THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH NOVEMBER, 1877. 527
The CHIEF JUSTICE-How many prisoners for debt did you say there were?
HIS EXCELLENCY-One; and the prisoners for debt have one ward which might be divided into separate cells; I forget the exact number.
The SURVEYOR GENERAL-Twenty-four.
HIS EXCELLENCY-And at present we have one single debtor. In the gaol when I first visited it, I was astonished to see a man chained by a long chain to one of the inner gates, and Mr. TOMLIN cautioned me how I was to pass through the next little opening so as to avoid him. I made inquiries and found he was a lunatic. He was chained because he was lunatic and a violent one. There was another upstairs in one of the associated cells. He was a peaceable man, but a very talkative one, and he kept on talking the whole time. You will readily understand that the presence of such cases would not conduce to the preservation of discipline in the gaol; that and other circumstances caused me to think of establishing a lunatic asylum. Chinese lunatics of Hongkong are simply deported to the mainland. My honourable friend the Chief Justice mentioned to me a very sad case. The son of an English professional gentleman-I need not mention names-came out here; he got an attack of lunacy, and he died in our prison. There have been other cases of people confined in the for prison as lunatics who never ought to have been inside its walls. Therefore I propose to ask you the sum of $5,000 for a small lunatic asylum, which, having provision for eight beds, will, I think, be sufficient, meanwhile I have taken the responsibility of not using the Gaol for this purpose, but of improvising a temporary lunatic asylum.
I now come to a work of great interest to this commercial community. The Finance Committee have had before them, and you will also have in print, a most interesting and valuable report of the Surveyor-General, with a letter upon it from Admiral RYDER, relating to the establishment of a time- ball in Victoria Harbour. Some of you, gentlemen, are connected with commerce, and I need not tell you that in a great centre of shipping such as this-one of the greatest centres of shipping in the whole world-we should have some means of accurately determining the time. It has not yet been done. Owing to the public spirit of the princely house of JARDINE MATHESON & Co., we have a gun fired at twelve o'clock, which is a great convenience to labourers and others, including myself; but for purposes connected with navigation, the strictest accuracy is required. There must not be a mistake of a second or two, and for that accuracy certain scientific arrangement must be made. In short, an observatory must be established which will enable us to work the time-ball correctly, and also enable us to make a series of observations, magnetic, metereological and relating to storms, all of which will be of advantage to the Colony, and to other ports in China. Upon that object I propose to spend $5,000 next year.
That finishes the special subjects to which I thought it my duty to draw your attention as regards werks and buildings. There are one or two other questions which may lead to some expenditure, and which I may possibly have to put before you next year. I have received reports on the state of the interpretation in Hongkong from leading merchants, from leading members of the Bar, and from the judges, recording the fact that the interpretation of this Colony is disgracefully bad. What are we to do to remedy it? Hongkong is a wealthy and prosperous Colony; something should be done to provide a proper staff of interpreters. A distinguished predecessor of mine, Sir HERCULES ROBINSON, took steps to do that. He had the great advantage of consulting with Dr. LEGGE, an eminent Chinese scholar; and, acting on the advice of Dr. LEGGE, he prepared a scheme which was sent home to the then Secretary of State for the Colonies. That scheme was approved, was carried out, and under it a few highly able and intelligent young gentlemen came to this Colony as interpreters. Soon after they arrived the scheme was abandoned, and not one of those gentlemen is an interpreter in the Colony. There is not in the Colony a single interpreter trained according to that scheme, and to use the words of the reports our present system of interpretation is deplorably bad." You will at once say, let us return to Sir HERCULES ROBINSON's scheme and honestly carry it into effect. I have not yet had time to go into the question as fully as it will be my duty to do, but I have ventured to suggest to Lord CARNARVON, in forwarding to him the reports of the Chief Justice, Mr. SNOWDEN, and Mr. HAYLLAR and other members of the Bar, that he might take the opinion of Dr. LEGGE, who is now at Oxford, as to what really ought to be done to establish a practical system of interpretation in this Colony. You are aware that a number of gentlemen kindly volunteered to form a board of Chines examiners, but not through any fault of its own, this Board has not prepared a solitary interpreter. What is really of value in this life generally requires to be paid for, and the young gentlemen who studied under that Board were not able to give that time to their study, and to their official duties which would enable them to become Chinese scholars. I found that Mr. GARDINER AUSTIN, the Colonial Secretary, as Administrator, had made a little minute on the report prepared by the Director of Studies, in which he pointed out that it was quite impossible the subordinate officers of the Government could master Chinese so long as they had to devote the time to their official duties. He was quite right. The report showed that; and more than one proper of these young gentlemen have retired from the attempt to study Chinese, and at the same time do their official work. It was found it interfered with their health. If, after leaving their office, they sat down to study Chinese instead of taking proper exercise, their health broke down, so that practically that scheme, as a scheme for giving us student interpreters, has failed. We must adopt some other plan,
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