CO129-007 - Sir John Davis - 1844 — Page 213

Penalty.

Exemptions.

Tepos to send in returns when called for,

Return to be made by Householders.

Fees.

Boats &c. to be registered,

Boat fee.

Penalty on Boat owners &c.

Masters of Chinese vessels to report themselves.

And be it further enacted and ordained That if any person liable to be registered under the provisions of this Ordinance shall be found residing in the said Colony for the space of 24 hours without having been registered he shall be liable to a penalty of not more than 20 dollars. Provided always that nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to persons employed on board Ships of War or to Officers or Seamen belonging to Merchant Vessels lying in the harbour or roads of Victoria who previous to landing shall obtain from the Master or said Officer in charge of the said vessels leave to go ashore in writing under his hand.

Penalty on preceeding.

Penalty on Evasion of this ordinance.

And be it further enacted and ordained that all headmen or Tepos shall be bound to give a return when called upon by the said registering officer of the names and occupation together with the particulars hereinbefore set forth of all person residing in their respective villages or districts and shall specify in the said return the number of the house according to the Register and the number of persons residing in each house and shall be liable to a penalty of not more than 20 dollars for each and every person hereby required to be registered found residing within their respective villages or districts without being duly registered as aforesaid or whom they shall not have reported to or caused to be brought before the said registering officer.

And be it enacted and ordained that the said Registrar General or such other Officer so to be appointed as aforesaid shall if he or they think fit cause to be delivered or left at the residence or place of business of any householder or householders a blank return to be filled up before a certain day to be therein named with the names and numbers of persons in his or their employment or residing within his or their house or houses or on his or their premises and that on or after the said day named in the said blank return the said householder or householders is or are hereby required to transmit the said return so filled up to the said Registrar General or such other officer so to be appointed as aforesaid and on failure to do so the said householder or householders shall be liable to a penalty of 20 dollars each.

And be it further enacted and ordained that the following fees shall be taken for registration and shall be received by the Registrar General or such other officer so to be appointed as aforesaid at the time of the granting of the Registration Ticket. For registering any person being a Merchant Shop keeper or Comprador or being in the receipt of a monthly income of 20 dollars or upwards the sum of 5 dollars.

For registering any person being a servant clerk mechanic or in the receipt of a monthly income not exceeding 20 dollars and not less than 10 dollars the sum of 3 dollars.

For registering any person being a coolie boatman or labourer or being in receipt of a monthly income of less than 10 dollars the sum of 1 dollar.

And be it further enacted and ordained that all lighters bumboats ferry boats and other vessels plying for hire within the harbours and waters of this Colony shall be duly registered with the number and description of the crew and of the persons living therein by the said Registering Officer or such other officer so to be appointed as aforesaid the said particulars to be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose and a certificate of such registry shall be given to the master or head man of such lighter bamboat ferry boat or other vessel the number of such registry to be legibly painted in some conspicuous part of such lighter humboat ferry boat or other vessel. And be it further enacted and ordained that a fee shall be levied on every certificate of Registry so granted according to the rate of 6d per registered Ton or if the boat be under one Tun then 6d. for such boat and in the case of Chinese vessels after the rate of 6d for every 20 peculs.

And be it further enacted and ordained that if any person not having previously obtained such certificate of Registry and not having painted the number on such lighter humboat ferry-boat or other vessel as is hereinbefore provided shall let or hire or cause to be let or hired any such lighter bumboat ferry-boat or other vessel within the waters of the said Colony or shall show a false certificate of Registry or one granted for another vessel or shall permit or connive at the said certificate being made use of for another vessel or shall paint or exhibit a false number on the said lighter bumboat ferry boat or other vessel he shall for every such offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding 100 dollars.

And be it further enacted and ordained that all masters of Chinese vessels frequenting the waters of this Colony shall report themselves immediately upon their arrival in such waters and previous to their departure to the Registering Officer who shall grant them a certificate of entry or clearance on payment of a fee to be levied in accordance with a scale hereafter at any time to be published by the Governor in Council and subject to such alterations as the Governor in Council may at any time declare.

And be it further enacted and ordained that every master of a Chinese vessel who shall not conform to the provisions of the section herein before last mentioned shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding 20 dollars.

And be it further enacted and ordained that if any person shall wilfully conceal or falsify the particulars of any information required of him for the purposes of this Ordinance or shall on applying to be registered give a false name or description or shall transfer or lend his registration ticket to any other person or shall wear or show the registration ticket of another as his own for the purpose of evading the provisions of this Ordinance he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 30 dollars. And be it further enacted and ordained that all penalties enforced by this Ordinance shall be recovered in a summary manner before any Police Magistrate and that one moiety thereof shall go and be paid to the informer and in default of payment the party shall be liable to imprisonment for any time not exceeding two calendar months.

Passed the Legislative Council of Hongkong, this 21st day of August 1844.

A. E. SHELLEY, Clerk of the Councils.

JOHN FRANCIS DAVIS, Governor, &c. &c.

HONGKONG.-Published by Authority.

Printed by Jous CarK. In 230 H tong

To His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong and its Dependencies and the Honorable Members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong.

