238
[No. 117.]
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy, C.M.G., to the Right Honourable
The Earl of Carnarvon.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 15th September, 1877,
[No. 164.]
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy, C.M.G., to the Right Honourable The Earl of Carnarvon.
GOVERNMENT House, HONGKONG, 22nd November, 1877.
MY LORD,-With reference to my Despatches on the evils of the associated prison system in this Polony, and to your Lordship's instructions in the Despatch No. 45 of the 7th of May last directing to call on the Surveyor General for plans of the alterations necessary for adapting the Gaol to the parate System, I have now the honour to transmit to Your Lordship Mr. Price's Report, accom- anied by plans and a condensed estimate of the cost.
My Lord,---I have from time to time furnished your Lordship with information showing that thee Gaol is not as efficient an instrument in the suppression of crime as it ought to be, and I have also pointed out what seems to me a grave error in the Administration of Justice, that is, the imposition of repeated
short sentences on old offenders.
But whilst I hope, in course of time, to make some reforms in those two subjects, there is a third element in the suppression of crime with respect to which I venture to ask for your Lordship's assistance: I mean the establishment of a system of transportation.
Your Lordship will perceive that owing to the inadequacy of the actual Gaol accommodation, its necessary enlargement and modifications will involve an expenditure of $95,000.
The transportation of long sentenced criminals, however, as shown by the Surveyor General, would do away with the necessity for a new detached wing and would reduce the outlay to 844,800, or less than one half, a circumstance which makes me the inore hopeful of your Lordship's favourable con- deration of my Despatches Nos. 117 of 15th September, 121 of 21st September, and No. 155 of 7th November, 1877, with reference to Labuan as a convict settlement for Hongkong.
As to the works particularized by Mr. PRICE, I may remind your Lordship that this town is matter of extreme difficulty to effect subsequent extensions.
In the year 1857, Sir JOAN BOWRING was authorized to transport to Labuan sixty of the worst class of Hongkong criminals. Soon after I arrived at Labuan I applied to the Secretary of State for permission to get a hundred convicts from Singapore. With Sir HARRY ORD's co-operation this was done; and I found the comparatively large number of Chinese convicts I then had to deal with, could be managed without much difficulty, and that their work was most beneficial to Labuan. The large wharilt on a strongly marked slope, and that once a building site has been levelled and laid our, it is a in the Harbour alongside of which steamers can take in coal, the fish market, the beginning of the railway to Tanjong Kubong, the heaviest part of the overground work at the colliery, the drainage of the land where I put the barracks of the new armed Police Force, all these things were done by the Hongkong and Singapore convicts.
On the other hand, the arrangement was of manifest advantage at the moment to Hongkong and Singapore. But as the system was not kept up, its benefit to the two larger Colonies soon ceased.
What I now propose is that your Lordship should authorize me to arrange with the Governor Labuan the transportation from time to time of convicts from Hongkong,
of
These difficulties of level, no less than
the want of room, will account for the somewhat close juxtaposition of the buildings and the absence
more capacious airing yards.
There is no doubt the present Gaol is unfortunately placed. Sir HERCULES ROBINSON's plan of having a convict prison on Stone Cutter's Island would have prevented some of the serious evils of overcrowding and association to which it has been my duty from time to time to refer. Looking however to your Lordship's instructions, I have confined myself to considering such alterations only as may be essential in the existing Gaol in the Town of Victoria.
I have, &c.,
To save time, I have written to Governor UsSHER asking him to consider the question and lay his views before your Lordship. I have the honour to enclose a copy of the letter I have addressed to him. The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice SNOWDEN, the Members of my Executive Council and the un-official Members of the Legislative Council, all approve of the idea, and agree in thinking that the transport The Right Honourable The EARL OF CARNARVON, ation from time to time of our worst criminals to Labuan would do more than anything else to put a check to the increase of crime in Hongkong.
The Right Honourable The EARL of Carnarvon,
[No. 121.]
I have, &c.,
J. POPE HENNESSY, Governor.
[No. 48.]
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
$c.,
$0.
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy, C.M.G., to the Right Honourable The Earl of Carnarvon.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 21st September, 1877. My Loan, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt to-day of a Telegraphic Despatch from Your Lordship in the following terms:--
Twentieth, Governor (of) Labuan reports arrangements for despatch of Coolies from
"Hongkong. Grant all proper facilities."
in Labuan.
In reference to this subject I beg to lay before your Lordship copies of the correspondence which has already passed, by which your Lordship will observe that I had long since given instructions the everything should be done in Hongkong to facilitate the despatch of Coolies to work the coal mine There is also however another method of assisting the Government of Labuan in developing the natural resources of that Colony, and to this I have referred in my Despatch No. 117 of 15th instant in which I have requested your Lordship to sanction the transportation of Hongkong Chinese Convict to Labuan. Judging from past experience there can be no doubt that the interests of both Colonic would be promoted by such an arrangement.
The Right Honourable The EARL OF CARNARVON,
I have, &c.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
ge.,
ge.
c.,
J. POPE HENNESSY, Governor.
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonics,
de.
J. POPE HENNESSY, Governor.
The Right Honourable Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Bart., M. P., to His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy, CM.G.
DOWNING STREET.
6th June, 1878. SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 164, of the 22nd of November, relating to proposed improvements in the Victoria Gaol, and enclosing plans prepared by the Surveyor General for this purpose.
2. I am aware that in drawing these plans, Mr. PRICE has conformed to the instructions contained in paragraph 6 of my Predecessor's Despatch, No. 45, of the 7th of May, 1877, and I fully appreciate the care which he has bestowed upon them, but after due consideration of the subject, I am of opinion that they will not provide the accommodation required.
It may
3. I observe that both you and the Surveyor General refer to the question of the reconstruction of the Gaol as dependent on the project of transporting long sentenced criminals to Labuan. be convenient, therefore, that I should at once state that I am not at present prepared to entertain this suggestion, and that any scheme for the improvement of the prison discipline in the Colony should proceed on the assumption that Hongkong will have to provide accommodation for the whole of its own criminals.
a
Such
4. Keeping this decision in view, it will be evident that Mr. PRICE's plans for the enlargement of the existing Gaol, while they scarcely meet even the present requirements of the Colony, are open to objection on the grounds which he has himself indicated in paragraph 16 of his letter to the Colonial Secretary, viz., that the size of the airing yards, already small, will be still further diminished.
diminution of the prison yards together with the crowding of fresh buildings on the present site would be highly detrimental both to the discipline and the sanitary condition of the prison, and on this ground, it will be necessary to abandon Mr. PRICE's proposal.
5. It has been suggested as a mode of meeting the difficulty that the prisoners should be divided, and a second prison built outside the town, but as at present advised, I consider it wholly out of the question to establish two separate prisons in so small a Colouy.
6. Two alternatives present themselves, the one being to enlarge the existing prison by acquiring and building on additional ground in the immediate neighbourhood: the other to abandon the present buildings and erect a wholly new prison on a different site.
7. As regards the acquisition of additional ground, an extension raay apparently be sought either above or below the present site; that is to say, it would seem feasible either to resume the leases of the land immediately above Chancery Lane and carry the Gaol up to Caine Road, (at the same time
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