THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 12TH NOVEMBER, 1879. 675
in the gaol as to the physical injury caused to the Chinese by flogging on the back was extremely meagre. On the other hand, they do not appear to have thought it necessary to follow
up an interest- ing piece of evidence I caused to be laid before them, that is an extract from the records of the Emperor FAI-TSUNG (A.D. 627–650) and an extract from the records of the Han dynasty to the effect that there was a risk of causing death by flogging on the back, and that therefore throughout the whole of China floggings should be administered only on the buttocks. More than a thousand years have passed since the Chinese Government abandoned, on this account, the system of flogging on the back; and, of the numerous Chinese doctors now residing in Hongkong, I have ascertained that, without exception, they all believe the practice of the Chinese Government to be founded, in this matter, on sound prin- ciples, and that to flog a Chinaman on the shoulder blades and the intermediate spinal space would involve a risk of injury to the internal organs.
16. The Committee take no notice of one point that was laid before them in the correspondence, namely, Dr. AYRES' second objection to flogging on the back, that it causes permanent scars which after liberation from prison would be seen whenever the man who had been flogged worked, as all coolies do here in summer, stripped to the waist, whereas if the flogging had been inflicted on the breech this lifelong exposure of a degrading punishment would not be continued after the man had left gaol. On this point Mr. Justice SNOWDEN, in a letter that was before the committee, writes "It seems Dr. "AYRES was speaking of the shame felt by men who after leaving prison might be obliged to expose "their backs bearing indelible gaol marks. If such is the nature of Dr. AYRES' objection I quite agree "with him that it would be a reason for abolishing flogging on the back.' Mr. Justice SNOWDEN adds "I quite agree with Dr. AYRES that flogging should be administered on the breech and not on "the back."
17. The enclosures in my despatches Nos. 4 and 5, of 19th January, 1879, will have shown you that the Chinese community of Hongkong, including the chief owners of property, concur on this subject with the views expressed by Dr. AYRES and Mr. Justice SNOWDEN.
I have, &c.,
(Signed,)
J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 3 of 1879.
THURSDAY, 29TH MAY, 1879.
PRESENT:
His Excellency Governor J. POPE HENNESSY, C.M.G.
The Honourable the Chief Justice (Sir JOHN SMALE).
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary (WILLIAM HENRY MARSH).
The Honourable the Acting Attorney General (JAMES RUSSELL).
The Honourable the Acting Colonial Treasurer (MALCOLM STRUAN TONNOCHY).
The Honourable PHINEAS RYRIE.
The Honourable WILLIAM Keswick.
The Honourable JOHN MACNEILE PRICE.
The Honourable HUGH BOLD Gibb.
The Minutes of the two previous Meetings of Council are read and confirmed.
Before proceeding to the orders of the day, His Excellency adverts with deep regret to the loss which the Colony had sustained since the last Meeting of Council in the death of the Honourable CHARLES MAY, late Acting Colonial Treasurer and Senior Police Magistrate. His Excellency expresses his warm sense of the qualities which made Mr. MAY valuable to him as a public officer and as a private friend.
His Excellency announces that he had provisionally appointed Mr. M. S. TONNOCHY to succeed the late Mr. MAY as Acting Colonial Treasurer.
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