是
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH JUNE, 1880.
or pauper is not• a very hard one in
There are infirmaries for the aged of h sexes, asylums for the blind, homes for the
pers, and orphanages in Canton and elsewhere.
gers have their homesteads everywhere along
rivers in the Canton Province, and levy their - som the river traffic. Professional beggars make tair homes in temples, and are formed into guilds and receive quarterly allowances and semi-annual
blic dinners from mercantile corporations.
No shopkeeper dares to turn away a beggar though
may keep him waiting for a handful of rice or a cash some hours at a time. Nevertheless,
perism is treated by the Chinese as the viance of Divine Judgiuent, as a pre-destined
Camity. Chinese charity, though it does afford
#led to paupers, treats pauperism in such a Preet way that it leaves pauperism, in spite
the relief afforded to individuals, its innate
garacter of a misfortune. Indeed the experience
Europe has also served to teach, what the
Linese maintain, that we must leave pauperism
we find it, viz., as a misfortune, or else we
isou by misdirected charity the first springs of
lustry, thrift and self-help and put a premium
imposture, improvidence and pauperism. The
chinese are habitually temperate, thrifty, provi-
dent and loyally devoted to the duties of filial
ety and the obligations of social ties. If the
bertainty of subsistence, be it ever so scanty, were
l out by law to the destituite of Hongkong, it. would tend to undermine the moral tone, the thritt aud frugal industry of the Chinese. Where rge classes of the population, as in Europe, are
habitually intemperate, or where, as in many
agricultural districts of the United Kingdom, Here is an unsatisfiictory diffusion of property and where wages are too low to provide for the hurer's future, Poor Laws and Poor Rates justifiable. But as none of these conditions
tist here, any dealing with panperism in Hong- g on the model of English, Irish or Scotch Poor Laws is not only uncalled for but would al to produce here those same deplorable features
European pauperism. Again, both in Europe and in the United States, it has been found that State aid given directly to the poor tends to
essen the exercise of filial and domestic duties, very virtues in which Chinese at present excel. th the other hand, whilst all pampering of pau- is is to be earnestly deprecated, as anything adding to encourage habitual reliance on the aid others is fatal to energy, self-help and industry, on the other hand a system of brute barbarisin, has flogging and deportation, and the utter nce of Government care for the destitute, is pally or even more fural to the interests of the itutes and the State. As judicious aid en- ges self-help and places the destitute into #position that he shall never require aid 9. so the refusal of all aid and assistance and boru sterness of the deterrent policy which
ent but the cell- or the lash and no kindly
help, and treats poverty as a crime and rely
as a misfortune, causes loss of hope
stige paralyzes all energy and drives to despair. The usual number of suicides
之寶國英文者此所聯
云只須監牢鞭笞已耳而絕不施一指一臂之力以窘爲愆尤不以爲不幸如此實使人喪膽寒心手足無措而絕諸望也香港自盡之案其多異常每 之持籌妙箕受害尤甚夫助人者貴使人自助卽使彼窮籍之人設法不須求助於將來反乎此則堅拒不與一毛不拔惟以殘忍之心猛烈攔阻之法卽 實傷其活潑自力辛勤蓋以殘忍之心行猛烈之政即如鞭笞遷徙窮窘之人而於窮窘之事則一指不動此亦未掌無害且於窮人之困苦頭連及國家 國家巡賜貧人此事多傷行孝謹守五常等善卽華人現在勝比別國所有者要之又有反乎此者雖然惠此無賴之人必須施與因凡使靠他人資助者 英埃蘭蘇格蘭濟貧人例所有之法而待本港無賴則不但行所不當行且使歐洲無賴可惜之情形植於香港也更有一端歐洲美洲諸人素諳此理凡 又如英國各縣踕人其中貧富不齊且傭工者獲值無多不足爲預後計如是則立養貧人例輸貧人餉亦理所宜然但因香港未嘗有此情形故若效大 者浸假國家應承必養港中窮窘者之命雖所給無多而使成例誠足傷壞華人所守五常及節制廉儉之品卽如歐洲黎庶數等人中每多蕩檢踰闊省 此乃由不幸所生庶免輕與傷惠適足壞波辛勤節儉自食其力之道而犒彼遊蕩無慮無賴之徒桉華人原是節儉慮後且以孝爲貴而謹守五常 所有周郦無賴流民亦慎施與故濟彼窮窘而亦未嘗忘此本由不幸而生據實言之歐洲各國之人運來學得華人向所知者即理此無賴之徒頌勿忘 聯會按季捐簽而各行會館每逢年節賞以酒餚又有托砵門前八立乞得撮米交錢而店舖之人亦未嘗逐之使去要之華人以窮窘爲天報愆 羊城等處建有老人院瞽口院育嬰堂痳瘋院等且彼瘋人在廣東各江河傍立有村落又向來往舟船乞收錢米而乞兒等藉各處廟堂爲其鼐宅又每
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