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Committee-men were distributed. A Chinese translation of the Ordinance creating Committees was kindly prepared under the supervision of the Honourable Ho KAI and two thousand copies distributed. In addition to the publication of notices and distribution of leaflets, officials have visited each village in the territory in person and explained orally to the villagers such points as were thought to require further elucidation.

13. Paragraph 10.-I have already explained what the main object of the Ordinance is, so it is unnecessary for me to again point out that, though the land question is the most important, there are other matters almost equally important regarding which the attendance of the inhabitants is necessary from time to time.

14. Paragraph 11.--As regards this paragraph, I would point out that any enquiry under the Ordinance can only be held by direction of the Governor. As to the confidence reposed in the Governor by the Chinese, I may quote the Honour- able Ho KAI, who, when speaking on the Pó Léung Kuk Incorporation Ordinance in Legislative Council on the 2nd June, 1893, stated as follows:-

(Hansard, page 93.) "We have in this Colony a Governor and we "always look upon him as the representative of Her Majesty the QUEEN, "and as Chinese subjects here, and also as subjects of Her Majesty the "QUEEN, it is only fair to suppose that they would always desire to "submit the final decision of their differences to the Governor alone."

I am certain that the Chinese, whether in Hongkong or in the New Territory, will be quite satisfied of the necessity and justice of any enquiry the Governor may direct. to be held.

15. As to Mr. WHITEHEAD's remarks regarding the department of the Registrar General, they are not surprising as coming from one who stated in Council in 1893: "I would sweep away if I could the Registrar General's Department." It is not to be wondered at that he regards it as the least qualified of any department to exercise the powers conferred by the Ordinance and as incapable of impartiality. But when he deals with a department, which he considers should be swept away, one would expect accuracy in the statement of facts regarding it. It is not the case that junior members of the Civil Service have frequently acted as Registrar General. The present holder of the post has 20 years' service, and those who have acted for him have invariably been officers of standing, who have been specially qualified for the post.

16. In paragraph 11 Mr. WHITEHEAD states that the Registrar General "may "be and almost necessarily must be in the hands of the Chinese in his department," and in paragraph 13 tries to show, by quoting Dr. Ho KAI, that the Chinese gene- rally are entirely at the mercy of the Registrar General. That is, the Registrar General is at one time the slave and at another the master of the Chinese. This is not the first occasion on which Mr. WHITEHEAD has made use of the remarks by Dr. Ho KAI. On page 93 of Hansard 1893 Dr. Ho KAI protests against such use in the following words :-

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"The Honourable Member for the Chamber of Commerce [¿.e., Mr. "WHITENEAD] quoted one of my speeches on the subject in which I spoke against the advisability of the Registrar General getting people, "Chinese gentlemen, individually and privately, into his office and asking "them their opinions on certain subjects. The quotation is a very long "one. I do not propose to read it, but it is found in the report [i.e., on. "the Pó Leung Kak] on page 13. Upon that the Honourable Member "seemed to think that the Registrar General should not consult the "Chinese, but that he should be outside and above them. He misunder- "stood me and took just the opposite view to that which I wished to