677911-1882-NOTICE-EMIGRATION- — Page 3

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120 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH FEBRUARY, 1882.

CONTRACT OF SERVICE.

Extracts from despatch No. 126 of the 18th August, 1881, from Governor SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY K.C.M.G., TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY.

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for the "The Harbour Master's letter to Your Lordship ostensibly raises a question very proper Emigration Officer to raise, namely, what is a contract of service under our Emigration laws and the "instructions of the Secretary of State. On that point he and I do not agree, for he thinks a contract "of service must be a written contract.

"For some years he was in the habit of passing as 'free emigrants under no contract of service "'whatever' the Chinese who were taken to Honolulu after entering into verbal agreements in Hongkong "that they would work off their passage money by two years' service on the sugar plantations of "the Sandwich Islands.

"When this was brought to my notice by some Chinese gentlemen in 1878, I took the responsi- "bility of declining to issue my licence for such Emigration as free Emigration; and with Sir MICHAEL "HICKS BEACH'S approval, the system which had been tolerated for some years was stopped.

"In the year 1878, Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON, the Governor of Singapore, drew my attention to the "fact that the Emigration Officer at Hongkong passed as 'free Emigrants under no contract of service,' "certain Chinese girls some of whom had been purchased in Hongkong and some of whom had sold "themselves for considerable sums on a verbal contract to do service for two years, sometimes three years, as prostitutes in the licensed brothels of Singapore. The United States Consul in Hongkong represented to me also, more than once, that in endeavouring to check the traffic to California of "Chinese girls who had entered into verbal contracts of Brothel service, he felt compelled to rely on "the assistance of the Committee of the Tung Wa Hospital.

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"To some of these representations Captain THOMSETT answered in words similar to what he uses "in the first report of his own (dated 20th July 1880) he now submits to Your Lordship, viz. :-

Kidnapped cases can be stopped, but no others unless it can be proved that a written contract "has been entered into.

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Although I entertain no doubt as to the accuracy of the opinions given by Mr. BRAMSTON and "Mr. O'MALLEY that there may be a verbal as well as a written contract of service, I have referred "Captain THOMSETT's letter to the Attorney General for a report."

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Extract from Despatch dated Downing Street, 15th November, 1881, from the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to Governor SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 126 of the 18th of August enclosing a letter from Captain THOMSETT relative to a difficulty which has arisen in respect to his "duties as Emigration Officer, and I have also to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. TONNOCHY'S despatch "No. 12 of the 10th of October forwarding the Attorney General's report upon this letter.

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"The main point at issue appears to be what constitutes a contract of service, and I concur generally with you in thinking that it is not necessary that every such contract should be in writing : indeed, that such has always been the view held by Government is proved by the fact that it has "been held necessary to examine each so called free emigrant before allowing him to proceed on 'board; and care must be taken that these examinations are not allowed to become less searching "than they were intended to be, and to degenerate into a mere form.

"The further question then arises whether and advance of passage money and an undertaking to repay it constitutes a contract of service, and it appears to me that in some cases it does, in others it "does not.

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"In my opinion an advance of money from one man to another for passage expenses which the “borrower is to repay out of his wages, does not amount to a contract of service, even though the arrangement be reduced to writing: on the other hand a similar advance which is to be worked out "in service to the creditor or to any persons whom the creditor may name, constitutes a contract of "service even though the arrangement be not embodied in writing.

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"I am unable to see that the opinions of the Attorney General referred to in these papers are at "variance with the propositions thus stated, and it may be laid down to be the duty of the Emigration "Officer to satisfy himself as far as possible on what terms in any case the loan has been obtained by "the so-called free Emigrant; whether on simple condition of repayment or on that of working out "the debt by service to a specified person or persons.'