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December 4, 1895.]
13. The present condition of affairs is cal culated to disturb the good feeling of the Chinese and it is to be sincerely hoped, says our Chinese informant, that the Government will adopt more lenient steps.
HONGKONG LIBRARY.
Our Tientsin correspondent writes:
e are astonished that so progressive a com- We munity as Hongkong should be in the prehis. toric age as regards a Public Library. Even in this Ultima Thule of Western civilization we have such an institution, and a very good one it is too. Life without it would for many of us degenerate into the merest vegetative existence and would be all but insupportable. The Tientsin Municipal Library is in many respects a model institution and is run on such frictionless and liberal lines that its life's history and a brief reference to its scope and manage- ment may interest Hongkong bibliophiles. Dissimilar as the communities are in almost every respect, including that of literary taste, we feel sure that our experience and results will be an encouragement to those who wish to engraft a similar beneficence on Hongkong.
Some fifteen years ago the Inspector-General of Customs established a small collection of
standard novels for the out-door staff in this port.
It was well chosen, but not greatly patronized. One day the community awoke to a sense of literary indigence, and when some rational soul suggested that this miniature collection might be made the nucleus of a Public Library, a meeting was held and the thing was done.
Sweet reason attended on the new venture from
the day of its birth. The Municipal fathers gave a room and supplied heat, light, and a native attendant gratuitously, so that the entire in- come might be available for books, &c.; the Customs contributed $150 a year and handed over their books on two conditions-(1) that the out-door staff should have all the privileges of subscribers gratis; (2) that a Customs man, should always be on the Committee of Manage- ment (four in number).
The youngster grew space. Within five years the collection numbered some fifteen hundred volumes. From the beginning a read. ing room with an abundant supply of current
literature formed an essential part of the under. taking. Roughly speaking, half of the gros88 income was spent on this, the remaining half being invested in new books. The committee in these early days usually contained at least two gentlemen of stoutly evangelical tendencies; happily they were liberal minded men, and though their choice of literature was sound, it was essentially safe rather than representative. Poetry and science were neglected in toto and the fiction just tended a little to mediocrity and to the heroism of the Sandford and Merton type. Our experience is that the missionary element should be represented in the committee, bat should be kept well in hand. About eight years ago a strong committee by sheer good luck was spontaneously elected and since then the institution has gone on by leaps and bounds. The collection now numbers 6,000 volumes, classified as Fiction (2,900), Biography (600), History (400), Travel, Sport, and Adventure (450), Science (100), Poetry (200), Miscellaneous (1,000), and Reference (200), the last mentioned not being removable from the Library without the written permission of the Secretary. There are about one hundred subscribers at one dollar per month. The subscription from the head of a family gives the privileges of reading and bor- rowing books to his whole household, but this does not apply to hongs. The total number of readers is over 200: these in the course of a year borrow (roughly speaking) the whole collection 1 4/10 times.
The rules are, unlike the subscription, very | liberal. A reader may have six complete works at one time for one month, but newly arrived books (distinguished by a red label on the back) may be kept only one week, and only two of such may be held at once. These figures do not include papers and magazines, for which there are equally generous rules available, after they have been removed from the table (three maga- zines may be taken at once for a period of three days).
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The total income for the past year was $1,500, nearly half of which was spent on current literature. Nearly one thousand volumes were added to the shelves, four han dred of which were by bequest, the first auch gift the Institution has had.
know
44
Six years ago a provident committee, admitting the possibility of the break up of so valuable a Society from internal sedition (a circumstance which actually happened up the Yangtsze; the survivors divided the spoil; we Britannica" as his share) determined to fore- a man who got the Encyclopaedia
meeting of the subscribers and vested the pro- stall such a contingency They called a public prietorship of the Library in the British Municipality in trust. The conditions of the trust give the entire control and management
to 8
!
an-
This was a
anally. Changes in the rules, building, fittings,
committee of subscribers elected
Council for approval. The whole thing now &c., have to be submitted to the Municipal goes like a good chronometer, giving satisfac- catalogue must be referred to. tion to everybody. An exceptionally good labour of love to a local enthusiast, and has been printed in such a way as to allow the additions of the next ten years to be inserted at their proper place and not higgledy. piggledy as in the great Shanghai mystery called Catalogue.
our
The management is entirely honorary, but collection has grown. has become increasingly more onerous as the We think that much of success depends on a strong committee. We keep off faddists and choose men of catholic literary taste and lovers of books; and we let it be clearly understood that these gentlemen are only to guide and supplement, not to supplant, the wishes of the subscribers, as expressed in a prominently placed suggestion. book. We say guide and supplement, for our experience is that our rank and file only suggest fiction; the committee has to see that other departments are not starved and that faddists
do not override the less obtrusive subscribers. If the growth of the institution is such as to overwork the
will doubtless be sought, as in Shanghai, in the per-
committee, relief
manent help of a paid and competent foreign lady.
