686938-1879-Certificates-of-Policemen-on-their-retirement- — Page 21

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 17TH SEPTEMBER, 1879.

HONGKONG, 6th March, 1879.

SIR, We have the honour to acknowledge

receipt of letter No. 128 of 4th ultimo, from which we note that His Excellency the Governor, while indicating his willingness to obtain for us the opinion of the Honourable the Attorney Ge- neral on any“precise points”.we may name, declines to furnish us with copies of the full memoranda of that Officer as requested.

2. Our object in asking for these was to be

enabled to consider the grounds upon which the

Attorney General had based his conclusion, a

conclusion appearing to place the Board of Jus-

tices of the Peace in the position of having to depend upon the caprice of one of their body for their power to meet, with a legal status, which

we cannot believe was contemplated by the

Ordinance (No. 4 of 1863). That this position

may be avoided by an application to His Excel- leney-should he be pleased to comply there-

with, to instruct a Police Magistrate to attend

a meeting, does not appear to us to be a satis- factory solution of the difficulty.

3. We believe we are correct in stating that

the position of Boards of Justices of the Peace'

in England with regard to supervising the regu- lation and decipline of the Gaols is clearly de-

fined, and their powers in such matters thoroughly understood. We venture to suggest that the exercise of similar functions was, to some extent, contemplated when Ordinance No. 4 of 1863 was constructed, and that in this Colony the knowledge and experience of the residents who are on the commission of the peace might, if judiciously utilized, be very beneficial to the interest of the Colony in dealing with its large and increasing criminal population.

4. We have the honour to enclose copy of the whole correspondence which has taken place on this subject, and to request that His Excellency will be pleased to forward same to the Right Honourable Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, together with a copy of the Honourable the Attorney General's full memoranda thereon, in the hope that the Right Honourable Gentleman will be pleased to ascer- tain the views of the law Officers of the Crown, and, should he deem it necessary and expedient, authorize such alteration in the law of the Colony with regard to Justices of the Peace as will place them more in the position of such Officers in the United Kingdom.

To

We have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servants,

H. LowcockK.

W. KESWICK.

R. H. SANDEMAN.

F. D. SASSOON.

H. H. NELSON.

The Honourable W. H. MARSH,

Colonial Secretary.

555

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