HONORABLE SIRS-We respectfully beg to address you with reference to Ordinance No. 17 of 1844 entitled "An Ordinance for Establishing a Registry of the Inhabitants of the "Island of Hongkong and its Dependencies."-- passed the Legislative Council the 21st August last and published for the first time in the Friend of China of the 19th October to come into force the 1st November.

The it may not be strictly within our province to question the Policy of the publication of any ordinance, whether urgent or unimportant its principles and details, not taking place until within the short space of twelve days of the period of its coming into operation we cannot but express our regret that an Ordinance so materially affecting both public and private interests, which appears to have been passed so far back as the 21st August last, should not have been made known to us until within so short a period of our being called upon to acknowledge it as law-thus depriving us the opportunity of making that due representation of our opinions against such enactments as may appear to us to bear hard upon our interests: a privilege, which as being unrepresented in the Legislative Council, we think is our due considering the important interests we have at stake in the Colony. To these circumstances we pray you to attribute the lateness of our present address and not to any indifference to the subject at issue.

With these preliminary observations, we desire, therefore to represent to your Excellency and the respective Honorable Members of your Council the unfeigned, and extreme repugnance with which we have read the Ordinance in question and to enter our formal and declared Protest against the Principles that it involves.

Principles-We do not hesitate to say as unjust as they are arbitrary and unconstitutional taxing British subjects unrepresented in the most iniquitous of forms, authorizing the most unheard of inquisitorial proceedings, without appeal or remedy, and placing the very power of residence to British subjects whose name may have hitherto been unsullied and unsuspected in the hands of any one individual.

Further-We consider that the Law in question is opposed in its details to one of the great objects struggled for during the late war with the Chinese Empire, and against which special provision was made in the Treaty of Nankin-namely, the unchristian principle of holding one men responsible for the acts of another.

Again-We would represent that the effect of this enactment if carried out will interfere with the labor and consequent prosperity of the Colony-inasmuch, as many of us have entered into contracts upon the faith of leases taken from your Government at enormous rentals, which must now either be broken or delayed from the demur that the contractor will make to introduce laborers for their fulfilment whilst the despotism that is apparent in this act, will induce many respectable Chinese who have now sufficient difficulty in paying the heavy house rent in this Colony entirely to abandon the place, and deter others from taking up their residence amongst us.

Moreover-We give it as our unqualified opinion that the carrying out of the details of this Ordinance will be found impracticable, as well as inefficacious for the object sought to be attained, that the principle that it involves is even more stringent than has ever yet been applied to a penal settlement and we confidently assert is repugnant to the feelings of every Honorable British subject.

With the above representation of our views of and Protest against this Ordinance we would pray your Excellency in Council either to modify its details so as to remove the intolerance of the principles that it gives law to, or to cause the operation of it to be suspended until reference can be made to the Home Government as we cannot suppose that such a measure can receive the sanction of Her most gracious Majesty.

T. A. Gibb, Alexr. Matheson, Dond. Matheson, Wm. Stewart, John B. Compton, H. Bowring, Wm. W. MacIver, J. M. de Outeiro, J. Goddard, Joao Ant. Barretto, A. da Silveira, F. A. Rangel, C. F. Still, Wm. Matheson, Joseph Jardine, Augus. Howell, James Grant,

We have the honor to be, Honorable Sirs, Your most obedient Servants,

(Signed) A. GIBB.

Thomas Roskelly, H. J. Carr, H. Clarke, Augt. Carter, Angus Fletcher, Dan. Fletcher, Alexander McGregor, Geo. Findlay, Robert Strachan, A. W. MacPherson, Ths. W. L. Mackean, Pat Dudgeon, Duncan Jas. Kay, W. H. Wardley, Alex. Abo. Small, S Rawson, G. R. G. Jones, Thomas Longshaw, James Smith, G. R. Winslow, J. W. Vesey, Richd. Oswald, Dan. Disandt, D. Hume, Auton Cacho, N. Boulle, Martin Ford, M Gabriel, J. P. St. George, Joy. Collins, Jno. Ms Murray, Saul Coben, Char. Markwick, G. N. Norris, W. Henry, Framjee Jamsetjee, Juo. Cairns, W. Scott, A. Maclean, R, Hunte, K, McKennedy, Jno. Carr, E. Farncombe, M. McEwen, J. Phillips, E. Cohen. F. Woods. Adam Scott, I. Dundas, N. Duus, F. Funck, Crawford Kerr, D. Lapraik, John Burd, Danl. S. Proctre, F. Saunders, John Holliday. M. Fischer. Thos. Kirby, H. B. Braham, R. Bremridge, Chas. Bowra, W. A. Bowra, Thomas Bridseyc, A. H. Fryer, T. A. Lane, P. Townsend, James Welch, C. K. Stocker, R. Barrett, M. W. Pitcher A. Melville, Turston Dale, Y. J. Murrow. Wm. Hel.... Jno. Walker, Jno. Brimelow, Thos. Walton Hawkins, C. Milne, Mark Denham, C. Hughesdon, H. Rutter, Geo. Napier, G. Hume, J. A. Hulbert T. Jones, J. H. Tiedeman, A. Gutierres, A. M. Mathieson, F. P. Porter