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have enabled you to support for so many years the great burden of the Empire, and in their love for the woman and the Queen whose virtues have adorned the palace and sustained the throne and whose sympathy with sorrow and suffering has been extended to all alike, rich and poor, native and foreign, without distinction | of race or creed.
The deep reverence in which Your Majesty is held by your faithful subjects is shared by all the residents of Hongkong of other nationalities. Your virtues, your sorrows, your devotion to duty, and the great example of your life, are be- fore the world and have won for Your Majesty the widest recognition and the most profound respect. The Chinese who within Your Majesty's Colony of Hongkong find peace, order, and good government specially desire to express their most respectful concurrence in all the congratulations and in all the professions of admiration with which Your Majesty is greeted on this auspicious occasion from all quarters of your world wide dominions
THE POLICE REPORT.
The report of the Captain Superintendent of Police for 1896 was laid before the Legislative Council on the 3rd May. We make the follow- ing extracts from it:-
The total of all cases reported to the Police was 12,975, showing a decrease as compared with the return for 1895 of 400 cases or 2.99 per cent. In the division of these cases into serious and minor offences, there appears a decrease as com- pared with 1895 of 453 cases or 16.37 per cent. in the former, and of 53 cases or 0.49 per cent. in the latter category.
The decrease as compared with 1895 in serious offences of 453 is shown as follows:--
Decrease.
Robbery with violence
Unlawful possession
Larcenies
Felonies not already given
3 155
...356
2
516
Deduct increase
63
453
Increase.
5
Murder Burglary and larceny in dwelling 39 Offences against Protection of
Woman and Girls Ordinance 19
63
It will be observed that the decrease is prin- cipally in the offences of unlawful possession and larceny, while the largest increase is in burglaries and larcenies in dwelling houses.
During the 1st quarter of the year there were 522 reports of serious offences; during the 2nd 604, during the 3rd 561, and during
the 4th 568.
During the first two quarters the Light and -Pass law was very rigidly enforced, no less than 2,637 persons being apprehended during that period for contravening it. During the 3rd quarter this particular law was less rigidl- enforced, only 652 persons being appre hended, while in the 4th quarter the epforced ment of the law was much relaxed, only 113 apprehensions being made in October, 52 in November, and 23 in December.
MURDERS,
There were no less than 8 cases of murder brought to the notice of the Police during the year. The number is much above the average. The shooting of two guardians of the Peace by prisoners in their custody is the most unsatis factory feature in the record.
(1.)-On the 2nd January at Shaukiwan, Pan Kon Lai, a coolje, living in the village, was shot by an Indian constable stationed there, who immediately afterwards committed suicide.
(2.) On the 12th of the same month a Chinese boy 8 years of age was found evidently murdered near the Upper Richmond Road. A silver anklet which the child' had been wearing was subsequently found in a pawnshop. The pawnbroker stated that it had been pawned on the 11th January by a boy aged 13 years arrest was made.
No
(3.) On the 23rd of February a Chinese resid- ing at Victoria was found evidently murdered on the road between Wongneichong and Deep
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND Water Bay. The deceased, who was in poor circumstances, gave out before leaving Victoria | that he was going to Wongneichong to collect some money. No arrest was made.
(4.) On the 2nd May Constable Hoggarth arrested a Chinese at 10.30 p.m. for robbery at Cross Street, and handed him over to a District watchman while he went is pursuit of another man. The prisoner shot the District Watch man and escaped, but was smartly re-arrested by Hoggarth after an exciting chase. prisoner was convicted of murder and hanged.
The
(5.) On the 12th July Chinese Detective Constable Lai Tak Shing was shot by a man named Lai Mit, whom he attempted to arrest for larceny. Lai Mit was subsequently arrested in China and tried and executed there.
wag
(6)-Early in the morning of the 27th August # widow, her son-in-law, and grandson, living in a boat at Hung Hom, were attacked by five men armed with knives. The woman killed and her son-in-law received serious injuries, of which, however, he recovered. The woman was apparently regarded as a witch, and it is supposed that the attack upon her arose out of a quarrel with som fishermen, who imagined that she had defrauded them by her withcaft. No arrest was made.
(7)-On the 19th September four Hakkas and two Shanghai horse boys employed at Kennedy's Livery Stables quarrelled over a woman, with the result that two of the Hakkas were stabbed to death with a pocket knife. The Shanghai men were arrested. One was convicted of mur- der and hanged, and the other was acquitted.
|
[May 12, 1897. inmates of $55. An alarm was raised after the robbers left, and one of them was arrested after he had shot a District watchman. He was convicted and hanged.
In all the above cases the robbers were armed with revolvers.
The sixth case was a robbery committed by boat people on another boat at Hung Hom, One man was arrested and convicted at the Police Court.
BURGLARY AND LARCENY IN DWELLING HOUSE.
The increase under this heading is princi pally in the latter of the two crimes. Careless- ness in not keeping money and jewellery pro- perly secured has had much to do with the
increase.
