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The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, Auover Isr, 1891.
Enclosure
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Legislative Council was held yesterday afternoon. There were present:-
His Excellency Major-General DOBY BAR- KER, C.B.. Acting Governor.
Hon. W. M. GOODMAN, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Hon. A. J LEACH. Acting Aftorney-General. Hon J. H. STEWART-LOCKHART, Registrar General.
Hon. N. G, MITCHELL-INNES, Colonial Treasurer.
Hon. S. Brows, Surveyor-Genoral.
Hon. Ho KAI.
Hon. J. J. KESWICK,
Hou. T. H WHITEHEAD.
Mr. A. M. THOMSON, Acting Clerk of Councils.
THE SUNDAY CARGO-WORKING ORDINANCE
AMENDMENT BILL.
Hon, T. H. WHITEHEAD-I rise, sir, to move the second reading of the Bill entitled an Or- dinance to amend the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinanes, 1591. I am aware that your Ex- oellency has received a telegram from the Se- erotary of State announcing that Her Majesty' the Queen has approved of the Sunday Cargo. working Ordinance. Notwithstanding that. I have been asked to still move the second reading of this bill. The Secretary of State has hoard only one side of the question vnd I think it is very desirable and very necessary that he should hear the other side. At the Inst meeting of Council I laid upon the tabla copies of the memorial from most of the ship- ping firms and others in the Colony and also copy of the memorial which is being signed by the Chinese. I also laid on the table oopy of a letter from the senior auofficial member and my- self to the Secretary of State in connection with the Sunday Cargo working Ordinance. Outside the reasons mentioned in the memorials and the letter in question I have very little more to say. I beg to move the second reading of the Bill entitled an Ordinance to amend the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinancs, 1891. The senior unofficial member promised that he would second the motion, but unfortunately he is absent. Hou HO KAL--Sir, I beg to second the pro- posal to have this Bill read a second time. I see that it seeks nothing beyond the extension of the time at which the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinance is to come into force. It does not strike at the root of the Ordinance, but simply seeks to gain a little time until the Secretary of State can be communicated with by those who are opposed to the Ordinance, and on those grounds I accord it my support. Personally, as I have shown by voting for the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinance when it was before the Council, my sympathy is with those who are trying to obtain one day's rest out of the seven, whether there be one thousand won in the colony who are affected by it or only one, As I myself wish to have my Sunday rest, I also wish that everybody else may have the same. But at the same time 1 cannot shut my eyes
to the opinion of others and no doubt there are in the colony a very large number of shipping firms and merchants who are opposed to the Ordinance, and in one way they have been treated in a very shabby manner, because when the Bill came before the Council some time ago it was certainly forced through. True outside of this Council they have had plenty of opportunities of criticising it and remarking
o it, but when the Bill was in Council it was to a great extent hurried through. The hon. umber on my right who proposes the present Bill and the senior unofficial member were absent, and I proposed that the second read. ing should be adjourned, also the going into Committee and the third reading, in order to allow those two unofficial members to have au opportauity of discussing it in Council. But to that His Excellency Sir G. William Dos Voeux replied that he could not wait any longer, because i he wished to have the Bill passed before he went i away two days afterwards, and if I persevered with my proposition another meeting must be
summoned
No wi
C. O.
17887
summoned immediately for the day following. Finding it impossible for one member to effec tually oppose the thing I withdraw my bi tion. Now the objectors to the Sunday. Cargo-working Ordinance come and ask for au extension of two months before the moxsure comes into operation and I think they are fairly entitled to it, and those who have gained their object can, I think, without any injury to themselves wait another two months for it, especially when we know the Secretary of State has telegraphed out sauntioning the Ordinance, They may. I think, afford to he generous in allowing their opponents to have their say and an opportunity of bringing their opposition before the Secretary of State and Her Majesty's Government. For these reasons I second the motion for the second reading of the Bill now before the Council.
HIS EXCELLENCY-Notwithstanding what the hon. member who has just sat down has said about the object of the Bill, this Bill though purporting to amend has clearly for its object. and its sole object, the repeal of the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinance." That Ordinance has been passed by this Council-somewhat hurriedly I admit, owing to special circum. stances it has received Her Majesty's a3- sent, and it comes into force to-morrow, I considor nothing but the most extraordinary and argout circumstances would justify its re peal before its working is tested. Now, what ; are the circumstances? The contention that the Ordinance was passed throngh the Council too hurriedly was exhaustively treated in the petition from the two hon. members opposed to it which has been alluded to by the hon. mover of the motion. That petition I forwarded on the 11th June the Secretary of State, who thorefore had before him all that was to be arged on that score, and not only on that score, but to a certain extent on the merits of the Bill, which were also gono into in that petition, when he informed me that the Ordinance was ap- proved. Then as regards the changes intro- duced by the Ordinance, did they meet with any general xpression of dissent in the Colony ? Did the Press indicate that public feeling was against them? Were petitions placed in public or convenient places and notice given that they were there in order that those who felt strongly cut the subject might have an opportunity of re- cording promptly and voluntarily their feeling of dissent? I have beard of nothing of the kin l. All I have seen is a petition which was taken round to invite signatures, which has only after difficulty been completed in two and a half mouths after the Ordinance was passed. It bears 247 signatures, including those of a large uumber of men who can have little real interest in the matter; 26 appear twice, that is, in two capacities; and the large firms are not unanim. ously represented: We hear that a petition is also coming from the Chinese. Well, I have reason to know that very various views are held on the sub ject by them, aud in any case, this is a British. not a Chinese po-session, and the seventh day of rest is the birthright of an Englishman. "On the other hand I find that petitions in favour of such a law have been received by the Govern- mont boaring the signatures of 579 who are being deprived of that birthright and of 164 residents in this colony who sympathise with them, making a total of 743. I find that in all the Treaty Ports of China a similar enator to this is practically in force, and that it is reserved for the English free port of Hongkong to be the most un-English of thew ull. I have not yet seen any arguments which I consider would justify this Government in tak- ing the extraordinary course which is proposed to them. The Ordinance having passed this Conncil and received the royal assent I can be no party to undoing it. The Government therefore oppose the second reading of the Bill now before the Council and propose that the Sunday Cargo-working Ordinance shall at all events have a fair trial, as the present system has had its trial.
A division was then taken on the motion that the Bill be read a second time.
FOR.
Hon. T. H. Whitehead Hon. Ho Kai
AGAINST Hon. J. J. Keswick The Surveyor-General The Colonial Treasurer
The Registrar General
The Acting Attorney.General
The Acting Colonial Secretary The Acting Governor
Motion lost by a majority of seven to two.
649
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