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The Hongkong Telegraph
HONGKONG, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1882.
THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
The proceedings at the meeting of the Legis- lative Council held yesterday afternoon were of such an important and interesting character that we consider it advisable to publish a verbatim report, reserving our editorial comments on the annual statement made by His Excellency the Governor for another issue. At yesterday's meeting there were present:-
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR. Hon. F. SNOWDEN, Acting Chief Justice. Hon. M. S. TONNOCHY, Acting Colonial Secre-
tary.
Hon. E. L. O'MALLEY, Attorney-General. Hon. W. M. DEANE, Acting Colonial Trea-
surer.
Hon. P. KYRIE.
Hon. NG CHOY.
Hon. F. BULKELEY JOHNSON,
Hon. E. R. BELILIOS.
MINUTES.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirined.
A POINT OF ORDER,
Hon. F. B. JONHSON-1 rise, sir, to a point of order.
His EXCELLENCY-The hon, member is out of order in doing so. The Order Book states that the first business before the Council to-day is "the Governor's statement on opening the ses sion of 1882." I should think this is the first time in any colony in which when that appeared upon the Order Book any honourable member endeavoured to interpose between the Governor and his annual statement to the members of the Council. I trust such an occurence will not take place again at this Council table.
THE COVERNOR'S ANNUAL STATEMENT. His EXCELLENCY--Honourable gentlemen of the Legislative Council, opening the Legisla tive session of 1882 I have to inform you that the Queen has been graciously pleased to con- firm and allow thirteen of the fourteen Ordin- ances which were passed in 1881. Of these Or-! dinances, No. 1 of 1881, the Macao Extradition Ordinance, is one which deals with a question which engaged the attention of my predecessors for forty years, and 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, never- theless the advantage of it will be felt by the Governments of Macao and Hongkong, for the Executives of both colonies will now be enabled to deal with fugitive criminals in a way that they could not before. Ordinance No. 3 of 1881, the Penal Laws Amendment Ordinance, now con- firmed by the Queen, is not the least important reform in colonial penal laws that has been effected in our time. It repeals or amends ten Ordinances, some of them of exceptional severity, and all practically directed against one race only. The Ordinance gives permanent legis lative 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 Hongkong, except for such offences as entail flogging in England, or to al low flogging on the back. The impolitic system now abolished by the Queen and the legislature of this Colony, though devised for the suppres sion 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-
423
kong. I have no wish, gentlemen, to weary you with statistics, but I may perhaps quote the au- thentic figures which have recently been put be fore me with reference to the class of crimes which some years ago caused so much alarm throughout the Colony. I take the four years during which, as I have just mentioned, under the exercise of the Royal prerogative, I practi- cally suspended those penal laws which Her Majesty has now abolished. In 1878 cases of m der numbered seven, and this number was duced to four in 1879; in 1880 there was one case, and in 1881 two cases. Of cases of robbery with violence from the person, the number was 35 in 1878, 39 in 1879, 25 in 1880, and 19 in 1881. Cases of burglary, or larceny from dwe ling houses, amounted to 113 in 1878, to rotin 1879, to 53 in 1880, and to 60 in 1881. There were two assaults with intent to rob in 1880, al none in 1881. Taking the total of these really grave crimes, which caused so much apprehen sion and alam, in 1878 they amounted to 173 in 1879 to 145, in 1880 to 81, and in 1881 to 31. The only other class of crime to which I will refer is one which has engaged a good deal of the attention of his honour the Chief Justice, and that is kidnapping. With reference to that crime, you are aware that Lord Kimber- ley instructed me to approve in his name of a Chinese society, which now deals practically with the suppression of that crime, acting in con- cert with the Captain Superintendent of Police. The consequence is that the smallest number of kidnapping cases that occurred in the four years I have referred to was in 1881, when we had only so such cases. This, I believe, is owing to the operations of the Chinese so- ciety, the skill and energy of the police force, and the action of the Supreme Court in passing heavy sentences on those who are convicted of that offence. I believe that by these means the principal kidnappers are at the present moment locked up in our gaol. Amongst the other Ordinances passed in 1881, is Ordinance No. 14, the Companies' Ordinance, which intro- duced some reforms that were pressed upon my attention by my honourable friend, the senior un- official member of the Legislative Council. It is an Ordinance that facilitates the work of those commercial associations that are doing so much! to utilise the surplus capital of the Colony. In connection with the Appropriation Ordinance for 1882, which her Majesty has sanctioned, 1 am laying to-day upon the table some dispatches and some financial papers. The financial papers I am putting before you consist, as usual, of the comparative statements of revenue and expendi- ture of the past year in comparison with that of the preceding year-that is the statement of 1881, compared with that of 1880. I find that the revenue for the year 1881 amounted to over $1,100,000, being the largest revenue ever collect- ed in this Colony. You are aware that for some years past i have impressed upon you the fact that in my opinion it was not proper to treat as actual revenue the proceeds of the sale of Crown lands. The proceeds of the sale of Crown lands I have always held to represent the capital of the Colony, and therefore in the figures I shall give to you, I do not include that important item. But adding that item, we find that the sum actually collected amounts to $1,309,428. The receipts of the preceding year amounted to $1,056,000, and thus last year the amount collected was more than a quarter of a million in excess of that of the preceding year. I shall refer later on to the question of the land revenue, and at present I will only ask your attention to a few of the items in some of the principal heads of revenue. I find for instance taking the item of stamp revenue that the total sum collected in 1881 amounted to $173,641, in the preceding year it had reached $127,623 showing an increase of $46,000. In looking through the stamp Returns, I find an increase under a great majority of items. Bank notes in: circulation, bills of exchange, bank cheques, bills of lading, bottomry bonds, chaiter parties, transfer of shares, ordinary adhesive stamps, and a large item for conveyances and assignments. This, 1 need hardly tell you, is the largest revenue ever collected under our Stamp Ordinance. I might also say that when we called upon the Collector of stamps in 1880 to estimate the amount which
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