8. Table VI is a return of boy juvenile offenders brought before the Hong Kong and Kowloon Magistrates' Courts during the years 1938 and 1939 giving their ages, the offences committed by them and the sentences imposed.
9. Table VII is a return of girl juvenile offenders, giving information similar to that in Table VI.
10. Table VIII gives the number of writs issued from the two magistracies during the years 1938 and 1939.
11. Table IX is an abstract of all cases brought before the Hong Kong and Kowloon Magistrates' Courts during the last ten years.
12. Table X shows the work done by the Magistrates sitting as Coroners.
The number of bonds enforced during the year is also shown in Tables IV, VI, VII, and IX.
14. Proceedings were taken under the Extradition Acts against two persons for crimes committed outside the Colony. Both of them were committed to Police custody pending arrangements to be made for their return to face charges at Saigon and Shanghai respectively.
15. Summonses under the Separation and Maintenance Order Ordinance, 1935, in Hong Kong numbered 28 as against 16 in 1938. Orders were made in 17 of them. In Kowloon, these summonses numbered 6 against 5 in 1938. Orders were made in 3 of them.
16. The number of convictions for offences in respect of heroin and opium has continued the serious upward trend noted in the report for 1938; for which the figures were 1,185 and 2,220 respectively. The corresponding figures for 1939 were 2,095 and 2,555, being increases of 75% and 15% respectively.
The persons who appear before the Courts charged with keeping the divans are not the owners but are in fact employed to go to prison in their stead. They are generally destitutes and do not fear imprisonment. I understand they or their relatives are paid by their employers a certain sum for each month spent in prison.
17. There has been a sharp decrease in cases of earring snatching due to a more vigorous policy of flogging. Bag snatching has, however, increased.
18. The figures for other serious crimes remained approximately the same as in 1938.
19. A drop of 50% was recorded in the number of hawking cases heard. This was due to the Courts discouraging such cases being brought unless the arrest was made under the supervision of a European sergeant. It was felt that indiscriminate and unsupervised arrests by constables did not solve this perennial problem and led to grave abuses. Several constables were convicted of obtaining illegal exactions from hawkers during the year.