1841-1886
327
OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
10.
any be still so inclined, to argue that such resulting advantage ought to make us abandon policy which has effected a remarkable diminution of crime and corruption, and this, moreover, at a time when it has been raised from the level of mere experiment to that of successful legislation. Let us hope, therefore, that different views are now entertained by former opponents of the measure. The motives of many deserved and met general sympathy, whilst personally I have always regretted that none of them were able to suggest some policy more in harmony with their own opinions, and yet equally effective for police purposes. In the interim, however, they could not reasonably have expected me to abandon substantial results for theories which, however applicable elsewhere, as I readily admit them to be, seemed wholly out of place here under the circumstances.
18. I have thus explained the position of the Colony towards the special fund, so far as I can explain a subject of which many details are still unsettled, and which you must regard as liable to re-arrangement and modification. The council, moreover, must always regard that fund as one which may at any moment disappear. You should, therefore, distinctly bear in mind that, except for improving the police force, and benefiting the Chinese community, as explained above, that fund is unavailable. Even those indirect benefits must cease in the event of a change of instructions from Her Majesty's Government or the discovery of some effective substitute for the licensing system.
19. Hence, it is all the more desirable that you should keenly scrutinize the state of your finances, and see whether any diminution of expenditure, either on your Establishments or otherwise, can be effected without detriment to the Public Service, so that you may gradually lessen your permanent annual charges, and release a portion of your revenue now absorbed thereby.
20. I am aware that such economies seem easiest to those who know least of the work and duties of the various Departments. For example, a reformer of our police would, on inquiry, be probably surprised to find that in the day time 32 beats have to be patrolled, and the men relieved at the end of each six hours, and that 92 beats at night have to be similarly manned and relieved; whilst from five to nine boats and their crews are kept always on duty—and relieved night and day, at stated periods—in the harbour; as also that a gaol guard of 23 has to be daily provided, and patrols furnished along a distance of 10 miles. To all those must be added special duties, which require daily some 60 men, independent of the out-stations beyond the city, which must likewise be guarded and patrolled. He would also have to make an allowance for men in hospital; and from the severity of the duty, they number 50 per cent. more in the police, at present, than in the military.
21. Such a reformer would thus learn how it is that a necessity for meeting numerous duties entails a corresponding necessity for paying a numerous force, and that no mere improvement in its quality can dispense with the primary want of many men to do duty in many different places at the same time.
22. So far from the superintendent of police considering the police sufficient in numbers, he complained to me last May that at night, "in the central part of the town, 31 men had to perform the duty laid down in the 'Section Book' for G1," and that so few constables could be spared for the outlying villages "that adequate daily explorations of the adjacent hills were impossible." The estimates before you, therefore, propose an increase as well in number as in quality; provision being made for a total of 717 instead of 643, whilst the number of Europeans will be increased from 112 to 146, and the expenditure from $183,000 to $202,000. That sum, however, does not include the expense of gratuities and passages for 30 men from England, who if procurable at all, which is very doubtful, will cost the colony £3,000 before they have done an hour's duty.
23. With the proposed telegraphs, and when the additional out-stations now building are completed, it may perhaps be found that a smaller force can do the duty. I nevertheless see little prospect of your ever having a police force at once effective and cheap. I know no place where it would be so difficult to realize such an anticipation as Hong Kong. This is especially the case because the influx of criminals from the adjoining turbulent provinces, which differ entirely in the character of their population from that of the Natives of the Straits or Shanghai, is regulated by circumstances beyond your control, and the course of which you can only watch, whilst keeping yourselves ever on the alert and the defensive, as though in a normal state of siege.
24. Moreover, at this distance from England and in this climate, temperance and honesty in Europeans command an exorbitant premium, and unluckily when they have been contracted for and imported, too often disappear, whilst, do what you will, whether you recruit in Europe or in India, you cannot procure a force homogeneous and speaking the requisite languages. You can only put it together bit by bit, and gradually utilize