480
THE SECOND WOOSUNG RAILWAY.
The oft-repeated rumours about railway con- struction in our neighbourhood at last appear to be taking some definite shape, and it looks as if the Chinese officials meant to try to keep such undertakings in their own hands. Those who believe that China is awakening will find some consolation in the fact that the Chinese Govern- ment now deliberately propose to relay the Woosung railway, which they tore up and destroyed ten years ago. When the foreigners who constructed that short-lived line first began their work, older residents will recollect the fierce opposition raised thereto on the grounds of the outraged fengshui and the desecrated graves of the dead forebears of the country people. Now happily all that is changed, and fengshui as a potent factor of opposition to all innovation seems to have almost entirely lost its efficacy. Indeed we rarely hear the word nowadays. Once the officials determine to do anything the ancient bugbear of all foreign schemes takes wing forthwith, and if it does not a liberal and stimulating treatment with the bamboo effects a speedy change in the minds of the people who raise up the time-worn supernatural bogie. It is therefore tolerably certain that the official promoters of the proposed Woosung railway will find none of the opposi- tion from the gentry and country people along the road which the first foreign pioneers had to encounter, but it is quite another point whether the mandarin constructors and managers will work the line, now being surveyed, with success. Hitherto the lines constructed in the
north and in Formosa, have been pre-eminently unfortunate. ruinously expensive, and miserably
worked. Indeed there is little doubt that the
North China railway would take the prize for being the worst, the most unpunctual, vexatious, badly kept line in the universe, and owing to the antique pattern of its rolling stock it is ----considering its rast field--one of the most ex- pensive and least efficient in the transport of cargo. This is simply because it is an official un- dertaking, controlled by mandarin cliques, who run it as they like without consulting their foreign staff. Chinamen can no more run rail- ways than they can fight ironclads or command armies in the field. It is to be hoped that the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, who has the short new railway in hand, will now avoid the mistakes of his colleagues in the north and the even worse blunders and waste in Formosa. If he takes onr
advice he will at once abandon the idea of doing the work himself, or by deputy through officials, still more ignorant of such matters. but give it into the hands of some competent foreign en- gineer, who will be able to figure out to a frac tion the entire cost of building. equipping, and working the line.
We are told that the Viceroy has appointed an officer named Shen Tong-woo to make a survey of the country between Sinza and Woosung, through the districts of Keating. Chinpoo, Kongsang. Sinyang, etc., and that he is to start from Woosung in a day or two, accompanied by an officer from the Shanghai hsien. Whether this survey will lead to any thing definite in the immediate future we cannot say, but that it has been undertaken at all shows that in this part of China at least the officials are thinking of reforms. Still, however intelligence, we cannot help recalling the dismal we may rejoice at the symptom of awakening failures which Chang has made of his former great schemes in Central China, all of which goes to make us doubtful of his success in a nearer field.-China Gazetle.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
In a later issue our contemporary says:-We should have explained in our references to the proposed new railway line from Woosung that that line is only the first section of the railway which Chang Chih-tung is talking of construct- ing between the mouth of the Whangpoo and Soochow, but it will, according to present arrangements, be the first part laid. The Viceroy has ordered Shin, the Governor of Soochow, to come down here with Loo Taotai to commence the inspection of the route at Loo has already arrived and is in fre- quent consultation with the Shanghai Taotai on the subject, as well as in reference to the new Japanese settlement at Soochow. Loo was formerly consul at Yokohama.
once.
NO RAILWAY CONCESSIONS TO
BE GIVENSSIONS
Shanghai, 28th November. We learn that within the past week the Tsungli Yamen has made up its mind to give a point-blank refusal to all applicants for rail- way concessions, and several of the foreign Ministers, who have been almost indecently touting on behalf of their nationals for conces- sions of this kind, have been politely informed that the Chinese Government will lay whatever railways it wants itself. Nor will the unofficial classes of China be allowed to participate in these undertakings. The spoil is on too magni- ficent a scale for. the officials to allow any one but their own cloth to share it, and the man- darins will keep all the railways in their own hands. So they say and doubtless mean to do it-if they can.China Gazette.
DIABOLICAL ATTEMPT TO SCUTTLE A STEAMER.
Shanghai, 29th November. Two Ningpo men, boatswain and carpenter respectively of the China Navigation Co.'s steamer Whampao Captain Goodall, were charged in the Mixed Court this morning, before the Magistrate and Mr. Scott (British Assessor),
with maliciously and wilfully damaging a water-pipe in the hold of the said steamer, thereby causing damage to the ship and cargo to the extent of Tls. 1,000, at sea, between Newchwang and Shang hai. The prisoners were arrested on warrant issued by the British Court, and in the ordinary course of things they would have appeared before that tribunal, but the charge
1
was too serious for the British authorities to
deal with and the prisoners were accordingly sent before their own Magistrate. The evidence adduced this morning revealed a deliberate and diabolical attempt on the part of the prisoners to scuttle and sink the ship, when she was about 200 miles off the South-east Promontory on the 13th inst.. ou a voyage from Shanghai to Newchwang with a general cargo. Captain Goodall stated that on the 15th inst, when the ship was in the position mentioned, he caused
the ballast tink to be filled.
