CO129-072 - Indviduals - 1858 — Page 114

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Memorial

In the early part of the present year the Honorable The Colonial Secretary sent to me for registry a Memorial of a Derd, together with the original Deed which purported to be an assignment of the Leasehold known as the Central Market in this place. On inspection of this document I discovered great informalities; a Mortgage of the Property had previously been registered, but no mention was made in the Deed of the property being in any wise incumbered the consideration specified was ridiculously small in proportion to the value of the property, in fact less in amount than the registered mortgage incumbrance, and I had grounds for belief that the Assignor's death must have occurred exactly about he date of the deed :-The Ordinance for Deed Registry does not however authorize the Registrar to reject any provided that it contains the particulars set forth in a Schedule attached to the Ordinance, and when attested by the oath of a competent person, but by instructions conveyed in an extra Letter from the Colonial Secretary, all Deeds and conveyances by Chinese were ordered to be made to pass through the Office of the Chinese Secretary for investigation, and the Chinese Secretary having concurred in the opinion that the document exhibited general irregularity, the Parties concerned in the Property were sent for and examined, when the Brother of the deceased Assignor alleged the Document to a Forgery, with consent of the Mortgagee however, and according to the Ordinance, the Memorial was eventually registered.

It was at this stage of the proceedings that Wei-Afoon (the brother of the deceased Assignor) stated to me that his Brother had been in the habit of paying to the Honorable Major Caine's Comprador sums of One Hundred and One Hundred and Fifty Dollars per month, which he alleged were extorted by the Honorable Major Caine's order. and had been promised for that Gentleman's interest in obtaining for the deceased Wei-Aqui the holding of the Market Jdid not deem it prudent or right (for reasons which will hereafter be stated to your Lordship) to enquire at that time urther into this assertion, merely telling him that if, as Administrator to his Brother's Estate, he continued holding the Market, and contested the title with the registered Assign (which he had stated his intention of doing) that then I warned I should consider it my duty to bring the him against paying any more such sums, for that if I knew of his doing so,

rcumstance to the notice of the Government for investigation; further advising him to speak with the Honorable Major Caine, or offering to do so for him, and thus put a stop to such extortion; but he would neither speak himself nor allow me to do so, alleging that he felt convinced, and was sure, that it was by the Honorable Major Chine's authority that the money was demanded, and that if the Honorable Major Caine knew that he had mentioned the circumstance to me, he would be so visited as to be forced to leave the Colony.

In thus stating to your Lordship the impression so apparent in the mind of this Man I have not the remotest idea of insinuating that I believed such extortions were made with the direct knowledge of the Honorable Major Chine; I merely wish to exhibit fully to your Lordship the artfulness and power exercised by the Comprador in his nefarious practices: Subsequently these extortions were mentioned to me by several indifferent persons, and were freely spoken of in the Supreme Court, and inet allusion made in a brief submitted to the Attorney General by the Attorney employed by the before mentioned Woon to procure the Letters of Administration to his brother's Estate, and Aoai the Treasury Comprador, amongst others having told me that monthly sums were still taken from Wei-Afoon, and applied to the Honorable Major Caine's I took into my serious consideration the propriety and manner of so bringing the matter forward, as should not fail to lead to an investigation.

About this juncture I was directed by the Surveyor General to prepare a formal application to the Colonial Secretary for a license Market, which Tam-Achoey a Builder employed on Government Works, wished to rect on a Lot of which he was use holder; I prepared and personally delivered the application to the Colonial Secretary, and it was afterwards sent the Surveyor General for reporting on Within a few days Achoey came to my Office and told me that Aon the Treasury Comprador (before mentioned) had been to him and said that the Flonorable Major Caine had sent him to demanda Sum of money to purchase his interest in obtaining the license for long or short periods, and for light or heavy rentals, according to a scale of bonuses which he mentioned, varying from Five to Fifteen Hundred Dollars; on questioning Aoan he said that it was true that Major Caine had told him to demand this money; I then told Achoey I would lay this matter before the Government for investigation, and that Apan would be punished for daring to make this demand which I was assured he had no authority for making; It will appear inexplicable to your Lordship when I state that this Man's reply was to the effect of enjoining me to say nothing whatever of the matter, stating that he would not have told me at all about it, if he thought he should be assisting me in injuring his Countryman Aoan, who could not even have known that he applied for the license, unless Major Caine had told him, and adding that he should offer a bonus of Three Hundred Dollars, for a license of not less than five years duration at Fifty Dollars per month; I immediately went to the Honorable Major Caine, and asked for an answer to the petition from Achooy which I had presented, and I was then informed by the Honorable Major Caine, that he had directed Aoan to ask Achoey what sum per month he would give the Government for the Market, and the term of license which he required, and I am aware that Achoey then sent in a petition in Chinese asking for a license for a term of Ten years. The Survevor General subsequently reported the area intended for the Market to be an-eighth only of the size of the other large Market, the rent proportionably being about Forty Dollars per month, of which I informed Achoey and warned him against giving any

bonus to Aoan whatever.

A Letter in English was afterwards received by Achoey, which I read to him, wherein he was informed that a license would be granted for one year only, at a rental of One Hundred Dollars per month, whereupon Achoey exhibited a good deal of ill will towards me for not having allowed him to give the bonus required, which he fancied would have obtained him a license for the saine rent (viz-Fifty Dollars per month) as was charged upon another Market, recently erected by an English Merchant, of the same size as that for which he had applied. *

To your Lordship's impartial consideration the foregoing detail will have evinced the necessity for a strict investigation and punishment of the criminals concerned; single cases of actual or attempted extortion like the foregoing, caried on with such audacity, tends to the belief that other and more extensive cases of fraud have been long in practice; a portion of the public press of this Colony, has lately teemed with allegations that the other Markets and Farms. together with sources of the most iniquitous description have regularly paid what is termed black mail.

