master, in grappling with the novel difficulties of the extensive and interesting experiment entrusted him to work out. He has now got all his work thoroughly well in hand, and has exhibited throughout a special fitness for the onerous duties which I was suddenly obliged to impose on him.

35. Supplementary to the above Ordinance for obtaining information as to the movements and character of all native craft in these waters, I introduced Ordinance No. 7 of last year, for the purpose of placing the Executive in possession of the same sort of information as to native householders and residents on shore which Ordinance No. 6 was intended to procure of native proceedings on the water. The working of this Ordinance was entrusted to the Registrar General, Mr. Cecil Smith, who has discharged his difficult duties under it with great ability, and a success which would have been impossible without the knowledge which he possesses of the Chinese language.

36. That Ordinance divides the town of Victoria into districts, and renders compulsory the registration of all Chinese householders, who are, moreover, held ultimately responsible if certain violations of the law specified in Section XVII, and which, with ordinary vigilance, they can prevent, occur on their premises.

37. Considerable powers are given to the Registrar General, enabling him to summon householders and tenants of portions of houses before him, and to insist on their furnishing him with all particulars respecting themselves and their pursuits. All Chinese servants of every degree in the employment of foreigners were likewise obliged to obtain a certificate of registration, specifying for each his or her native domicile, age, and such other particulars as might assist in tracking servants implicated in any offence.

In a word, the Ordinance provides means for keeping the Government informed of the character and proceedings of the Chinese residents on land, just as the Junk Ordinance ensures similar information in reference to persons and vessels in colonial waters.

38. It may be interesting here to give the results of last year's legislation, in the number of persons registered as householders (Chinese), and also of servants in the employment of foreigners. The total up to the 30th of last month was

39. The Ordinance likewise contained some provisions for enabling the Chinese themselves to organize a police force auxiliary to that in Government pay (Sections 12 to 15), and it gives me much pleasure to state that the Chinese have within the last few months organized, at their own expense, and under the immediate surveillance of the Registrar General, a small body of 30 constables, who have already given proofs of alacrity in preventing and detecting crime that contrasts most favourably with the former indifference of the natives. Your Grace cannot but perceive that this small commencement is capable of a very wide and useful extension hereafter.

40. This seems a suitable place for drawing attention to the Registrar General's returns as to the population of the Colony, which has been the object of the recent legislation described. He puts it down at a total of 115,000 on the 31st of last December, of which 29,459 were females. These numbers are exclusive of the military and naval forces, and include 2,113 European and American civil residents, of whom 673 were females.

41. I have every reason to regard this estimate as considerably under the truth, though some allowance must be made for the temporary desertion of the city at the date of the Census, through apprehension of the probable operation of the new Registration and Harbour Ordinance. Those apprehensions, it may be as well to remark, have long since disappeared, and the harbour is more than ever crowded with native craft; whilst the excess of immigration over emigration since the 1st of January would probably not be less than 15,000. At the same time I have no doubt that nearly 1,500 indifferent characters have left the city, a large proportion of that number having sought refuge in Macao, the present principal haunt in this part of the world of pirates, kidnappers, and "mauvais sujets" generally.

42. I may also observe that the heading of "coloured" is ill chosen as descriptive of the Chinese in the Registrar General's population returns. As a race they are fairer

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