Sessional_Paper_1899 — Page 213

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5. For my present purpose, the law in force in Hongkong may be deemed to consist of-

(a.) Such of the laws of England as existed when the Colony obtained a local Legislature, that is to say, on the 5th April, 1843, except so far as the said laws are inapplicable to the local circumstances of the Colony or its inhabitants; (see Section 7 of Ordinance 12 of 1873); and

(b.) Local Ordinances passed in Hongkong adding to, altering or repeal-

ing the law in force on 5th April, 1843.

I cannot recall to mind, as I write, any Imperial Legislation extending to Hongkong which requires special consideration in relation to the extension of the Colony.

6. It is hardly necessary, in this Memorandum, to enter into the question as to whether any and, if so, which of the laws of England in force on 5th April, 1843, referred to in paragraph 5 (a.), should be specially included in an exempting Ordi- nance, because such laws were only originally brought into force in Hongkong "so far as they were not inapplicable to the local circumstances of the Colony or its inhabitants." It remains, therefore, to decide whether any of the local Ordinances should be exempted by Ordinance.

7. It might, at first sight, appear that the new rugged, mountainous territories, partly on the mainland, partly consisting of islands, and inhabited for the most part by Chinese agricultural peasants and Chinese fishermen or coolies, were not ripe for the somewhat elaborate legislation of Hongkong; but, on reading the Ordi- nances themselves, one finds but few which would, in actual practice, cause hard- ship or difficulty. Indeed, in the United Kingdom itself, there must have been districts where, say a hundred years ago, peasants lived the simplest lives all un- conscious of most of the elaborate laws in force, and without experiencing any embarrassment so long as they conducted themselves properly; and, as regards the inhabitants of the new territories, it will probably only be as they advance in civi- lization and their hamlets increase in importance, that they will find they come much within actual touch of such of the laws as are really only practically applicable to a Colony which has made some progress.

8. It must, moreover, be borne in mind that just as Hongkong has been deve- loped by British energy and by the Chinese under British Government and just laws, so the new territory has a future before it, and British and Chinese enterprise and capital will be more likely to be attracted from "Hongkong proper" and elsewhere, to the new extension of the Colony if the laws prevailing therein are practically identical with those of Hongkong itself.

9. The edition of the Ordinances of Hongkong, published in two volumes in 1891 and compiled by Mr. LEACH, contains the Ordinances in force at the end of 1890. This edition, as modified and supplemented by the Ordinances since passed, enables one to ascertain the local Ordinances at present obtaining in Hongkong. I mention this because the edition in four volumes to the end of 1887 containing all the Ordinances passed to that date includes a large number of those already then repealed. Prefixed to each of Mr. LEACH'S two volumes is a chronological table which renders reference to the subject matter of the Ordinances to the end of 1890 a simple task.

10. Although some of the Hongkong Ordinances seem beyond the present requirements of the new extension, yet, when they are referred to in detail, it would, in many cases, seem unnecessary, having regard to the future, expressly to exclude them from applying. In point of fact they would work no practical hardship because, in practice, they would not be enforced until adequate machinery had been provided and facilities afforded for carrying out their provisions. In some few instances it might be well to exclude the application of an Ordinance from the new territories.

11. I will now proceed to remark on such of the Ordinances as seem to re- quire consideration in our present enquiry:-