7890.
། ། ་། ག ཱ།
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
9
سياسيا
Reference :-
C.O. 885
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have considered the several questions submitted to us, and have the honour to
Report
We
That it is clear from the 9th and 10th sections of the Letters Patent (the South Australian Act being silent) that the Governor for the time he is absent ceases to be Governor, and the Governorship vests during his absence in the person therein named to fill his place. That person becomes Governor pro tempore, administers the Govern- ment of the Colony (sec. 10), and is entitled, pro ratâ, to the salary of Governor. think, therefore, in answer to the first question, that the South Australian Act, No. 2, 1855-56, does not leave Her Majesty and the Secretary of State at liberty to declare, either by Colonial Regulations or otherwise, whether and under what circumstances the salary allotted by law to the Governor shall be divisible between an absent Governor and his locum tenens. The Queen cannot set aside the allotment which by Schedule A, part of the Colonial Act, is made to the Governor. She names the Governor by Letters Patent, no doubt, but in those very Letters, as we have said, she suspends the Governor- ship of the Patentee during the Patentee's absence.
2. We think, in answer to the second question, that under section 2 of 26 & 27 Vict.. cap. 76, the Governorship does not vest in the Governor till publication in the Colony of the Patent. It follows that the Secretary of State has not the power as to which our opinion is asked.
3. We think this question must be answered in the negative.
4. The right of the locum tenens (which is a right to full salary) accrues, we think, from the date at which he becomes Governor, under section 9 of the Letters Patent. That date is the beginning of the absence of the Patentee.
5. The Secretary of State may undoubtedly, as a matter of official regulation, require Governors and officers administering the Colonies to make such a distribution of the emoluments of office as he considers expedient. How far this is desirable as a matter of policy is for his Lordship to consider, and whether it might not be better either to apply to the local Legislatures, or alter the Letters Patent. The alteration of the Letters Patent would, however, obviously require much care and attention.
The Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c. &c.
&c.
We have, &c., (Signed)
R. P. COLLIER,
J. D. COLERIDGE.
SLR,
No. 581.
(Hora Kona.}
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Foreign Office, July 12, 1869. THE Earl of Clarendon having referred to the Law Officers your letter of the 6th of May, together with the previous correspondence, respecting the establishment of opium tax stations in the neighbourhood of Hong Kong, I am now directed by his Lordship to transmit to you the draft* of an instruction to Sir Rutherford Alcock, embodying the substance of the report with which he has been furnished, and I am to requested that, in laying the same before Earl Granville, you will move his Lordship cause Lord Clarendon to be informed whether this draft meets with his
to
concurrence.
I am, (Signed)
&c.
E. HAMMOND.
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office.
Foreign Office, July
Draft.
SIR,
1869.
1869.
WITH reference to your Despatch No. 56 of the 20th of February, I transmit to you herewith, for your information, a copy of a letter from the Colonial Office, for- May 6, warding copies of Despatches from the Governor of Hong Kong in regard to a Proclamation issued by the Chinese authorities for establishing certain tax stations- in the vicinity of Hong Kong with a view to the collection of the local tax on opium.
I referred this letter, together with your above-mentioned Despatch to the proper Law Officers of the Crown, and I have now to state to you that it appears from the enclosures contained in the letter from the Colonial Office, and from Sir R. Mac- donnell's letter of the 22nd of February that the smuggling at Hong Kong, with which the Chinese Government has to deal, is of a most serious and aggravated character, and such as is likely to lead, as it has led, to acts of brutality on the part of Chinese officials, falling sometimes upon legitimate traders. Assuming the new Proclamation of the Viceroy of Canton to be bona fide conceived and executed it is calculated to put a stop to the immediate mischief.
There can of course be no doubt of the right of the Chinese to maintain the existing regulations as to goods transhipped at Hong Kong, if they think it impossible to relax those regulations without risk of fraud.
But for the sake of the legitimate trade at Hong Kong, and to put an end to the hostile feeling at that place (of the existence of which the enclosed papers contain abundant proofs) it seems very desirable that Her Majesty's Government should take some steps with a view to the adoption of more satisfactory arrangements than those now existing between the Chinese and the British Colonial authorities; and I have accordingly to instruct you to make friendly representations to the Chinese Govern- ment in the matter, and ascertain whether it would be possible to establish such practical regulations in Hong Kong and China, or to make such new treaty stipulations as shall place the intercourse between Hong Kong and the neighbouring coasts on a more definite and regular footing, so as to protect the Chinese revenue without unreasonably obstructing the ordinary and daily traffic between Hong Kong and the mainland, and in so doing to remove occasions of controversy between the different British authorities.
Sir R. Alcock.
I have, &c. (Signed)
• The draft is printed as altered in the Colonial Office.
o 16378-917.
25.-5/86.