Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 861

[ XLVIII]

2. The Pó Léung Kuk was established in the Mo Yan year (1878-79) by the Directors of the Tung Wa Hospital. In the Kang Yan Year (1890-91), a petition was presented by the Directors to the Government asking that regulations might be framed under which they might perform their duties.

3. In the Ting Hai Year (1887-88), owing to the large increase in the work of the institution, it was resolved at a public meeting to reserve the old lecture hall of the Tung Wa Hospital for the use of the Pó Léung Kuk.

4. Since then, thanks to the unsparing efforts of the officers of the Government and to their fatherly protection, large numbers of men, women and boys and girls have been rescued from being kidnapped, and there is no Chinese either here or elsewhere who does not feel deeply grateful.

5. But however thorough is the protection which is afforded, the evils of kidnapping are more and more on the increase.

6. As there was no room for the accommodation of the increasing number of destitute persons detained in the institution and no fund provided to meet the ever-growing expenditure, the Pó Leung Kuk has hitherto made use of the Ping On room and Fuk Shau room belonging to the Tung Wa Hospital. To meet the annual expenditure, the usual contributions of the Directors have been supplemented each year by a loan made by the Managers of the Man Mó Temple from their surplus revenue.

7. Last spring, the Government deeply moved with anxiety for the future of the Society, advised the late Directors to attempt to raise a subscription. Accordingly, after consultation with the members of the Tung Wa Hospital, it was decided to do so. In the 6th moon, the management of the Society was handed over to Petitioners, and they have since been urged repeatedly by Your Honour to exert themselves to raise the subscription. Up to date, a sum of more than 30,000 dollars has been promised by charitable persons. This may be fairly considered a success and it is owing to Your Honour's assistance that it has been subscribed with so much good will.

8. In the 11th moon, (December 1891), Your Honour and His Excellency the Administrator, General BARKER, graciously visited the Pó Léung Kuk and discussed plans for enlarging the buildings of the Society. His Excellency considered that, though the space at their disposal was certainly too limited, yet as the Hospital and the Pó Léung Kuk were both charitable societies, there should be no distinction of ground between them.

9. Accordingly a meeting was held of the past and present Directors of the two institutions and of the Kai Fong at which it was resolved to carry out the benevolent intentions of the Government and to enlarge the Pó Leung Kuk by erecting a building on Lot No. 361, where accommodation could be provided for destitutes. This lot was granted by the Government to the Tung Wa Hospital. On it stand the two rooms formerly used as a lecture hall and a small-pox ward.

10. As to the erection of the building, more than $10,000 or one-third of the subscriptions must be devoted to this purpose and when the building is completed, the annual expenditure will be very great. The average daily number of destitutes in the Pó Leung Kuk is over 60, for whose support about 15 cents a day for each person is required. Consequently if will be necessary to spend under this head from $200 to $300 a month. The total expenditure of the institution including the cost of sending destitutes back to their homes will be from $5,000 to $6,000 per annum. The interest produced by the remaining portion of the sum which has been promised, does not amount to half of this sum, and it is evident that it will be impossible to provide for the regular expenses from this source alone. Thus even though petitioners exhaust all the resources of the Pó Leung Kuk, it will be impossible without the aid of the Government to afford the protection which it is desired to extend over women and girls.

11. To grant this protection it is necessary after rescuing the kidnapped to punish the kidnappers. For "if you want to make a turbid stream clear, you must first purify the source." On the occasions when at the instance of the Society a kidnapper is brought before the Magistrate, he frequently engages a lawyer who appears in Court and argues points of law which he has carefully studied and manages to turn the crooked into straight and to enable the kidnapper to escape through the meshes of the law. Thus the evil grows uninterruptedly. If the existing law is not to be amended, the evils of kidnapping will certainly increase to the lasting injury of the Chinese community in the Colony.

12. The approval by the Government of the establishment of the Pó Léung Kuk was founded on a desire to benefit all classes. In performing their duties, the Directors must trust to the energetic guidance of the Hongkong Government to help them, by the removal of evils, to benefit the community. It is most necessary if petitioners wish to uphold the good and put down the wicked that they should perform their duties with a whole heart. If Petitioners could not manage the work satisfactorily, they would not dare. to face the officials of Hongkong nor would they be repaying the kindness of the Government.

13. They fear that the discussion of their affairs must be very troublesome, but they are unable to keep silence.

At the commencement of this undertaking it is right to remove the old and establish the new, and Petitioners have thought right to give a full statement of the most important affairs in one petition to Your Honour.