1877 — Page 261

No. 68.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

The following Annual Report from the Acting Captain Superintendent of Police, for the year 1878, is published for general information.

By Command,

J. M. PRICE, Acting Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 6th April, 1878.

[No. 31.]

CENTRAL POLICE BARRACKS, VICTORIA, HONGKONG, 15th February, 1878.

SIR, I have the honour to forward the Criminal Statistics and other Annual Returns of this Department for 1877, for transmission to His Excellency the Governor.

2. Compared with the previous year, there has been an increase of 481 cases in Serious Offences, 361 cases in Minor Offences, and 842 cases or 12.86 per cent, in the total number of Offences coming under the notice of the Police.

3. There is little doubt that the famine and floods on the mainland and the unusually high price of rice throughout the year have caused much of the crime against property to which the increase in Serious Offences is chiefly due. Turning to Table C. it will be found that while Robbery with Violence, Burglary, and Larceny in a Dwelling House at Night have decreased, Unlawful Possession and Larceny shew an increase of 446 on the number of cases reported during the previous year; many of these Larcenies relate to property of very small value, and of all the cases in which the amount has been given 35 per cent are thefts of articles valued at less than $5.

4. Of the five cases of Murder, two arose out of piratical attacks on villages. The first of these occurred about midnight on the 2nd May, when 20 armed men attacked a Chandler's Shop in the village of Ap-Li-Chau'; CHING-HUN-TAI one of the inmates of the shop received a gunshot wound which subsequently caused his death. The pirates carried off property valued at $84, together with one of their comrades who had been shot by the Indian Constable on duty. The night being dark, their boat was out of sight before the Inspector could cross the bay with assistance from the Aberdeen Police Station. The second occurred on the night of the 15th October, when a band of robbers, who had landed from a boat on the castern shore of Tsim-Sha-Tsui, broke into and plundered the house of a boat-builder in the village of Mong-Kok-Tsui; Kwok-SING-KIT one of the shop coolies died two days afterwards of a wound received during the attack.

5. I believe the increase in Kidnapping to be only apparent, the total for the past year having been swelled by an unusually large number of suspicious cases brought to trial by the Police, which, upon investigation at the Magistracy, proved to be unfounded.

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6. Verdicts of Felo de Se were returned at no less than thirteen Coroner's Inquests during the year.

7. Judging from the reports of native traders, I fear that Piracy is steadily increasing.

8. As regards Minor Offences, it will be seen that the increase is caused by an advance of nearly per cent in the number of Nuisance cases, and by the large number of Chinese arrested for being out at night without a pass, for assault, and for public gambling. The latter offence, which for reasons explained in my special Report of 6th December, 1877, (C.S.O. No. 2,530), had rapidly increased during the months of May and June, has now been reduced within narrow limits.

9. The daily average number of prisoners in Gaol during the year was 395 compared with 433 the average number during 1876.

POLICE.

1. The conduct of both officers and men has been exceptionally good, and it is satisfactory to find from Table D. that in the entire force only 22 were dismissed for misconduct during the year.