408
interest in £ 310 deposited in the New Oriental Bank to be divided in equal shares among four hospitals, two being in Glasgow, and one in Edinburgh, the fourth being the Alice Memorial Hospital. The £310 was bequeathed subject to Mrs. Young, widow of Dr. William Young, the testator's brother, receiving a life interest, but owing to the collapse of the Bank Mrs. Young had not received so much as was intended, and not more than £200 of this deposit was expected to be forthcoming, of which £100 had already been realised. Mrs. Young therefore petitioned the Hospitals to resign their residuary interest in the £310, in order that she might purchase an annuity, which would amount to about the sum originally in- tended for her.
Dr. THOMPSON said that there could be but one feeling amongst the Committee on the sub- ject. Dr. Young was one of the early workers in the hospital when it was developing, and it would be an assurance to Mrs. Young that the late doctor's work had not been forgotten if the Committee waived any claim they had to the
money.
Hon. Ho Kar proposed that the Finance Committee recommend the trustees of the hos- pital to waive their claim to their share of the reversion of the £310.
Rev. T. W. PEARCE seconded the resolution,
which was carried.
The CHAIRMAN said that having disposed of that question it was only right they should in some form show their high appreciation of the handsome legacy which had fallen to the hos- pital, and which had been sent out in the letter read by Dr. Thompson. The money had come to them unexpectedly, but none the less agreeably, and although would not altogether relieve the energetic hon. treasurer of his labours in collecting subscriptions it would con- siderably lighten them.
It was thereupon resolved to request the
House Committee to consider the best means
of marking their high appreciation of the legacy and of Dr. Young's work. It was also decided to refer the question of the disposal of the gift to the House Committee.
This concluded the business of the meeting.
AANNING-FU.
|
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
oessive taxation, although likin in Kwangsi is heavy, and transit passes are not respected. Thus, the Pakhoi and Chin-chow foreign imports, valued as far as foreign vessels at the former place go at £383,000 during 1886, supply the wants of a district roughly comprised within a square having Seü-mao, Yünnan-fu, Fushan- ohou, and the sea at its corners an area not smaller than the United Kingdom. Although no doubt a very large addition would have to be made to the above sum to cover the import in junks from Hongkong and Macao to Pakhoi and Ch'in-chow, the smallness of the figure even as it stands can scarcely astonish one who has traversed this district, inhabited principally by Shans, Lolos, and Miaotzü, who want no- thing but salt and cotton, almost the whole Chinese population having been destroyed in the rebellion. But if Pakhoi holds her ground, a large and rapid increase in her foreign im. porta may be confidently expected, as the fertile valleys of Yunnan and Kueichow are peopled by Chinese immigrants from Szechuen and Hunan, who, like all Chinese, will demand foreign piece-goods as soon as they have spare money to spend on luxuries.
From Pakhoi to Nanning there are two roads followed by foreign goods; the first is by sea to Ch'in-chow in one day, and from Ch'in-chow overland by porter to Nanning in five days. This is the route followed by lighter goods, A Yünnan man told me that the five days' road was level, and that it might be followed by carta. Car- riage by this route from Pakhoi to Nanning was said to cost about 18 cash a catty. The second road between Pakhoi, Chin-show, and Nanning leads, to start from Pakhoi, to Ch'in-chow by sea in one day; from Chin-chow to La-wu He three to four days in boats that carry up to 10,000 catties; Lu-wu Hsu to Nan-haiang on the West River above Hêng-ohow three days by porter; and from Nan-hsiang to Nanning six days by the West River, .., fourteen days in all, three by land and eleven by boat. This Nan-hsiang route (with variations apparently from Pakhoi to Nan-hsiang) is followed by the heavier piece-goods, cotton yarn, and metals.
Nanning is connected with Canton by the Hai-chiang (West River), which might be navigated by light draft steamers as far AA Wuchow. The up-journey from Waohow to Nanning is made by boats drawing three Chinese fest in seventeen days and the return journey
of
foreign imports from
November 27, 18957
on the Tso-chiang consists of cotton yarn piece-goods, and Canton goods, in small quantities, up; and timber, beans, star-anise, and drugs, down. The on the Tao-chiang is said to bear proportion to that of the Lu-chiang - of three to seven. There is some trade in drugs, &c., scross the Tonkin border.
THE GERMAN FIRMS AND THE ARMS ORDINANCE,
At the Magistracy on Thursday, before Mr. T. Sercombe Smith, Mr. R. Marten, of Messrs. Radecker and Co., Wyndham Street, was sum- moned for selling arms for export without permit.
Mr. H. L. Dennys represented the defendant, and Mr. E. J. Grist watched the case on behalf of the firm purchasing the arms.
A broker named Ng Un Tong spoke to purchasing the arms from the defendant and paying $180 for them. There was a case of ten rides and witness had no licence to possess or carry arms, nor an export permit. He got the money from the Yik Li shop at Macao. AI the rifles came from America.
Hon. Commander W. C. H. Hastings, Acting Captain Superintendent of Police, said that no export permit had been applied for by Messrs. Radecker and Co., as was required by the Ordinance.
