1887-1903
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
13
emphatic support to the protest of the unofficial Members of Council. I refer to the clause which gives legislative sanction to the policy, already adopted by executive order before my arrival in the Colony, of terminating the compulsory examination of women. The full expression of my views on this vexed question being inappropriate to this report is given in a separate despatch; and it will be sufficient to mention here (1) that "examination" is not only not objected to, but has been shown by positive proof to be approved and desired by the whole of the unfortunate class which was subject to it, and (2) that the measure of abolition now adopted is against the wishes of all classes and races of the community.
35. (E.) "The Chinese Extradition Ordinance, 1889," represents an effort to improve the law relating to the rendition, in accordance with treaty obligations, of Chinese subjects charged with the commission of crime in China. The principal change is one which, with regard to the rendition of prisoners, lessens the responsibility of the magistrate, and increases that of the Governor in Council, who, however, will now receive the assistance of the Chief Justice in the consideration of the evidence. There is also a much-needed schedule specifying the crimes in respect of which rendition may be granted, and a provision (passed in deference to fears generally prevalent among the intelligent Chinese) by which special security is afforded to persons who have been for a year resident in the Colony. I have dealt at length with this extremely difficult subject in other despatches; and it will be sufficient to say here that, so long as Chinese ideas as to the methods and the sufficiency of proof are so utterly at variance with the requirements of British Law, it will, I fear, be practically impossible to avoid international disagreements as to what prisoners rightly come under the designation of “criminals” whose extradition is obligatory by the Treaty.
募
1
36. Among the principal of the legislative measures now under consideration, the following are among the most important:--- (1.) An amendment of the law regulating emigration, intended to check the serious abuses which, according to evidence continually accumulating, attend the exportation of the enormous number of Coolies, now probably exceeding 50,000, who annually leave the Colony for service in Sumatra, Borneo, the Straits Settlements, and elsewhere. (2.) A law for better defining the powers of the Sanitary Board established by the Public Health Ordinance, 1887. (3.) The constitution of a Public Officers' Widows and Orphans Fund. (4.) An amendment of the bankruptcy law. I had much hoped, moreover, to have initiated before now a measure for the settlement of titles, and for rendering more simple the transfer of land on the principle of the Torrens Act. But in view of the minute sub-division of many of the most valuable lots, and of the frequent uncertainty as to area and boundaries, I find, to my regret, that any such measure, in order to be satisfactorily effective, must be preceded by a trigonometrical survey, for which accordingly I have asked your Lordship's approval.
51