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merchants and residents in this colony should receive more favourable considerations from the Government than the roughs and scums whose only object here is for the sake of making money from opening gambling houses and gambling.

6. It is the firm belief and opinion of your petitioners that gambling in this Colony can materially be lessened and finally suppressed altogether by a judicious system of registration of Chinese clubs and a rigid enforcement of the existing law, and this sentiment your petitioners believe is shared by several members of your Excellency's Government who have studied this subject for some time past.

7.--Your petitioners beg to commend their observations on the new Ordinance for your Excellency's favourable consideration. They are as follows:-

(a.) In all Chinese gambling houses only games of chance such as Fantan, Po Tse and dices, &c., are played, whereas in a proper Chinese club or private house mixed games of chance and skill such as cards, dominoes, and chess, &c., are mostly resorted to. In a proper Chinese club or private house certain games such as Pai Kow are usually played; in these games a bank is kept by one or more of the players exclusively of the other or others (Section 2).

(b.) Gambling (if construed to include any game played for money, wager, or stake however little or small) is in fact one of the main and principal objects of even a proper Chinese club. Having no such

games as billiards, bowling, &c., the Chinese generally spend their evenings in a game at cards, dominoes, or the like. In most cases a small amount of money, wager, or stake is played for, the object of which is two-fold. (1.) To give more excitement and make the players more attentive to the game. (2.) To obtain and apply the whole or part of the winnings in defraying the expenses of the club or in providing for a dinner or other enjoyments to entertain the players and other members of the house (Section 3). (c.) Among the Chinese boys and women a game at cards, dominoes, or the like is usually played for nothing but amusement at their own houses (Section 5).

(d.) It is impossible for the owner of any house to prevent the tenants from playing at any game in the house, and it is also difficult for him to prove that he does not know it, because such games as cards, dominoes, and the like are played so commonly among the Chinese and in almost every Chinese house (Section 6).

And your petitioners can assure your Excellency that if a search were to be instituted, cards, dice, dominoes, &c., all or some of them, would be found in every Chinese shop or dwelling. That being the case every house in this Colony would be presumed to be a common gaming house until the contrary is made to appear, which in many cases is rather a difficult task to perform. (Section 12).

8.--Your petitioners are perfectly aware and in fact publicly assured by a member of the Government that it is not the intention of the Legislature to affect respectable Chinese clubs or private residences, but at the same time they cannot help apprehending that through spite, extortion, or other corrupt motives the Chinese in this Colony will be subjected to constant annoyance and inconvenience by the Police and their informers.

Your petitioners therefore pray that your Excellency may be pleased to direct such amendment of the Bill as would remove all misgivings and apprehensions from the mind of your petitioners and their fellow-citizens.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

Hongkong, 1st January, 1891.