Achoey at my suggestion again applied, and has since got his license for Fifty Dollars per month, without any bonus.

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After much consideration I therefore determined on obtaining a witness to the statement of Wer fon; and for that purpose I informed the Surveyor General of what was said, and desired him to question the said Afoon n the enbject. A perusal of the enclosure No 2 (Letter of date 3rd July 1847, ante) accompanying this letter, will at once exhibit to your Lordship the course taken by me in reference to this matter: an investigation was afterwards made by the Acting Attorney General in his capacity of Grand Jury for the Colony, before whom I stated what I have now related to your Lordship, together I believe with a statement of other reports in which the name of the Honorable Major Caine was used very freely. Of the general nature of the evidence taken at this investigation I am almost entirely ignorant-From His Excellency the Govenor, however before the Members of the Executive Council, I received severe censure and rebuke for the course which I had taken in bringing this matter forward, and in not simply informing the Honorable Major Caine of the reports so current, but to my application for a perusal of the evidence taken, in order to see if other grounds for censure could exist against me, I was refused (as vide enclosure No. 3).

In the matter of the extortion from, the holder of the Central Market I had urged nothing whatever in proof or otherwise of the statements made. I merely exhibited with what impunity the name of the Honorable Major Caine was used by his Compradors to aid them in their ends, but leaving it to that Gentleman to take what measures he deemed fit in order to arrive at the truth of the case; I was as free to believe that Wei-Afoon had raised the reports with a view to injure the characters of the Compradors, as that the Compradors had really attempted the extortion on him, if he had had no proofs to establish his charges; but so far as Aoan was concerned in the other transaction, I directly charged him with having told me that Major Caine had sent him to demand the money; the evidence of T'am-Achoey confirmed my charge, and if further questioned. I could have stated the names of others, both European and Chinese, to whom it was cognizant that this demand had been made.

May I beg of your Lordship to judge then what were my feelings of surprize and indignation at being arraigned by the Honorable Major Caine on a charge of having tampered with this Man Aoan, with a view to injure the character and reputation of the Honorable Major Caine; my object in what I had done was the very reverse of such a motive and I cannot refrain from stating in this place that I have just cause for considering myself hardly used in having been compelled to procure bail for my appearance at the next Sessions, to answer a charge of so grave a nature as that of conspiracy which grew out of this arraignment, and on which I stand singly indicted. The deposition taken at the Magistrate's Court, (a copy of which is marked enclosure No. 4) will place your Lordship in possession of the whole support to this charge.

Enclosure No. 5 infra being copy of a letter replying to the Clerk of Council's intimation of my suspension from Office pending the pleasure of Her Majesty's Government, will show to your Lordship the remonstrance which I have deemed it proper to make against this suspension, to which although a fortnight has elapsed: I have received no reply nor acknowledgment, and it only remains for me to throw myself upon the candid consideration of your Lordship and Her Majesty's Government, and plead that I may without delay be reinstated in my Office from which I deem that I am unjustly suspended for an insufficient cause.

A long acquaintance and consequent insight into the habits of the Chinese, extending,.(through partly a maritime life), over a period of Twelve years to the days of my boyhood when I first came to China, and where I have been some portion of every year since, will I trust have some weight with your Lordship, in the conclusion which you Lordship can but arrive at, ihat, for the sole purpose of injuring Major Caine, I could not so far forget my duty to inyself and to my Family, as to jeopardize my present position, my past services and future prospects, on the word or even oath of a Chinese in the mode which we have of administering it, and which they respect no more when taken, than if not taken at all.

The Chinese Residents of this Colony are generally my Lord, a set of worthless meu,—devoid of all notions of upright principle and integrity;-banded together in secret societies, and governed by clannish rules in every impulse--the principal clans headed by those whom suspicion points at as being expatriated for offences against their own Government-servilely blind in attaining their own ends to whatever kind of extortion may be attempted upon them, by, those whose cunning and position enables them to make such atteinpis.—it behoved ine in the course which I have taken in exposing the extortions apparent to me, to depart from that more straight forward one, which would have led me simply. to have told the Honorable Major Caine that such and such things were done in his name, but, however much I rest under censure for the mode of exposition which I have adopted. I can assure your Lordship of my continued conviction. that a different course would only have defeated the single end I had in view, viz-that, of breaking those links in the chain or system of extortion which it was evident to me existed, and which in its extended ramifications are bearing steadily downwards the best interests of this Colony'; Whilst the assertions of the iniscreants whom I have named remained unchecked, as to the high anthority which they have quoted in support of their demands, every subordinate servant of this Government has been open to the inward contempt and disrespect of the Chinese Community generally, amongst whom these extortions are publickly talked of and believed.

Of the result of the trial of the charges preferred against me there can be, but one opinion. Of the necessity for me to act in the way I have done, I trust I have succeeded in convincing your Lordship; and I confidently rely on the justice of your Lordship and Her Majesty's Government, so that even in the event of your Lordship concurring in the censures of His Excellency the Governor, I trust that I shall not be dispossessed of my employment under the Government for an offence, which can in the most extreme sense, be looked upon only as an error of the judgement.

In conclusion I have to beg the favor of your Lordship's consideration, if in the rude mode of iny address, I have uttered in this letter, a single expression meriting your Lordship's disapproval.

I have the honor, &c.

The Right Honourable The EARL GREY,

H. M.'s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,

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