691780-1876-Police-Annual-Report-1875- — Page 1

No. 32.

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 5TH FEBRUARY, 1876.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

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The following Report from the Captain Superintendent of Police for the year 1875, is published for general information.

By Command,

J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 5th February, 1876.

[No. 11.]

VICTORIA, HONGKONG, 18th January, 1876.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the Annual Police Report, Statistics for the Blue Book, and Returns of Crime for the year 1875.

2. A decrease of crime to the extent of 4.89 per cent is shown on all cases reported; an increase of 19.74 per cent on serious crime, and a diminution of 11.11 per cent on minor offences.

3. Two cases of murder occurred, for one of which, at Ap-li-chau, a Chinaman was sentenced to death, but this penalty was commuted to Penal Servitude for life. The second case was of a most aggravated nature, as there is every reason to suppose that the victim was murdered from motives of vengeance for the previous conviction, for another offence, of the supposed murderer, but that in the darkness of the night a woman other than the one intended was killed. A Chinaman was apprehended within a few hours after the deed had been committed, but from the peculiar circumstances of the attack, there was no substantial evidence against him beyond a conversation between himself, and a prisoner in the Gaol; it was decided to abandon the prosecution.

4. An atrocious case of Piracy, in which 25 Chinese lost their lives, happened about fifty miles from the Colony. One man was arrested and executed, who had been charged in 1874 with supposed complicity in the piracy on board the Spark; two other men were sentenced to death, but were after- wards pardoned, and three persons were convicted of felonious possession of some of the pirated goods.

5. There has been an increase of serious crimes as compared with 1874, but the offences, as a rule, were not of an aggravated nature; the amount of property stolen being, in the majority of cases of larceny, or burglary, or of larceny in a dwelling house, of comparatively small value. It is to be observed that the Returns always include attempts at various offences as well as cases that subsequently prove

to be false.

6. Larcenies of articles on board ship were frequent during the year, but it is hoped that the arrest for this offence of one man who had been previously convicted about six times, and who had been deported, and also of a gang of five men, will diminish this class of offence.

7. The number of arrests of men who have been deported, or released on Conditional Pardon, is large, no less than sixteen men having been recaptured. (Table E. )

A Commission is now considering the question of punishments, &c., in the Gaol, and it is to be hoped that their inquiries may result in the recommendation of some system that may render that establishment more disagreeable to ex-convicts, than it appears to have been from the experience of past years. The fact that the number of prisoners sentenced to imprisonment at the Magistracy shows a proportion of two old offenders to three persons arrested on the first known charge demonstrates the desirability of making imprisonment more deterrent.

POLICE.

8. I regret that the health of the Police has not been at all satisfactory during the year under consideration. The admissions into Hospital from August to November inclusive averaged fifty-three a month, or nearly 12 per cent of the Force. I had further to regret the death of Inspector STROUD, a promising officer, who fell dead when on patrol. The Service also lost fourteen other men.

9. The Acting Colonial Surgeon visited the Stations with the object of discovering, if possible, any local reasons for the large number of cases of fever; but the Stations were all clean and in good order, and the water appeared, as a rule, to be good; moreover, of late years filters have been freely supplied. At Causeway Bay, notice was served on squatters to vacate garden plots near the Station, as the water supply was probably contaminated by drainage from the gardens.