In answer to Mr. Dennys witness said this was not the first prosecution of any importance under the Ordinance; it was the first time, however, that a seller had been prosecuted for not obtaining a permit from the Superintendent of Police. He could not say for certain whe- ther any of the foreign importers of arms had applied to him for permits, but he had signed about two thousand export permits up to date; the greater number were for Chinese. He did not think that any German firms importing arms from America or Europe had applied for export permits, but Messrs. Lane, Crawford and Co. had obtained a permit. Up to this prosecution he had not drawn the attention of the German importers to the provisions of the Ordinance, but the law on the subject should be known by the firms.
Detective Sergeant McIver spoke to finding the case of rifles on the Heungshan on the after- noon of the 9th inst. There was no export
Ng Un Tong claimed it.
The following sketch of Nanning-fu, one of in ten days. the suggested Treaty Ports on the West River, Pakhoi and Ch'in-chow to the north is from Permit, so he took the case to the station, where
is taken from Mr. F. S. A. Bourne's report on his journey through South-western China-
Nanning-fu is a well-built city, containing a brisk population of Chinese and Shans, who seem unusually well-to-do, an effect partly due perhaps to the fact that this is one of the few cities that escaped devastation by the Taiping rebels. The merchants are mostly Canton and Kwangsi men. The Shan women, to the front as usual, wear neat black cotton head-gear, dark-coloured clothes, silver ornaments, and bare feet.
If I remember right, Mr. Colquhoun, in the account of his journey in these parts, remarka that his servant returned from a yamen at Nanning, and said he had there heard people Of the thres talking in a strange tongue runners sent to look after me by the Magistrate two were Shans, and Shan No. 6 is a vocabulary taken from one of them. The Shan language is here called Chuang [hus] by the Chinese, a name of which I could get no account.
Commercially, Nanning is the second city in Kwangai, yielding only to Wuchow-fu in extent of trade, although it has but poor banking faci- lities, and can scarcely be ranked as a third-rate Chinese commercial city. Besides the trade in tobacco, drugs, tea, sugar, ground-nuts, &c., of which there is a considerable exchange between the Canton province and the country watered by the Yu and Tso rivers, Nanning-fu is the entrepôt of the trade by which foreign goods from Pakhoi and Chin-chow are exchanged for opium of Yünnan and Kusichow consumed in Kwangai and the Canton province. It is with this latter trade that we are concerned in this report.
An unexpected result of this journey is the discovery that Pakhoi and Chin-chow supply foreign goods to the whole of South Yunnan, Western Kwangsi, and South Kueiohow through regular channels, unchecked at all events by ex-
The great highway
Mr. Dennys said it was not known by the German firms in the colony that it was neces
Nanning to Po-se, the route we have just followed, the passage taking twelve to twenty The boats on this days according to the wind. route draw as much as 2 feet 5 inches Chinese,sary to take out a permit! The import trade was practically in their hands, and this had been and carry as much as 60,000 catties. The the
the first intimation that it was necessary for them to take out an export permit. transport of cotton yarn, for instance, between Pak-hoi and Yunnan Fu, would be made as
follows:-
Pakhoi to Nanning Nanning to Po-sé..... Po-sé to Po-ngai Po-ngai to Kwangnan-fu Kwangnan-fu to Yunnan-fu.
Land. Water.
11
3
15
3
8
12
23
29
A railway along this route would meet; I believe, with no serious difficulties; indeed, this is probably the easiest line that a railway to ascend the plateau could take.
Mr. Stolterfoht, of Messrs. Stolterfoht and Hagan, said he had been in business in the colony for over twenty-five years, and re membered the Arms Consolidation Ordinaños being introduced in the Legislative Council. He and the other German arms importing firms. made representations have the provisions mo- dified. He and Mr. Garrells had an interview with the Acting Attorney-General-first Mr. Lesch and then Mr. Wise-acting on behalf of their Chinese clients. At that time they were given to understand that the Ordinance would apply only to the Chinese dealers. None of the Ger man firms so far as he knew-and he had made inquiries-had ever kept a register of their tran- sactions in arms. He had never understood that register should be kept, and such a thing had never been called to his attention.
For the defence Mr. Dennys dwelt upon the fact that the Ordinance had been in abeyance since April.
His Worship pointed out that the Ordinance was published in the Government Gazette, and therefore the Government was relieved of the duty of bringing it directly to the notice of the persons affected.
The commercial capabilities of the Tso-chiang require careful study, because along it lies the only route worth mentioning between Kwangaia and Tonkin; and in its neighbourhood will no doubt be situated the trading station "to the north of Liang-shan," to be opened under the Franco-Chinese Treaty of 1885. The Tro- chiang is navigated by good-sized boats as far as Tal-p'ing-fu, and by smaller boats as far as Lungchow, which place bears to the commerce of the Tso-chiang much the same relation that To-se does to that of the La chiang. Lungchow is reached from Nanning in twelve to eighteen days. The country is mountainous, and the stream badly obstructed by rapids, which are much more numerous and more difficult than on the Lu chiang. Above Lungchow the river is navigated across the Tonkin border by amall boats that carry 3,000 catties, and are worked by six men. The voyage down from Lungohow to Nanning takes six to nine days. The trade
Mr. Dennys urged that his client was ignor ant of the law on the subject; he had technically broken the law and therefore a nominal penalty would meet the case. None of the German firms in the colony had ever asked for a permit.
His Worship was satisfied that the offence had been proved, but he did not think it was a case for a heavy penalty A fine of $10 only would be imposed gu