October 24, 1895.]
A marriage boat caught fire early on Monday morning at Yaumati. P.C. Ashmore, of the Water Police, was the first to see the flames. and he at once conveyed information to the station. Hon. Commander W. C. H. Hastings and a number of police officers promptly turned out, and the fire was soon extinguished by means of hand pumps. The damage done was not very considerable, and it is fortunate that no other boats caught fire.
A very enjoyable smoking concert was given at the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders of Hongkong on Saturday evening. The room was packed. An excellent programme had been arranged, and each of the items was given in a praiseworthy manner. Mr. R. Cooke presided. The following gentlemen contributed towards the harmony of the evening-Messrs. Gilchrist, J. B. Duncan, J. R. Madie, G. M. McDonald, Crispin, H. B. Bridger, J. W. Kinghorn, and Andrews. Mr. Tyndall-Lea acted as pianist throughout the evening and gave every satis- faction.
The Registrar-General's returns of births and deaths for the third quarter of the present year show that the birth-rate for the British and foreign community was 22.85 and the death rate 20.27. For the Chinese population the birth-rate was 5.27 and the death-rate 24.11.
On Saturday morning Mr. C. F. A. Sang- ster, the Acting Registrar of the Supreme Court, was presented by the solicitors of the court with a bank draft as a mark of their per- sonal esteem and in recognition of his services in the Registry. The presentation was made by Mr. Victor H. Deacon. Mr. Sangster leaves for home by the English mail steamer on Thursday next.
Two twelve 'pounders will in future be used at Gap Rock lighthouse for signalling purposes. Hitherto fog alarms have been given by means of detonators, tomite being the powder used, and although a charge makes a tremendous noise the sound does not carry very far. The firing of a gun has been proved to be far superior as an alarm, and so it was decided to purchase a couple of guns for Gap Rock. They have had rather a curious history. They were made in England and used for a con- siderable time in the navy. By some means they eventually got into the hands of Macao pirates, and some time ago the guns were taken from pirate boat off the coast of China and brought to Hongkong. Lately the Public Works Department decided to purchase the guns for Gap Rock. They have been put to the severest tests, which have proved satis- factory. During foggy weather an alarm will be given every ten minutes, and it has been decided to keep in store at the Gap Rock seven hundred rounds-2,100 lbs. of powder altogether.
On the 16th inst.
8 number of ladies
and gentlemen, including his Excellency the Governor, Sir William Robinson, assembled at the Happy Valley to witness the race between Mr. Manners' Australian mare, Australia, Mr. Hart Buck's Voltigeur, and Hon. J. J. Bell- Irving's Daylight. The mare gave the China ponies the rails, and in the draw Mr. Buck won the best position. Mr. Buck rode Voltigeur, Mr. Master Daylight, and Mr. Cruickshank Aus- tralia. The ponies started from the half mile post and were got away at the first fall of the flag. They kept closely together until passing the village, when Daylight dropped in the rear. Turning the bend Australia and Voltigeur were coming along very strongly, and for a considerable distance along the straight they ran neck and neck together. About thirty yards from the post Australia came to the front with an easy bound and passed the judge a little over a length in front of Voltigeur. Daylight was five lengths behind. The winner was loudly applauded, and the race was in every respect a capital one. The time was 604 secs.
Mr. Alexander Bielfeld, whose death occurred at Yokohama on the 16th inst., was an old re- sident of Shanghai. He came out, we learn from the N. C. Daily News, to Messrs. Wm. Pastan & Co. in 1859, and went up to Chefoo in 1869, where he was at one time in charge of the Family Hotel. He finally settled in Shanghai as a broker and auctioneer twenty years ago, and made himself a very familiar figure in the life of the port.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
TIENTSIN.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
4th October.
MISCELLANCOUS.
315
The furnace and nearly all the appliances for the new Municipal Crematorium have arrived · in Shanghai from England.
According to a Madrid telegram to the Comercio, the proposed increase of the capital of the Banco Espanol Filipino and the renewal of the Bank's charter have been approved.
We observe that a paragraph is going the rounds of the papers recording the "discovery of copper in Japan." Japan copper has been a regular article of export almost ever since the opening of the country to foreign trade.
At the Shanghai Autumn Regatta on the 15th inst. the International Eights was won by the English, by two lengths, from the Germans, who were the only other competitors. international fours on the second day were also won by the English.
