684139-1880-Treatment-of-Paupers-in-Hongkong- — Page 8

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 9TH JUNE, 1880..

Avoid the formation of a pauper class. For the

last two years His Excellency the Governor has virtually done this and instead of consulting, as he originally did, the Tung-wa Committee, His Excellency has occasionally referred questions

affecting Chinese poor to certain leading men as ghe Nám-pak-hong merchants. All I advocate is the formal recognition of just such a "Committee Referees" who should not be Compradors, not the Tung-wa Hospital Association, and yet have

Futficient influence in the latter Committee to secure the hearty co-operation of the Tung-wá

Hospital staff when needed. Such a Committee

of Referees would soon develop into a Charity Organization- Society and possibly other orga- nizing Committees of reference for municipal affairs might develop from such a stock.

But there are other remedies, in my opinion, which should be seen to by the Government at the same time. In the first instance, the Law, as it stands in its barbaric provisions regarding the iogging of mendicants, should be revised. Next,

as the great fountain source from which destitu- tion springs is to be found in the poorest classes of the population, the poor should have less obstacles thrown in the way of their obtaining

squatter's licences free of hampering conditions, for settling on the hillsides, for erecting their sheds and cottages in their own style, for keeping pigs and poultry and raising vegetables. Next, I would recommend that neither the Government Civil Hospital nor the Government Lunatic Asy- lum be kept closed against the Chinese as these institutions hitherto were. The Magdalene Ins- titution at Wán-tsai should be accorded State aid ca a far more liberal principle, so as to enable that charitable institution to combine with its present purposes a free hospital for the contagious iseases of women. Arrangements should also te made in the Gaol or elsewhere, either inde- pendently by the Government or in combination with the West Point Reformatory, to separate juvenile offenders, who only too frequently drift either into the condition of habitual paupers or eriminals, from all the other prisoners in the Gaol, and to subject them, during the term of their im- prisonment, to an essentially different treatment, such as would not merely be deterrent but tend towards a reformation of habit and character. But as most important of all I regard the duty of the Government to aim, without claiming a monopoly for its education, at obtaining a stronger

influence on the elementary education of the lower classes. Public furds should therefore be liberally devoted to the education of the

far more

Poorest than to that of the well-to-do classes, and e promotion of English teaching in elementary chools for the common people should be attempted by the Government in preference to the costly ching of the higher branches of an English Education desired by the middle and upper classes of Chinese residents.

22nd April. 1880.

E. J. EITEL.

Acting Chinese Secretary.

香貧所值爲卽情理

香右

督申

別漸

燕陳

一千八百八十年 四月 二十二日

473

香港衆人之事

但照卑職愚見更有一法國家宜用同時一并頒行者 一須改現有猛烈之例卽輛管慣乞之人所有各

賙濟之條音成無賴之輩前二年間 理人等咨詢邇來每將關涉華人窮窘 督憲實當屢如此行初向東華醫院值

情仰彼稽查分別辦理且如此則不患

貧會且由此基或可另生別局而辦理 右 所欲行者如此之公局必漸生安理濟 爲此須至至申陳老 值理者但其人須能使東華醫院助其 等人家義學國家叉須踴躍在窮人初學中英文愈於所有華民中上孩童習英文之大學而費用極多者 爲洋行買辦者又非必要闖東華醫院 卽照卑職愚見國家雖無庸占教化全權亦宜奮力感動下流之初學故應用國餉助賞窮人氣學愈於賞中 卽國家須特認如此公局若輩非必要 所有他因另行隔別且在彼監禁之期另具一般治理卽毋徒用恐喝之法應由勸人懷改之方 六所最要者 情事商於南北行商故卑職所陳腐見 必須設法使該犯中之年少者分別另理因此等少年每多於慣為無賴或作盜賊故最善莫如餽彼與就内

時之用且另設博濟院而療婦女之有花柳症者 五在監獄或分別之處無論國家或兼同西營盤之養正 國家勿行現在閉醫院及癲狂院門拒絕華人不使入内之法 四國家宜厚助灣仔之從良院使不但盡 二須憶窮窘之源按此輩多層下流故毌阻貧人領暫居牌照且叄被在山麓榙嶚音豕養籓橅蔬菜 三

香港總督部堂燕