The after-hold
was closed and the prisoners were the last on board who were in that hold before it was battened down. Shortly before they left it the chief officer was down there and everything by the merest accident, the hold was opened was then in perfect order. Some hours later. again, when three feet of water was found, and a large quantity of the cargo spoiled. Snb. sequently a water-pipe leading from the ballast tank to the hold was found to have a large hole in it through which the water was pouring out, and a crowbar, discovered lying close by. was found to fit exactly into the cut. There could
be no doubt that the hole had been made with the crowbar. The damaged section of the pipe and the crowbar were exhibited to the Magistrate, who expressed himself satisfied that the hole had been out with the bar. not deny the charge.
The prisoners did Mr. Scott-Can you assign any reason why the prisoners should have wished to sink the ship?
The Chief Officer-The only thing is this. colonies, and at Hongkong a box of specie, On the voyage before last we came up from the containing 500 sovereigns, was found to be missing. We suspected some of the people on board, more especially the carpenter and boats- wain, of being concerned in it. At Shanghai the matter was given into the hands of Sergeant Prest. We got up the prisoners and questioned them, and when the carpenter's tool-chest was searched we found a chisel that fitted exactly into the damaged lock of the treasure-room. In the colonies the steward was put in gaol for misconduct. He got into debt down there and ran away. All this might have led to the present case.
Captain Goodall-The damage was so serious that if the ship had been deeply loaded she would very soon have foundered and even as it was she would have gone down had it not been found out in time.
Mr. Scott Do you think six months' im- prisonment would meet the case ?
[December 4, 189 5.
Captain Goodall-It is very light for such an offence; we were in a gale of wind, a couple of. hundred miles off the land at the time and we all escaped with our lives only by a miracle. As it was, & thousand tael's worth of cargo waS destroyed. The carpenter had been falsifying the soundings all day. Just before we found the thing out he reported three inches of water in the hold, and when we went down we found more than three feet!
Mr. Scott The Magistrate is imposing a sentence of 200 blows, a year's imprisonment, and deportation. He cannot give more than a year, and if you want a more severe sentence they will have to go before a higher court where there may be difficulty in dealing with the ease. The prisoners were then removed.—China Gazette.
THE CAMPHOR MARKET.
have
Since our last remarks on the camphor trade the market has undergone a considerable change. The consuming refineries in Europe apparently had been reckoning on supplies after the close of the campaign in Formosa flowing as amply as before the Japanese set foot on the island, and they consequently withheld their orders The London syndicate, too, may
been guided by similar consi- derations, and this caused the market to decline somewhat rapidly by about 20 per cent., at which figure the Japanese would have been ready sellers they could have found buyers. kong as to the reopening of Formosa's supplies The same opinion doubtless prevailed in Hong- after the close of the military campaign, as it closing of the ports would thus come forward. was thought that supplies locked up through the
This state of affairs, however, lasted only a 1,000 piculs changed hands at comparatively few days. Though it its estimated that about
low prices, yet the smallness of the offers and lower rates must have convinced intending the timidity with which they were made at the
large supplies in the future was delusive. buyers at home that the prospect of
The refiners are now preparing for the spring season. Local buyers, whose orders are begin- ning to come in, fail, it is said, to elicit offers from the Japanese, and already the decline in price has partly recovered. What the future of the market will be we shall probably soon know.
|
the camphor market, the high prices which As we pointed out when we last referred to
creased the production of the article in Japan, ruled up to a month ago have in no way in-
while the recent decline has acted as a check on the producers. Furthermore, the reports of the speedy exhaustion of available trees gain fortunate enough to hold small stocks of in strength, and it seems that those who are
camphor hold them tighter than ever and are not tempted by present quotations.
bable course of events in Formosa, and it must Much speculation has been rife as to the pro- be confessed that so far as positive information art as much in the dark now as goes we before. One thing, however, is certain- namely, that all the exertions of the Japanese merchants who went to Formosa with the object of getting at the hidden stores of camphor or to start distilleries have been doomed to disap-
kong is limited to the production of those few pointment, and nothing has yet appeared in this market. What at present arrives in Hong-
Chinese who are in possession of unquestionable title deeds and are permitted by the Japanese authorities to go on distilling to a limited extent.-Kobe Chronicle.
According to despatches from Peking, says. the N. C. Daily News, the Censor Sun Wu-chien,·· who had previously filled on several occasions the post of Supervising Censor of the military provincial and metropolitan examinations at Peking, presented on the 13th November a me morial to the Throne ridiculing the idea of still continuing the examination of military students and graduates in archery, "which is now A obsolete, out of date, and a curse to the country. The memorialist proposes to substitute rifle and carbine examinations on foot and horseback and in time to add technical examinations: The matter has been referred to the Board of War.
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