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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
and was beached at Station Island, Haitan Strait. The "Sunda" was ultimately brought to Hong Kong.
Seamen.
30. 6,654 seamen were shipped, and 6,741 were discharged in 1875, being an excess of 13.1 per cent. in the first and 14.2 per cent. in the latter instance, of the shipping and discharging of seamen in 1874.
The Hon. J. Gardiner Austin,
Colonial Secretary,
I have, &c.
H. G. THOMSETT, R.N.,
Harbour-master, &c.
Hong Kong.
No. 32.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following report from the Captain Superintendent of Police for the year 1875, is published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hong Kong,
February 5, 1876.
J. Gardiner Austin,
Colonial Secretary.
Victoria, Hong Kong, January 18, 1876.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to forward, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the annual police report, statistics for the Blue Book, and returns of crime for the year 1875.
2. A decrease of crime to the extent of 4.89 per cent. is shown on all cases reported; an increase of 19.74 per cent. on serious crime, and a diminution of 11.11 per cent. on minor offences.
3. Two cases of murder occurred, for one of which, at Ap-li-chau, a Chinaman was sentenced to death, but this penalty was commuted to penal servitude for life. The second case was of a most aggravated nature, as there is every reason to suppose that the victim was murdered from motives of vengeance for the previous conviction for another offence of the supposed murderer, but that in the darkness of the night a woman other than the one intended was killed. A Chinaman was apprehended within a few hours after the deed had been committed, but from the peculiar circumstances of the attack, there was no substantial evidence against him beyond a conversation between himself and a prisoner in the gaol; it was decided to abandon the prosecution.
4. An atrocious case of piracy, in which 25 Chinese lost their lives, happened about 50 miles from the Colony. One man was arrested and executed, who had been charged in 1874 with supposed complicity in the piracy on board the "Spark"; two other men were sentenced to death, but were afterwards pardoned, and
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