QUI
DIE
DROIT.
THE HONGKONG
Government Gazette.
No. 9.
Bublished by Authority.
VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 1ST MARCH, 1873.
VOL. XIX.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 2 of 1873.
TUESDAY, 11TH FEBRUARY, 1873.
PRESENT:
His Excellency Governor SIR ARTHUR EDWARD KENNEDY, K.C.M.G., C.B
The Honorable the Chief Justice (JOHN SMALE).
The Honorable the Acting Colonial Secretary (CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH). The Honorable the Attorney General (JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE).
The Honorable the Acting Treasurer (CHARLES Max).
The Honorable HENRY JOIN BALL.
The Honorable PHINEAS RYRIE.
The Honorable RICHARD ROWETT.
The Honorable JAMES WHITTALL.
ABSENT:
The Honorable WILLIAM HASTINGS ALEXANDER, absent on leave.
The Council meets this day at 2.30 P.M., by Special Summons.
The Minutes of the Council held on the 6th January, are read and confirmed.
His Excellency makes the following Statement:---
Since the last Meeting of the Council I have received a very important Despatch from the Earl of KIMBERLEY, in relation to the abuses which constantly arise out of the system of Chinese Emigration carried on in the neighbouring Colony of Macao, and which have been so long the subject of complaint and remonstrance on the part of the British Government. The Despatch is in these terms:
"DOWNING STREET, 20th November, 1872."
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"SIR,-It has at different times been represented to me that foreign vessels engaged in the shipment of Coolies from Macao are equipped in the Port of Hongkong, or furnished with supplies or stores from that Colony, and my attention has recently been directed to the following paragraph extracted from a Hongkong Newspaper: The Spanish steamer Bueno Ventura, a sister to, and belonging to the same owner as the Steamship Yrurac Bat, which vessel fitted up here and left a few days back for Macao, for a cargo of Coolies, has arrived here to fit up for the same purpose."
"2. You are probably aware that during the late Session of Parliament, an Act (three copies of which I enclose) was passed for the purpose of repressing the abuses connected with the movement of natives from their Islands in the Pacific Ocean to labour on Plantations.
"3.--Although great cruelties have been perpetrated in connexion with this traffic in South Sea Islanders, they can hardly have been greater than those which have led to the dis- graceful and horrible occurrences from time to time reported as having taken place on board ships conveying Chinese Coolies from Macao.
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