1841-1886
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
4
Supreme Court.
629
253
83. Having observed in the records of the Supreme Court a few cases where Chinese had been sentenced to death who were subsequently pardoned on the ground that they were innocent, and that other miscarriages of justice had occurred apparently from defective interpretation, I invited in 1877 the judges and members of the bar to favour me with their views as to the interpretation in the Supreme Court. They agreed in describing it as deplorably bad. The Chief Interpreter was a Portuguese gentleman, who, in the words of the Chief Justice, "cannot interpret the written language of China," and who "is unable to express himself in correct English." The others were Chinese who received small salaries and did not know English very well. None of the Judges knew Chinese. Neither the Attorney General nor the Crown Solicitor nor any of the bar, except Mr. Ng Choy (who was called in 1877), knew Chinese. The Registrar and Deputy Registrar and the Sheriff were equally ignorant of the native language. The juries were composed of foreigners who, in 19 cases out of 20, did not understand a word of Chinese. And yet, in the majority of the criminal cases, the prisoners and witnesses were Chinese who knew no English, and the bulk of the property disposed of by the Court in civil cases was Chinese.
84. To remedy this defective condition of affairs, I appointed a European gentleman, who had been born in Canton, and educated in England, as oral interpreter to the Supreme Court. I also placed the interpreters of the Police Court at the disposal of the Supreme Court, filled up all vacancies in the staff of interpreters by strict competitive examinations, and applied to all other officials the principle established by Sir George Grey (Despatch No. 8 of 28th April 1855), who considered a knowledge of the Chinese language as "essential generally for the civil service at Hong Kong," and who accordingly laid down the rule "that no application for increase of salary in that service is to be made for any person" who has not learned Chinese.
85. For the proper translation of documentary evidence, and as a general supervisor of the staff of interpreters, your Lordship has been able to give the Supreme Court the services of Dr. Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, a well-known writer on Chinese subjects and one of the best foreign scholars of the Chinese language.
86. The present Acting Chief Justice informs me that these changes have put the interpretation of the Court on a sound basis.
87. Some changes in the department of the Supreme Court that deals with the public money were also rendered necessary. The year after my arrival, it was discovered that the Deputy Registrar had given no security as Official Assignee, to which he had been appointed in 1867, and, being called upon to give security and to produce the accounts in the long unsettled bankruptcy case of Lyall, Still, & Co., he fled to Macao, when it was found that he had misappropriated about 12,700. Having