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made and oversights committed by the very best men, and with the varied amount of work at the Magistrate's Court I do not consider it surprising that mistakes and over- sights should occasionally happen there. After Mr. Russell's admission in this case I have no doubt that the greatest care will be taken that no similar mistake should occur again in future.

27 October 1877.

(Signed)

G. PHILLIPPO,

Attorney-General.

35

From the COLONIAL SURGEON.

I CERTIFY that the prisoner Wong a Kwai is suffering from phthisis and has frequent severe hæmorrhage from the lungs; there is no hope of his ultimate recovery, and I therefore recommend he should be released.

PH. B. C. AYRES,

Colonial Surgeon.

Hong Kong,

12 November 1877.

(Signed)

باشا

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

19

Reference:

C.O. 882

4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

No. 14.

GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the Earl of carnARVON. (Received December 19, 1877.)

(No. 159.) MY LORD,

• Government House, Hong Kong, November 14, 1877. Wiru reference to my Despatches No. 61, of the 13th of July, and No. 64, of the 18th of July, respecting the prisoner Wong a Kwai, who had been reported by the Colonial Surgeon as suffering from phthisis owing to the floggings he received in the Hong Kong Gaol, I have the honour to state that I have directed his liberation.

2. Captain Ducat, the Acting Superintendent of the Gaol, informed me that the haemorrhage from this prisoner's lungs half filled a bucket a few days ago, and that he was in the last stage of weakness. The Colonial Surgeon, Dr. Ayres, has certified that the bleeding from the lungs is now severe and frequent, and he recommended his release.

3. I have the honour to lay before Your Lordship a copy of the Medical Certificate and of my Minute directing the prisoner's release.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,

&c.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. POPE HENNESSY.

MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR.

THE Colonial Surgeon tells me this man is suffering from incurable hemorrhage of the lungs brought on by the floggings he received in the Hong Kong Gaol. It is now certified that the haemorrhage has become severe and frequent. He has been 14 years in prison. In accordance with the recommendation of the Medical Officer and the Superintendent of the prison that he should be allowed to die among his friends, I hereby order his release.

J. POPE HENNESSY.

14 November 1877.

(Signed)

From the SUPERINTENDENT of the GAOL.

(No. 181.) SIR,

Victoria Gaol, November 13, 1877. I HAVE the honour to forward a certificate from the Colonial Surgeon regarding the state of a Chinese prisoner, Wong a Kwai, under sentence of penal servitude for life for attempt to murder. This prisoner appears to be in a very precarious state, and is anxious to end his days among his friends in the Sun On District. He has been upwards his prison history is of 14 years in prison, and his character has been latterly good; attached.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

• Nos. 4 and 5.

G. DUCAT,

Acting Superintendent.

SIR,

No. 15.

The EARL OF CARNARVON to GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G.

(No. 3.)

Downing Street, January 3, 1878.

I HAVE the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the despatches of the numbers and dates noted below, which you have addressed to me upon a variety of topics connected with the penal system of Hong Kong.

2. The receipt of a large number of separate despatches dealing, not always finally or

in any distinctly explained connection, with different portions of a subject or with isolated cases, is, I am compelled to say, embarrassing, and leaves me in doubt how far, at any I need not however delay to intimate moment, I have your views completely before me.

to you that while I appreciate the activity with which you have addressed yourself to a subject which as you have long been aware I deem most important, I am not, as at present advised, prepared to accept all your conclusions, or to believe that the action taken by you without reference to me can in all cases be sustained.

3. The consideration which I have as yet been able to give to the numerous despatches, which you have addressed to me on this subject, viewed in connection with the opinions and acts of your predecessors as well as of my own in this office, does not lead me to anticipate that I shall be justified in sanctioning the reversal or material alteration of the penal system now in force in Hong Kong, which, notwithstanding some defects, as to the immediate removal of which there can be no question, has, as I have understood during considerable period, been generally effective in securing the public peace and personal security.

4. The information previously received in this department had not prepared me for your observations as to the increase of serious crime in the Colony, and as your state- ments refer to the past three years only, I have thought it desirable to examine with care the tabular comparison of the police returns of crime during the longer period of ten years upon which your statements rest, and which is contained in your despatch No. 97 of the 22nd of August.

I have also desired Mr. Deane the Superintendent of Police, who is in England, to furnish me with a report upon the subject, of which I transmit a copy.

5. In my despatch No. 103 of the 22nd of August† I intimated that with the informa- tion which you had laid before me it seemed to me that in the absence of any other apparent cause your predecessor had good reason for connecting the marked and simulta- neous rise of the number of prisoners in gaol with the influx of Chinese by cheap steamers

from Canton.

I now learn, from your Despatch No. 189 of the 11th October,‡ that Sir Arthur Kennedy probed the question more deeply, and collected statistics which you enclose, and which hardly have the effect of supporting your view of the case. It seems that the increase in the number of prisoners has been due to increased activity, by the police against offenders guilty of small police offences, such as mendicants, hawkers, &c., but it would appear scarcely consistent to speak of the result as indicating a serious increase of crime.

6. It is true that the crimes clamed as serious were more numerous in 1876 than in any other

of the ten, but only by two as compared with 1871, and by twenty-seven year as compared with 1867, the figures being-

1867.

1,458

1871.

1,488

1876.

1,485

and I should have supposed it to be possible that the figures might dearense again in

↑ Not printed.

• No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

↑ No. 8.

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