Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 645

[viii]

(xx) That a flogged prisoner whose wounds are unhealed at the date of his discharge from Gaol should have the option of remaining in the Gaol hospital or of being treated in the Government Civil Hospital;

(xxi) That the latter alternative is the preferable one, because it will relieve

the congested state of the Gaol hospital;

(xxii) That prisoners sentenced for felony and for the graver misdemeanours such as perjury, certain assaults, false pretences, etc., to a term of imprisonment exceeding six months, should be liable to have their queues cut off for repeated offences in Gaol, provided that no queue shall be cut off within the three months next preceding the date of discharge from Gaol; •

(xxiii) That it is advisable that the evidence in all cases of inquiry preceding the infliction of any punishment or at least in cases in which the Superin- tendent, either by himself or in conjunction with a Justice of the Peace, orders flogging, should be taken on oath and in writing, and kept on record;

(xxiv) That the absence, so far as is known, of any protest by the Visiting Justices against either the power of the Superintendent or of the Super- intendent and a Justice of the Peace to order floggings, or the mode in which that power is exercised, indicates that the system in vogue, if not directly approbated, has not been reprobated by the Visiting Justices;

(xxv) That this acquiescence on the part of the Unofficial Visiting Justices indicates that the leading business men in the Colony are not opposed to the continuance of the present methods;

(xxvi) That there is nothing in the physique of an ordinary Chinaman to unfit

him to bear a flogging;

(xxvii) That this conclusion is strengthened by the fact that castigation in severer forms, viz., by the use of a bamboo and of a wooden stick, is com- monly practised on the mainland of China;

(xxviii) That the number of floggings is no indication of an unusual exercise by the Superintendent of his power to flog, but rather points to the frequent unruly behaviour of the prisoners and is a reason for preserving to the Superintendent his present power;

(xxix) That the proportion of floggings to prisoners in Gaol, which for the past

ten years has varied from 1 in 25 to 1 in 10 shows that the number of floggings is relatively small and that the number of prisoners flogged is relatively still smaller if it be recollected that it often occurs that the same prisoner is flogged more than once;

(xxx) That the abnormal ratio of 1 in 10 attained in 1895 is shewn by Mr.

THOMSON'S evidence to have been due to an abnormal state of things; (xxxi) That the occurrence of such a state of things and the possibility of its recurrence strengthen the plea that it would be unwise to divest the Superintendent of his present summary powers of ordering a flog- ging;

(xxxii) That the worse behaviour of Chinese prisoners here compared with the behaviour of prisoners in English gaols as testified to by Mr. Craig, Chief Warden, who has bad experience of both classes of prisoners, accounts for any difference in the ratio that may exist in the case of Home prisons and in the case of the local prison :

Page 645Page 646