644
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
LEGISLATIVE Council,
Hong Kong, 7th February 1882.
The Governor's Address.
His Excellency Sir John Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G., opened the Session with the following address:-
Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council,
In opening the Legislative Session of 1882, I have to inform you that Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to confirm and allow 13 of the 14 Ordinances which were passed in 1881.
Macao Extradition Ordinance,
Of these Ordinances, No. 1 of 1881, the Macao Extradition Ordinance, is one which deals with a question that engaged the attention of my predecessors for 40 years; it has now been settled by the negotiations of Lord Kimberley and Lord Granville with the Government of Lisbon. And though undoubtedly the credit of that settlement belongs entirely to the Home Governments, nevertheless the advantage of it will be felt by the Governments of Macao and Hong Kong, for the Executives of both Colonies will now be enabled to deal with fugitive criminals in a way that they could not before.
Penal Laws Reform.
Ordinance No. 3 of 1881, the Penal Laws Amendment Ordinance, now confirmed by the Queen, is not the least important reform in Colonial penal laws that has been effected in our time. It repeals or amends 10 Ordinances, some of them of exceptional severity, and all practically directed against one race only. The Ordinance gives permanent legislative authority to a policy which the royal prerogative enabled me to enforce for some years past in spite of some little local criticism; and henceforth it will be illegal in this Colony to brand any criminal, to have public flogging, to allow flogging in Hong Kong, except for such offences as entail flogging in England, or to allow flogging on the back. The impolitic system now abolished by the Queen and the Legislature of this Colony, though devised for the suppression of crime, had actually manufactured a criminal population and increased crime. This abolition has been followed by the diminution of crime, and a universal feeling throughout the Colony, to which you can all bear witness, that life and property have become more secure in Hong Kong.
644
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
LEGISLATIVE Council,
Hong Kong, 7th February 1882.
The Governor's Address.
His Excellency Sir John Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G., opened the Session with the following address:-
Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council,
In opening the Legislative Session of 1882, I have to inform you that Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to confirm and allow 13 of the 14 Ordinances which were passed in 1881.
Macao Extradition Ordinance,
Of these Ordinances, No. 1 of 1881, the Macao Extradition Ordinance, is one which deals with a question that engaged the attention of my predecessors for 40 years; it has now been settled by the negotiations of Lord Kimberley and Lord Granville with the Government of Lisbon. And though undoubtedly the credit of that settlement belongs entirely to the Home Govern- ments, nevertheless the advantage of it will be felt by the Govern- ments of Macao and Hong Kong, for the Executives of both Colonies will now be enabled to deal with fugitive criminals in a way that they could not before.
Penal Laws Reform.
Ordinance No. 3 of 1881, the Penal Laws Amendment Ordi- nance, now confirmed by the Queen, is not the least important reform in Colonial penal laws that has been effected in our time. It repeals or amends 10 Ordinances, some of them of exceptional severity, and all practically directed against one race only. The Ordinance gives permanent legislative authority to a policy which the royal prerogative enabled me to enforce for some years past in spite of some little local criticism; and henceforth it will be illegal in this Colony to brand any criminal, to have public flogging, to allow flogging in Hong Kong, except for such offences as entail flogging in England, or to allow flogging on the back. The impolitic system now abolished by the Queen and the Legis- lature of this Colony, though devised for the suppression of crime, had actually manufactured a criminal population and increased crime. This abolition has been followed by the diminution of crime, and a universal feeling throughout the Colony, to which you can all bear witness, that life and property have become more secure in Hong Kong.
i
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