J 2
Estate Duty, on estates valued at over $2,000, was collected in the New Territories for the first time, and yielded over $650 on estates wholly within the District, in addition to duty collected on estates composed only partly of property within the District. This figure does not appear in Appendix II, as the duty is paid into the Treasury.
MAGISTRACY,
3. Appendices IV to VIII show details of the cases, both criminal and civil, heard by the District Officer sitting as magistrate during the year.
The previous record for the number of cases heard was again broken by an increase of over 10%. Offences of smuggling dutiable spirit and tobacco, and opium and heroin, were again most numerous, amounting to over a quarter of the total. Defendants who admit the charge of possession of dutiable spirits or tobacco nearly always give as their excuse that they bought it for their own consumption, and the plea that the spirit was bought for a sick cow is sometimes advanced. The smugglers seem to trust largely to luck, as they not uncommonly carry nothing but dutiable goods, though a covering of vegetables or cloth is most usual. Several illicit stills were discovered and broken up, but distilling undoubtedly continues in inaccessible parts of the country. Most of the drug divans prosecuted were in Yuen Long.
There was a big increase in the number of offences against property, chiefly in the form of larcenies, committed mostly by destitute vagrants from China, or casual labourers dismissed from mines or other big undertakings. Chickens and ducks were the most common subjects of larceny, several of the thieves making a practice of catching chickens with a little grain as bait, and a sack. The articles stolen were nearly always sold, not consumed, by the thief. Detectives made some smart arrests in these cases, livestock occasionally being returned to the owners before they had missed it.
There was a slight decrease in the number of offences against the Vehicles and Traffic Regulations, including a marked decrease in the number of convictions for dangerous driving. The increased volume of traffic consequent on the opening of the new road into China is however expected to cause an increase in the number of prosecutions under these Regulations.
Omissions to licence or muzzle dogs were much less common than in 1936, but at least one case of rabies was discovered.
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- J 2
Estate Duty, on estates valued at over $2,000, was collected in the New Territories for the first time, and yielded over $650 on estates wholly within the District, in addition to duty collected on estates composed only partly of property within the District. This figure does not appear in Appendix II, as the duty is paid into the Treasury.
MAGISTRACY,
3. Appendices IV to VIII show details of the cases; both criminal and civil, heard by the District Officer sitting as magistrate during the year.
The previous record for the number of cases heard was again broken by an increase of over 10% Offences of smug- gling dutiable spirit and tobacco, and opium and heroin, were again most numerous, amounting to over a quarter of the total. Defendants who admit the charge of possession of dutiable spirits or tobacco nearly always give as their excuse that they bought it for their own consumption, and the plea that the spirit was bought for a sick cow is sometimes advanced. The smugglers seem to trust largely to luck, as they not uncommonly carry nothing but dutiable goods, though a covering of vegetables or cloth is most usual. Several illicit stills were discovered and broken up, but distilling undoubtedly continues in inaccessible parts of the country. Most of the drug divans prosecuted were in Yuen Long.
There was a big increase in the number of offences against property, chiefly in the form of larcenies, committed mostly by destitute vagrants from China, or casual labourers dismissed from mines or other big undertakings. Chickens and ducks were the most common subjects of larceny, several of the thieves making a practice of catching chickens with a little grain as bait, and a sack. The articles stolen were nearly always sold, not consumed, by the thief. Detectives made some smart arrests in these cases, livestock occasionally being returned to the owners before they had missed it.
There was a slight decrease in the number of offences against the Vehicles and Traffic Regulations, including a marked decrease in the number of convictions for dangerous driving. The increased volume of traffic consequent on the opening of the new road into China is however expected to cause an increase in the number of prosecutions under these Regulations.
Omissions to licence or muzzle dogs were much less common than in 1986, but at least one case of rabies was discovered.
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