604
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH NOVEMBER, 1877.
The CHIEF JUSTICE-How many prisoners for debt did you say there were?
527
HIS EXCELLENCY-One; and the prisoners for debt have one ward which might be divided into separate cells; I forget the exact number.
The SURVEYOR GENERAL-Twenty-four.
425
HIS EXCELLENCY-And at present we have one single debtor. In the gaol when I first visited it, I was astonished to see a man chained by a long chain to one of the inner gates, and Mr. TOMLIN cautioned me how I was to pass through the next little opening so as to avoid him. I made inquiries and found he was a lunatic. He was chained because he was lunatic and a violent one. There was another upstairs in one of the associated cells. He was a peaceable man, but a very talkative one, and he kept on talking the whole time. You will readily understand that the presence of such cases would not conduce to the preservation of discipline in the gaol; that and other circumstances caused me to think of establishing a lunatic asylum. Chinese lunatics of Hongkong are simply deported to the mainland. My honourable friend the Chief Justice mentioned to me a very sad case. The son of an English professional gentleman-I need not mention names-came out here; he got an attack of lunacy, and he died in our prison. There have been other cases of people confined in the prison as lunatics who never ought to have been inside its walls. Therefore I propose to ask you for the sum of $5,000 for a small lunatic asylum, which, having provision for eight beds, will, I think, be sufficient; meanwhile I have taken the responsibility of not using the Gaol for this purpose, but of improvising a temporary lunatic asylum.
I now come to a work of great interest to this commercial community. The Finance Committee have had before them, and you will also have in print, a most interesting and valuable report of the Surveyor-General, with a letter upon it from Admiral RYDER, relating to the establishment of a time ball in Victoria Harbour. Some of you, gentlemen, are connected with commerce, and I need not tell you that in a great centre of shipping such as this-one of the greatest centres of shipping in the whole world-we should have some means of accurately determining the time. It has not yet been done. Owing to the public spirit of the princely house of ... fired at twelve o'clock, which is a great convenience to labour purposes connected with navigation, the strictest accuracy is a second or two, and for that accuracy certain scientific ... observatory, must be established which will enable us to work ...