CO129-543-2 Mui Tsai system 4-1-1933 - 11-4-1934 — Page 50

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her daughter was being ill-treated by the employer, who was subsequently charged before a magistrate (a) with keeping an unregistered Mui Tsai and (b) with assault. She was fined $250 on the first charge and the second charge was dismissed, the magistrate remarking that as the girl was not found in the possession of the defendant at the time of arrest, there was not sufficient evidence to sustain a charge.

In the other case an unregistered Mui Tsai complained that she was constantly being beaten by her employer, a Chinese merchant temporarily resident in the colony. The girl was medically examined but, although the Doctor found marks substantiating the girl's statement, he stated that they were so faint that he was not prepared to say the assault amounted to cruelty. This employer was fined $200.

In the remainder of these thirty-three cases,

fines varying from $150 to $5 were inflicted.

Four cases of bringing unregistered Mui Tsai into the colony were recorded, In each case the employer not long after arrival presented herself at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, stating that she desired to register her Mui Tsai. Summonses were taken out in each case and fines varying from $20 to $10 were inflicted. In the ill-treatment case the

defendant was fined $100.

Two employers were charged with failing to

pay wages; one defendant was fined $20 and ordered to

pay arrears of wages amounting to $40;

the other

defendant

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