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recommendations made by Mr. LOCKHART. I agree with Mr. LoCKHART that the existing village organizations should be maintained and utilised, and I approve of the immediate appointment of an itinerant Magistrate as suggested. I shall be glad if you will at once select an officer for provisional appointment in this capacity. An appeal should lie to the itinerant Magistrate from the village tribunals, and from him to the Governor, this latter course being preferable in my opinion to an appeal to the Supreme Court. An Ordinance will be necessary, framed on the lines of the Ceylon Ordinance No. 24 of 1889 to legalise and define the powers of the village and district Councils or tribunals.

27. I have now touched upon what appears to me to be the most important questions for your immediate consideration. You will gather from what I have said that while I differ from some of the conclusions at which Mr. LOCKHART has arrived, I nevertheless concur generally in the recommendations which he has made in bis report. Although I am unable to entertain the idea of a separate administration of the new territory under a resident Commissioner, I consider it highly desirable that Mr. LOCKHART should be generally associated with its administration; and with this object in view, he should for the next six months, at any rate, be relieved as far as possible from the ordinary duties of Colonial Secretary and Registrar General. It will probably be desirable that he should be permanently relieved of the duties of the latter office, but on this subject I will address you later.

28. Whatever other provisional appointments may be rendered necessary by these arrangements, I must leave for the present in your hands.

29. I hope that in the foregoing observations I have succeeded in conveying to you a general expression of my views on this important and interesting subject. But there is much that must necessarily be left to yourself, and I feel that I have been unable to do more than give you an outline of the policy which it is desirable that you should pursue. I have, however, every confidence in your ability to carry the undertaking to a successful issue; and I will conclude with an expression of my congratulations to you on finding yourself in the position of the representative of Her Majesty the QUEEN on the occasion of the assumption of jurisdiction over this most important addition to Her Majesty's dominions.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient,

SIR,

humble servant,

J. CHAMBERLAIN,

EXTRACTS FROM A

REPORT BY MR. STEWART LOCKHART ON THE EXTENSION

OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG.

Mr. Stewart Lockhart to Colonial Office.

October 8,

1898.

I have the honour to state that, in accordance with the instructions received from the Secretary of State, I have visited the mainland and islands adjacent to Hongkong which China has agreed to lease to Great Britain.

2. The naval authorities kindly placed at my disposal H.M.S. Plover, under the command of Commander DE HORSEY, the officers and crew of which rendered great assistance to the Commission in its work of inspection.

3. The Members of the Commission who accompanied me were Mr. ORMSBY, Director of Public Works; Lieutenant RUNDALL, R.E., and Corporal WHITEWOOD, R.E., whose services were kindly lent by the Military Authorities; Mr. XAVIER, of the Public Works Department; and Mr. Ts'or and Mr. Au, of the Registrar General's Office.