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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
been given up by the Portuguese Government, he was convicted in Hong Kong and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude.
88. As the defalcations had gone on for 12 or 14 years, and affected many local interests as well as the reputation of the public service, I felt it necessary to constitute a Commission of Inquiry into all the offices of the Supreme Court that were concerned in the receipt of money and the management of trust property. The Commission I appointed consisted of the Colonial Secretary and Auditor, the Attorney General, the manager of one of our principal banks, and a solicitor.
89. The Commissioners, having taken evidence, reported to the Government that estates that should have been wound up 10 years before were found by them unsettled; that the cash accounts in 31 estates in bankruptcy had never been balanced; that in many instances the balances to the different estates had disappeared; that there had been illegal commissions, fees, and interest charged or misappropriated by former registrars. Finally they said:-
"It is very clear that there has been no check whatever upon any officer, but a most lax practice has existed for years past in the Supreme Court with regard to the accounts and the general conduct of business."
90. Having consulted the Judges with respect to this report, and the various recommendations of the Commissioners, I appointed a Court Accountant, requested the Auditor General to make an audit of the accounts every month, directed the Court fees to be paid in future by stamps, and made some minor changes in the subordinate offices of the Court.
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91. It is due to the Judges of the Court to record the fact that for many years the Registrar's department of the Court had not been efficiently filled, and that they had more than once requested the Auditor General to examine the accounts of the Court. The changes I was thus able to make on the advice of the Judges will tend to prevent delays and defalcations in future, but the want of a competent Registrar is still felt;
Sanitation and Public Health.
92. The experiments at sanitation in this Colony are not without interest. The town of Victoria (containing 100,000 inhabitants) is built on the lower slope of a hill, the top of which is about 1,800 feet above the harbour. Dr. Hance, the eminent botanist, tells me that when the Colony was established, 40 years ago, the ravines behind the site of the present town were well filled with indigenous trees. As the ground was being opened up to make streets a good deal of fever prevailed. Some of the doctors attributed the difficulty in curing the fever to the existence of the trees. The trees were accordingly cut down, but with the removal of the trees the fever appeared to increase.
93. A sanitarium was built on the Peak, 1,700 feet above the sea, but when the doctor who recommended it went away, his