FELONIES NOT ALREADY GIVEN.
The principal crimes included under this heading and not already referred to were --
Manslaughter
•
Arson and attempted arson Drugging Embezzlement
Forgery
Housebreaking
Perjury
Rapa
Shooting and wounding Suicide
GAMBLING.
13
20
There is a decrease under this heading, and I am able to report that there is very little publie gambling carried on in the colony at the pre- sent time.
DRUNKENNESS.
Has not increased. There is nothing else in
PROSTITUTION.
(8.)-On the 24th October the body of a Chi- nese fisherman was found on the shore at Stone- cutter's Island. It was ascertained that the deceased and two companions, while in his fish-the returns calling for particular remark. ing boat off Green Island on the previous day, had been attacked and murdered by the crew of another fishing boat. Two men were arrested and brought to trial, but acquitted. The parties were members of two rival secret societies which had their head-quarters in Chinese territory and had been at enmity for some time.
ROBBERIES WITH VIOLENCE, Among the eight cases under this heading were 6 cases of highway robbery, 1 of street robbery, and 1 of earring snatching.
(1.)—On the 28th February a coolie was met by a man at 6.20 p.m. in Jubilee Street, who levelled a revolver at him and robbed him of $50. No arrest made.
(2.) On the 26th March at 12.15 p.m. a European lady, while walking in Richmond Road, was robbed of a gold watch by two Chinese. Noarrest made.
(3.) On the 21st of May at 10.15 a.m. a coolie was robbed by a Chinese on the Bowen Road of some $3. No arrest made.
(4.) On the 3rd June at 8.45 p.m. a Chinese servant in European employ was attacked by three men on the Peak Road, wounded with knives, and robbed of $41. One man was subsequently arrested and convicted.
(5.)-On the 21st July at 2.30 p.m. a Chinese was robbed by two others of a pair of silk trousers on the road to Stanley. No arrest made.
(6.)-On the 29th December at 3 p.m. a coolie was robbed near Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon, of 60 cents by another coolie; who ran away into Chinese territory. No arrest made,
GANG ROBBERIES.
6
These have been included, as was the case last year, under the heading Felonies not already given" instead of under "Robberies with Violence" as was done in 1893 and 1894.
There were six of these robberies. (1.)-On the 14th January at 4 a.m. three men broke into a house at Quarry Bay, tied up the inmates and stole property to the value of $140. Two men were subsequently arrested, one of whom was convicted.
(2.)—On the 23rd February at 7 p.m. four men entered a clothes store in Queen's Road West, and stole clothing and money to the value of $76. No arrest made.
(3.)-On the 12th March at 7.30 p.m. six men entered a matshed at Quarry Bay and robbed the inmates of $56. No arrest made.
(4.)~On the 14th April at 9.15 p.m. four men entered a clothes' shop in Queen's Road East; and stole property to the value of $114. No arrest made.
(5.)-On the 2nd May at 10.15 p.m. four men entered a shop in Cross Street, and robbed the
Tibe full effect of the abolition of the regis tration of brothels is now beginning to be felt.
Ordinance No. 6 of 1894, which repealed the Sections of Ordinance 11 of 1890 providing for the registration and regulation of brothels, came into force in September of the former
year.
In December, 1893, there were registered in the colony 134 brothels for Chinese with 1,592 prostitutes, and 49 brothels for non-Chinese with 262 prostitutes, giving a total of 183 registered brothels and 1,854 registered pro- stitutes in them.
It is estimated that there existed at the same time 30 sly brothels, with 100 prostitutes living in or frequenting them; giving a total of 213 re- gistered and sly brothels and 1,954 prostitutes.
*
Although registration has ceased, brothels in the Colony are still distinguished as " open (.e. public) and “sly." The open brothels are conducted as openly as the former registered brothels were. The sly brothels are not so openly conducted, but more openly than the old sly brothels.
With the cessation of registration an im- mense number of sly brothels sprang up, while # large increase took place in the number of open brothels. There are to-day 70 so-called open brothels for non-Chinese with 380 pro- stitntes, 237 open brothels for Chinese with 2,023 prostitutes; and 215 sly brothels for Chinese with 675 prostitutes, or a total of 522 brothels and 3,078 prostitutes. 1
Brothels are of course not now restricted to certain parts of the town, as they were under the registration system.
Many complaints have reached me from the Chinese community of the way in which brothels are now opened indiscriminately all over Victoria. At the same time only two pro- secations have been instituted under Section 4 of Ordinance 6 of 1894, since that Ordinance came into force.
Chinese will suffer almost any inconvenience and annoyance rather than appear in a Court of law, and it is futile to hope that the Chinese community will ever make any serious effort to stop by recourse to law the nuisance caused by the opening of brothels in respectable quarters of the town,
There are other and even more undesirable features of the uncontrolled state of prostitu- tion in the Colony, which I have dealt with in a separate report.
STOLEN PROPERTY RECOVERED,
The value of property reported stolen during the year was $53,499.59. The value of that
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