:
122
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 27TH MARCH, 1875.
9. A Typhoon of unusual violence visited this place on the morning of the 23rd September last, causing a destruction of ships and loss of life fortunately not of frequent occurrence in this Colony.
10. The total destruction of and loss of many lives on board the British steamer Mongol in the neighbourhood of the Port on the 12th December.
11. The total loss by fire of the United States' Mail Steamer Japan on the 17th December, and loss of life on board of that ship, a few miles from here. These are most distressing occurrences to record in one year.
12. I reported fully on the Typhoon in October last, but attach that document to this Report as it may perhaps be thought a fitting supplement to the usual Returns published in the Colony's Blue Book.
13. A Marine Court enquired into the circumstances attending the loss of the Mongol, which vessel went down a few minutes after she struck on a well known rock, marked on the Admiralty Chart, near the South Nine Pin Island. The Master and Chief Officer being drowned, the Court thought it advisable not to offer any opinion as to the faultiness or otherwise of those answerable for this serious calamity. The evidence appeared in the public press, and a copy was, in the usual way, forwarded to the Board of Trade.
14. An enquiry in the matter of the loss by fire of the Japan was held at the United States' Consulate, resulting in the full acquittal of the Master, and censuring the Chief Engineer. A few remarks on this loss will be found in the report on Emigration for the year.
EMIGRATION.
15. The gross total number of Emigrants leaving here in 1874 is 3,098 more than were carried in the preceding year.
Of males, there were 3,497 more, but there has happily been a decrease of children and female adults, the reasons for which will appear further on. The increase of males has been to the Australian Colonies, Bangkok, and the Straits Settlements. The last named Colony takes a large number of men for the purpose of working the tin mines in that Settlement and its neighbourhood.
16. No reports of accidents to Emigrant Ships leaving this Port have been made for a long period. All the vessels appear to have made fair average passages and with few deaths or much disease. The latter is probably, in some measure, attributable to the great care which is taken in the selection of good Chinese Surgeons for charge of the ships that have no European trained Medical men on board,
17. Agents from Queensland and other British Colonies have shown a desire to procure Chinese labour under contract, but the difficulties attending such a system are so great that but little en- couragement can be held out to persons requiring this class of labour. Firstly comes the difficulty of obtaining bona fide volunteers. Secondly, having obtained them, the difficulty of keeping them is very great, as Chinese will often go to a Lodging House, remain there for a few days, and then, after being well fed, say they do not wish to emigrate. Thirdly, it has often happened that Emigrants have signed their contracts freely enough, and after receiving an advance of wages (and none can be got to sign a contract without this stipulation) they have gambled their money away and then declined to proceed. Some Chinese professed gamblers have been known to embark, and, during the few days they have been on board waiting to sail, have won the money of the really intending Emigrants, and have then repaid their own advances out of their winnings and gone on shore.
18. These difficulties, together with the large expense which attends the procuring contract labour, and the probability of the Emigrants deserting on their arrival at their destination, have been found so great that the Agents have, for the present, withdrawn from the attempt to obtain the labour of which the Australian Colonies seem so much in need.
19. The Emigration of females is on the decrease. 1,104 women and girls have emigrated during the year as against 1,542 that left here in 1873. I fear there can be little doubt but that the greater proportion of these women and girls were purchased on the mainland and exported for pur- poses of prostitution. These unfortunate women are instructed as to the answers they are to give when being questioned as to their willingness to emigrate, but either from fear of their purchasers, or from a callousness as to what their future may be, it is most difficult to obtain the truth from them. It has been for a long time the desire of this Government to endeavour to put a stop to this practice, but the Chinese notions of morality, and the estimation in which the women are held, are so low that they see no harm in this disgraceful traffic.
20. In endeavouring to check this practice I have received much valuable assistance from the Registrar General, whose knowledge of the Chinese language and the character of the people enables him to detect, readily, the cases of females who are purchased for immoral purposes, but, if the intending Emigrant expresses her desire to proceed, and they too frequently feel themselves in honor bound to their purchasers, the Government is powerless to stop them. But very few instances have occurred of females confessing that they had been improperly procured and were unwilling to go. In such cases, the persons concerned have at once been handed over to the Police Court for trial. The questioning of the female Emigrants is of so searching a nature that the people concerned in procuring the women have been discouraged in their traffic, hence the decrease of feinale Emigration, alluded to in a previous paragraph.
21. The Chinese Committee of the Chinese Hospital take great interest in this matter, and pre- sented a petition to the Government praying that some more effective means might be devised for staying
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.