The
Lo Feng Loh four days ago was summoned to Peking to assist in negotiating the Supple- mentary Treaties with Japan. The dead-set against Li Hung-chang was carried so far as to oust him from this negotiation, but faute de mieux he is reappointed. The Tsungli Yamen has been so badgered with ultimata over the Chengtu and Kucheng villainies that there is a complete scare in Peking officialdom re foreign affairs. The Tsungli Yamen to a man pleaded illness when called upon to take up the Treaty negotiation: Oong Tung Ho, the late Imperial tator, and now the ruling spirit in Peking, angrily refused to have anything to do with it. This arrogant pedant is doing infinite harm by his anti-foreign and truculent attitude. LI after his recentexperience naturally tried to quit himself of the danger, and also pleaded sickness, but seeing that the position was rapidly becom. ing farcical and derogatory to the dignity of the Government he consented to serve. As the main commercial concessions were embodied in the Shimonoseki Treaty it is not anticipated that beyond tariffs and fiscal modifications the The death is reported on the 6th instant în new Treaty will embody much that is novel. the native city at Shanghai of Mr. Sung, late The Inspector-General and his staff will pro-acting magistrate of the Mixed Court. While bably have the biggest say on the Chinese side. in office, the N. C. Daily News says, Mr. Sung Locally there is little to interest Hongkong won the respect of both foreigners and natives readers. Great municipal activity obtaine in by his integrity and the painstaking, manner the port. This week our city fathers discussed in which he discharged his duties. At the time and approved a comprehensive scheme for a of his death Mr. Sung was Vice-Commissioner Public Recreation Ground, involving the gift of the Land Registration and Survey Office in of some twelve acres of land and an additional the native city. - expense of fifteen thousand taels:
Training is in full swing. The autumnal griffins promise to be the best of recent years. The Races are fixed for October 28th, 29th, and 30th, when the local jocks hope to be re- inforced by Lieut. Taylor, of Hongkong. This gentleman's finished riding two years ago was a valuable object lesson to our young eru- dites.
1
The American Chengtu Commission starts this week overland for Szechuen. Consul Read Mr. Cheshire, of the Legation. After the usual is accompanied by Captain Merrill, U.S.N., and evasion and higgling the Tsungli Yamén has supplied a cavalry escort of twenty men. The ex- traordinary procedure of the Washington De- partment in sending its Commission a thousand miles' dangerous land journey instead of via the Yangtsze cannot be explained, except on the ground that the Chinese wanted the Commission to go by the river, and Uncle Sam, to show that his back was up, thereupon struck
for the other route.
It is currently reported both in Peking and Tientsin circles (native and foreign) that Sir Nicholas O'Conor delivered an ultimatum on the Chengtu and Kucheng villainies, that only at the last moment did the Chinese yield; that the presence of the Eolus, Spartan, and Pique at Nanking and the urgent despatch of gun- boats to the out-ports last week were pre- liminary measures to prompt naval action.
The telegraphic announcement of Viceroy Liu's lasting degradation bears out this report. It is also hinted that if the Kucheng investiga. tion hangs fire we may expect a naval mobi- lization in Fukien. At any rate, the diplomatic crisis is over, for Sir Nicholas was able to run down to Tientsin for two days to meet his wife. He expects to leave Peking for good within two months. Mr. Howard's name is the most frequently mentioned as his probable
successor.
|
Mr. C. D. Tenney, of this port, is now in Hongkong beating up recruits for the last educational departure, the Tientsin University. The preparatory school of the new institution will number ninety, the higher class thirty. The latter will necessarily be English-speaking youths. The students are all to be "foundation scholars," that is, they will be boarded and educated gratuitously, to say nothing about a small extra salary. Mr. Tenney's colleagues in the directorate are Southerners, so that Hong- kong will probably show well up in the Institu- tion. It could not be in better bands. Mr. Tenney is a thoroughly practical man of wide sympathies, a persona grata to foreigners and Cb aese alike.]
An illegal levy of ten cents per case on kerosine oil has been imposed at Foochow, the right of collection having been farmed out for $8,000 a year. The levy is imposed on oil sent to the inland markets under transit pass as well as on that sent under lekin certi- ficate.
From a private letter just received from Foo- chow, the Peking and Tientsin Times learns that two or three days before the Kucheng massacre Mr. Stewart was visited by one of the leaders of the Vegetarians, who brought presents for the children and had tea with the family. He enquired from Mr. Stewart whether he could lend him a gun as he was desirous of setting out after tigers which were giving trouble in some near neighbourhood. It is now supposed that he was spying out the situation of the houses, and satisfying himself that the mission- aries had no firearms.
Huang, Taotai of Shanghai, left that port early on the morning of the 8th inst. in rather an unexpected manner for Nanking by the Chinese gunboat Chunho, having been telegraphed for As chief civil magis- by the Viceroy Chang. trate with military powers and head of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs in that part of Kiangsu, Hung Taotai's superiors, the N. C. Daily News says, expect him to keep them in-
formed of the naval movements of Western Powers in these parts. He, however, appears to have given no intimation of the approach of the British fleet into the Yangtze, and this, according to native report, is the reason why he has been telegraphed for so hastily by the Nanking Viceroy.
same
The Peking and Tientsin Times has 8 high appreciation of the British Minister. It says:-
-Diplomatic policy has the properties as the chemical substance which dissolves all other metals but preserves the gold. In the politics of narrower circles we may find political underlings as leaders, but this is impossible in the diplomatic circles, which unmercifully reject the inferior spirits but become a true field for political genius and talent. Sir Nicholas O'Conor, the British Minister in Peking, is a true and grand diplomatist. His training is perfect, his knowledge of the world deep, his will is firm, and his heart is kind. The peculiar stamp of manliness which characterises the free British nation is typically manifest in his attractive individuality. His great political victory is, that he has impressed on China that England wishes to lift her up from atrocious barbarism without orushing her or making her a slave. It is best for China that she learns that her outrages are against the heart and laws of civilised humanity, and that she can only exist among other nations by re- specting their citizens and their rights. The universal sentiment in Peking indicates how. wisely and with what great tact Sir Nicholas has acted; there is no resentment on account of his political action, but a genuine feeling that Right" has been done, and "Right" alone.
T