CO882-6 — Page 215

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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5. As far as is consistent with justice, the patriarchal principle of family responsi- bility is strictly enforced in official dealings with the Chinese. The members of a family are in practice responsible for the acts of the individual of the home, and the headmen are similarly responsible for the conduct of the whole village community. This system works extremely well, because it is based on Chinese customs and usages of great antiquity.

The authority of the village patriarchs is great, and tends to keep the over- populated country steady and law-abiding. The headmen are elected by the village folk, and report their election to the Magistrate. No official emolument is given the village tribunals by the Chinese Government, and the British Government follows the same course.

The position of a village elder, however, besides being one of dignity and respect, brings in certam small fees of office and other small charges (such as commissions on raising subscriptions for religious observances, festivals, on collecting the land tax, on arbitration in family disputes, on arranging marriages, funerals, &c.), that make it worth his while to act without a salary. In none of the villages within the Wei- hai-wei area are there any official representatives, or ti pao, of the local Chinese Magistrates. In this part of Shantung the tribunals of the village elders have prac- tically no connecting link with the district authorities and are entirely self-governed.

6. As a rule, the character of the headmen is good, and there is practically little or no crime in the villages, except theft of firewood, vegetables, and cereals, and gambling. As a rule, the village tribunals prefer to settle their disagreements at home, but if the offence is a serious one, or if the offender belongs to a powerful family, the headmen send complainants to the District Office. The Chinese of the district take full advantage of the personal accessibility of the District Magistrate, and evidently appreciate dealing direct with him.

7. In serious criminal cases it is found difficult to move the village elders to do more than give information against their own fellow villagers, and it is equally difficult to get the villagers to give evidence against each other in court.

When two

or more villages are embroiled, however, little trouble is experienced tracing the crime or getting evidence.

The headmen of the district are the Magistrates' right hands, and all instructions to the Chinese are issued by him to them, and they are bound to assist in executing

processes of law.

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8. As a people, the villagers of Wei-hai-wei are exceptionally quiet and law- abiding. They are not, properly speaking, inhabitants of the Shantung Province proper, but descendants of certain Hupeh Chinese, who are said to have immigrated to north east promontory of Shantung some 400 years ago, after being defeated in a dynastic struggle, and driven out from their native province.

The villagers are abjectly poor and destitute-to have enough to eat is with them synonymous with to be well off-fully fifty per cent. live from hand to mouth, and many thousands emigrate yearly to Corea and Manchuria; labour and living is, per- haps, rougher and cheaper in this part of Shantung than in any other province. In disposition the Chinese here are much more good tempered, and cheerful and open than the Southern Chinese. Their physique is magnificent, and very little disease exists among them. Only about twelve per cent. have received any education.

The Shantung villagers living along the east coast provide some of the best sailors and fishermen in China.

9. No_rules and regulations have been framed for defining the duties of the headmen. Experience has shown that it is better to follow closely the lines of the former Chinese system, and to abstain from introducing new practices. The Chinese system gives the District Magistrate a free hand, is very economical, and can be carried out by the Magistrate in person, as he travels on inspection duty.

The territory is not more than ten miles to the border, and with the new roads made and making all parts will be equally accessible shortly, and there is therefore no necessity for subdividing the district, or for appointing divisional committees of headmen. The absence of the clan system in Shantung makes it unnecessary to deal with the Chinese in groups and bodies as in the south. very democratic and independent, and always willing to interview the District Magis- The Chinese villagers here are trate without the intervention of headmen if they wish to.

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Land Administration....

10. During 1898 and -1899, no attempts were made by the British authorities to deal with the collection of the land tax. In 1900, after the delimitation of the frontier and the registration of the village holdings were completed, this question was taken in hand, and the land tax was collected for the first time at the close of 1900 and the beginning of 1901.

11. The land and buildings on the Island of Liu Kung was bought from the inhabitants by the Admiralty and War Office for the sum of £25,000, and the rents from these sources are collected by the Naval and Military Authorities locally and paid to the home Treasury. Theoretically, the Admiralty and War Office now hold the land and houses in the island as private tenants in perpetuity to the Chinese Government, and for such period under the Convention as Wei-hai-wei is held by the British Government. The other islands in the bay are uninhabited, and pay no land taxes. The total revenue derived from house and land taxes on the island is $9,900 a year.

12. The district on the mainland is comprised within the ten mile belt of land running round the bay, containing, roughly, 270 square miles. Of this area it is estimated that 49 square miles are above 400 feet, 17 square miles consist of river bed and foreshore, 9 square miles are occupied by some 300 villages and 6 square miles by sand dunes or dry river beds.

13. The leased territory is geographically an amalgamation of parts of the two districts of Yung-Cheng and Wen-Ting, which in turn form a part of the Chinese Prefecture of Tung-Chow-Fu. A line drawn from Camp Point to the village of Liu Liu Tsz, and thence through the village of Chang Chai Shan to the market town of Ch'iao Tou shows the original parts of the Wen-Ting district on the south-east and of the Yung-Cheng district on the north-east.

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The collection of the land taxes is made in accordance with the tax lists published by the Chinese Magistrates of Wen-Ting and Yung-Cheng. The inhabi- tants of the leased area have not created any trouble over paying this tax; they now escape paying the commissions and fees formerly given to the agents of the Magis- trates, who collected the taxes.

The land collections in 1900 amounted to $5,840, and in 1901 to $6,480. 15. Very little more than this was collected by the Chinese Magistrates, and on the whole their district rent-rolls prove on enquiry to be reliable. The present rates have been in force since the commencement of the present dynasty in the seventeenth century, and no doubt some land has been reclaimed since then, but other land has also gone out of cultivation. Although the Chinese assessment is not strictly accurate, it is fairly approximate, and very little land escanes taxation. The soil, however, is so miserably poor, being so thin and covered largely with sand and broken stones, that it ranks (like nearly all the land in the east of Shantung) lowest in value amongst all the assessed rents in the eighteen provinces of China. Here the average land tax of a mo (1-6th of an acre) of the best land is not 'much more than 10 cents, while the great majority of the land is assessed at only from 3 cents to 5 cents a mo. In the rest of China in more favoured provinces the usual land tax ranges from 15 cents up to 30 cents a mo, in proportion to the fertility of the land and its drainage, distance from popular centres, and difficulty in working. 16. In 1900 the Chinese practice of collecting the taxes was followed. In 1901, however, the following procedure was adopted, and has worked very successfully. The District Magistrate notifies the Chinese villagers that the taxes for the land must be paid in the autumn through the headmen of the villages. From the Chinese registers. lists are then made out of the headmen, and they are instructed to collect the whole land rent for their respective village, and to bring the cash money to head quarters, the list being so arranged that the 300 village headmen may all pay in their rents on successive days in about one month. As each headman pays, he is given a provisional receipt for the taxes and told to return again in about one month's time to receive the receipts for all the land taxes paid by each individual family in the village, which the Chinese writers in the District Office will have been making up in the meantime.

The Chinese appreciate this new system, as it obviates their waiting about in thousands for one or two months at the District Office, as formerly money was paid in by each individual tax payer, who waited till a receipt was given him by the office staff.