CO885-(7-8) — Page 284

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mmimmim TPELTIC.O.885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

II.

MEMORANDUM BY SIR H. HOCKING, FORMERLY ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF HONG KONG.

1. There are two classes of crime which go under the common name of " prædial larceny." One class is where a man, or frequently a boy, picks a trifling quantity of fruit or vegetables as he passes by them for the immediate satisfaction of his inclina- tion for them; the other is where one or more people go with spades or other tools, sacks and carts and plunder wholesale, taking the booty away for sale or to be stored up for future use.

There is obviously all the difference in the world between the two crimes-the former hardly deserving to be called a crime. So far as it is indulged in by boys, it is common all the world over. As regards fruit,

that will always be picked by passers-by, if in exposed situations, and in Jamaica fruit is in some seasons so abundant and of so little value that the owners at times hardly care what becomes of it. A's to oranges especially, they may one year be of hardly any value, so that the owner allows them to drop from the trees and naturally does not much care if any one picks them up. But, under such circumstances, it is not surprising if when next season they happen to be of value he finds a difficulty in impressing upon people the conviction that they are private property and are not to be picked up by passers-by. The more serious form of crime is, regret to think, not uncommon. There appears always to be a considerable class of habitual criminals in each parish who live by the depredations they commit on a, wholesale scale. I have often been told, and I believe it to be truc, that these men are well known, and that when they come to market with a good stock of yams and other produce for sale, it is quite well known that these are the produce of their raids, though it could not be proved as a fact that they had been stolen from any particular person.

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2. This really is the only form of prædial larceny much worth considering. With regard to the minor form, all that need be said is that it is a nuisance; but it is a nuisance that exists in every country to a greater or less extent, and if it is any worse in Jamaica than in other places, that arises from the state of the country where fruit trees and provision grounds are often found at great distances from any houses and from the predatory instincts of the population, the best of whom, though they would shrink from stealing money or articles of value, hardly recognise a right of property in the minor products of nature any more than domestic servants

A "provision ground" is the name given to a patch of ground on which a negro grows yams, sweet potatoes and the like.

do in tapes, ribbons, pins, and the minor articles of feminine attire or use.

3. I never saw any reason to believe that praedial larceny increased or declined during the 15 years that I was in Jamaica, So far as statistics went, undoubtedly at times the crime seemed to be on the increase; at times, the reverse. I imagine, how- ever, that these variations were always due to accidental circumstances. I think the variations in the number of prosecutions occurred mainly in those for the minor crime.* If in one year oranges were not worth picking or troubling about, the number of prosecutions would decline; if in the next year they were fetching a good price, owners would try and protect their property. would always be a time for the minor crime to be A year of distress on the increase. Again, it must be taken into account, that what are called "provision grounda are always in a very defenceless state.

A negro rents an acre of ground miles away from his own or any other house. The most cruel form of praedial larceny is when people come and root up the yams or sweet potatoes that have just been put into the ground, stripping the place bare just after it is planted. This is, of course, a case where the crime assumes the more serious character.

4. There can be no doubt that the more serious crime is a great curse to the country; in its minor aspect, it is simply a nuisance. The articles most subject to wholesale depredation are yams; sweet potatoes, maize and bananas. Sugar-cane is the subject of minor theft, though a good many single canes cut to chew may amount to a good number in the aggregate. Coffee is stolen when there is a Bale for green coffee, as there is in a good many plantations at curing time. This is bought by the quart by petty hucksters who thus accumulate enough to take to a plantation. There are many people, both honest and dishonest, who act as receivers of coffee, logwood, bananas and sundry other things. These things (except logwood) are to a great extent produced in small quantities by the peasantry, and there are many respectable people whose business it is to buy them up in small quantities. Hence, a thief finds no great difficulty in disposing of this kind of produce. Yams and other vegetables he boldly takes to the nearest market.

5. Many efforts have been made to check prædial larceny by regulating the purchase and sale of different sorts of produce. A man may not sell a less quantity than 6 cwt. of logwood, unless he can show that it is the produce of his own land. late years laws have been passed requiring persons Of to take out licences for the purchase of agricultural produce, obliging them to purchase only at their own premises and to keep a record of their purchases.

• These minor offences, I may remark, always constitute a very large proportion of the whole number that go to swell the statistics.

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