Our
paper and magazine list (which contains fifty items and involves an expense of £65 or £70) is controlled entirely by the annual public meeting and an amusing if not instruc- tive debate annually takes place when the advocates of the Guardian and Atheneum come A down to fight the stalwarts of Philistia. specially quick and handy method of paper and magazine registration obtains, enabling one to see at a glance who has borrowed a required paper
it will probably do it in a lordly way; but let When Hongkong attacks tue Library question it not be forgotten that half of the secret of success lies in attention to matters of petty de- tail. A good and well classified catalogue, a simple system of registration. rules drafted in a liberal spirit and administered so as to en- courage and not discourage reading, will, if backed by a strong committee, do more to form a great library than great subscriptions or offi- cial patronage. Despite not the day of small things. The orgination will probably be much stronger and better adapted to local wants if beginnings are small and things grow than if they are started with a huge mass of unassorted literature. Among other details an ill-bound or badly printed book should never be bought; it only provokes a prompt demand for the same work in a decent dress.
LIU YUNG-FU.
As already announced, Lin Yung-fu, the Black Flag chief, returned to Canton some time ago, and we learn that he has since paid several visits to the Viceroy and the other high officers. His son and servants arrived a few days before Liu himself and accommodation was engaged for him at an inn named Kwang Man- loi, in Yuen-chong Street, outside the city. After remaining there for several days he hired a house in Ut-shau Street, at the foot of the Kwon-yam hill, inside the city, where he is now residing with his son.
425
On the 21st inst. a petty military officer named Tau On-pong went to the General's re sidence and wanted to see him, but the servants. objected to his entering until he sent in his card. The officer, however, disregarded their remon- strances and rushed past them into the hall, where Liu was seated with some visitors. Liu immediately ordered the man's arrest and on his. being searched to revolvers were found upon him. The explanation he gave of his visit was that he wanted Diu to recommend him for afi appointment. It is reported that he was on Liu's staff in Formosa, but being dissatisfied with his treatment he resigned. It is also said that while in Formosa he plotted against Lin's He has been sent to the Namhoi Magis- trate for trial.
life.
NON-ARKIVAL OF THE
“STRATHNEVIS.”
The Northern Pacific steamship Strathnevis, which left Tacoma on the 13th October, and also Victoria, B. C., on the same day, bound for Hongkong, has not yet reached Yokohama, where she was due, according to the time table, about the 4th or 5th November. She had 165 Chinese and Japanese steerage passengers on board, but no Europeans beyond the officers and crew. Her cargo consisted of nearly two thousand tons of flour, a large quantity of tinned fish and meat, and she had sufficient coal on board to enable her to steam forty days. Messrs. Dodwell, Carlill and Co., the agents, think that the delay has been caused by the ma- chinery having broken down. All the steamers crossing the Pacific are on the look out for the overdue steamer, and as she is a strong and powerfully built boat, only a year and a half old, the agents have hopes of her turning up safely. Other steamers by this long ocean route have before broken down, but have eventually arrived safely in port. On her previous voyage from Tacoma to Yokohama she took twenty days.
Ja
THE CONVEYANCE OF OPIUM IN STEAMERS.
IMPORTANT CASE. At the Magistracy on Thursday, before Mr. T. Sercombe Smith, Robert Unsworth, master of the steamship Keong Wai, was summoned for having allowed his ship, which was a vessel of over sixty tons burden, to be used for the im- portation or conveyance of 520 taels of prepared opium without having a valid certificate.
Mr. Dennys appeared to prosecute, and Mr. H. E. Pollock appeared for the defence.
Mr. Pollock made a preliminary objection, and said that the defendant could not be charged charging a man with with importing or concag; that was like
·ling or embezzling; i themselves to some- the prosecution must thing definite.
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Mr. Dennys said hd not wish to keep the
importation word
the summons, and it was thereupon struck cut.
Mr. Pollock further said that there was nothing in the Ordinance about "allowing" the ship to be used, and Mr. Dennys got over this difficulty by having the summons altered to
using the ship for the conveyance," etc.
In explaining the facts Mr. Lennys said that on 28th October, in consequence of information received, P. C. Langley and a number of exoise officers went on board the Keong Wai, which belonged to the Scottish Oriental Company, and traded between Swatow and Bangkok. They went into the chief officer's cabin, which was on the main deck and on the port side of the ship. The officers found that some panelling had been removed, but nothing was found although opium had apparently been there. They then went to the second mate's cabin, and behind some panelling which they unscrewed two tins of prepared opium. they found From there they went to the mess room, which adjoins and goes across from the port to the starboard side, and behind some panelling which had to be unscrewed they found twenty-three tins of prepared opinm; place in the room twenty-five in another tins were found, and- in a third place two tins. Each tin contained ten taels of prepared opium. Mr. Dennys concluded by
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