Sessional_Paper_1887-1888 — Page 99

HONGKONG.

REPORT ON INTERPRETATION.

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command or

His Excellency the Governor.

97

No. 36

$7.

1. On the general question we recommend that greater inducements and facilities be held out to those civil servants who wish to study Chinese. This has been often proposed, but nothing practical has been done. Little progress can be expected without

it.

2. The allowance for a Chinese teacher, instead of being stopped, as it is at present, should, when an officer has passed all his examinations creditably, be continued so long as the Officer is studying and making good use of the teacher. A bonus or an addition to the salary should be given for proficiency in each dialect.

3. Officers such as Inspectors of Nuisances and others who require an interpreter for the performance of their duties should receive additional pay when they are able to dispense with the interpreter.

4. We do not recommend any special school or institution for training interpreters, nor do we recommend any separate department of interpreters.

5. We think that if inducements to study Chinese are held out to the children born here of European parents, who are able to pick up and learn the language much quicker and better than young men from England, all the wants of the service as regards interpretation or translation will be amply met without any special training school.

6. We agree with the Captain Superintendent of Police that a clever interpreter would soon be dissatisfied with that position if he is to receive no promotion, and we recommend that those officers who are selected to act as interpreters should be as eligible for promotion as any other civil servants, and should not be debarred advancement only because they are interpreters. It was to avoid this feeling of discontent and to procure efficient interpreters that we have recorded oar opinion above that there should not be a separate department of interpreters.

7. With respect to the Supreme Court, we beg to report that as far as it goes the interpretation there is satisfactory, Mr. BALL and Mr. Li Hong Mr being good inter- preters in the languages and dialects which they profess to speak, but there are the following dialects, viz.: Hakka, Swatow, and Amoy, with which they are imperfectly acquainted, and we recommend that steps be taken to remove this deficiency. Residence in the places where the dialects are spoken would be the best means of securing inter- preters for those dialects.

8. There is no one to replace one of these interpreters in case of absence or sickness. and we beg to suggest that inducements be offered to Messrs. HAZELAND and HoLWORTHY to qualify themselves as interpreters. When they have sufficiently mastered the lan- guage they will have many opportunities of practising, as they could attend Court at any time, and with the assistance of Mr. BALL or Mr. LI HONG MI could act as inter- preters and so obtain practice and facility.

9. With respect to the Police Court we are of opinion that the interpretation is not satisfactory, and we strongly recommend that as soon as the services of a competent European can be obtained, one should be appointed as head interpreter for that Court.

10. We are of opinion that it is very desirable that the Magistrates should be acquainted with Chinese, and that should a Magistrate not speaking Chinese be appointed on account of his legal qualifications, inducement should be offered to him to acquire at least some knowledge of colloquial.