Sessional_Paper_1898 — Page 578

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS COMMISSION.

Appendix No. 1.

COMMISSION BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE ADMINISTRATOR.

[L.S.] WILSONE BLACK,

Major-General,

Administering the Government.

Whereas it is expedient that a Commission be appointed to inquire into and report on the importation into Hongkong, and the manufacture and sale in Hongkong of Alcoholic Liquors of all kinds, and into the operation of the laws regulating the same, and to ascertain whether any and what descriptions of crude, inferior, adulterated, or deleterious liquors are imported, manufactured, or sold and by whom and to what extent, and what measures may usefully be taken to improve the laws and to check the importation, manufacture, and sale in licensed houses and elsewhere of such crude. inferior, adulterated, or injurious liquors.

Now, therefore, 1, WILSONE BLACK, C.B., Major-General Commanding Her Majesty's Forces in China and Hongkong, and administering the Government of Hongkong, in Executive Council assembled, do hereby under the powers vested in me by Ordinance 27 of 1886, entitled The Commissioners Powers Ordinance, 1886, appoint you---

(1) The Honourable HENRY ERNEST WODEHOUSE, C.M.G.,

(2) WILLIAM HARTIGAN, Esquire, M.D.,

(3) HUGH MCCALLUM, Esquire,

(4) JOHN JOSEPH FRANCIS, Esquire, q.c.,

(5) The Reverend ROWLAND FRANCIS COBBOLD, M.A.,

to be a Commission for the purpose of instituting, making, and conducting such inquiry; And I do hereby appoint you the said Honourable HENRY ERNEST WODEHOUSE to be the Chairman of such Commission; And I do hereby appoint Mr. FRANK BROWNE to be the Secretary to such Commission; And I do hereby order and direct that for all or any of the purposes of this Commission three members thereof inclusive of the Chairman shall be and constitute a quorum. And I do further hereby order and direct that the said Commission shall, for the purpose of making the said inquiry, have all such powers as are vested in the Supreme Court of this Colony or in any Judge thereof on the occasion of any suit or action in respect of the following matters, viz.:-

The enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath, affirma-

tion or otherwise;

The compelling the production of documents;

The punishing persons guilty of contempt;

The ordering the inspection of any property; with power also, for the purpose

of this Commission, to enter and view any premises.

And I do hereby further direct that every examination of witnesses shall be held in private; And I do further require you to report to me the evidence and your opinion thereon; and I hereby charge all persons in the Public Service to assist

you herein. Given under my hand and the Public Seal of the Colony in Executive Council, this 14th day of February, One thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.

By Command,

Council Chamber, Hongkong, 14th February, 1898.

J. G. T. BUCKLE,

Clerk of Councils.