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Government instituting an absurd and vexatious prosecution. On Kennedy Road, on the other hand, where riding is expressly! prohibited, riding is freely tolerated. The regulations of the 20th May, 1887, published in the Gazette of the 21st of the same month, provide that No wheeled "vehicle or horses shall be allowed on the "promenade known as Kennedy Road." We cannot find that those regulations have ever been repealed, but the public notice against riding has been removed from the board at the entrance to the promenade and the enjoyment of pedestrians is inter- fered with by riders. The road was con- structed for a promenade, not for horse traffic, and as a promenade it ought to be preserved.
A WHITEWASHING BY-LAW?
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND·
THE MEKONG SETİLEMENT,
for
into effect, will have to go a step furthe
their
THE DEPALTURE OF SIK FIELDING CLARKE.
(16th January ).
(January 22, 1896.
does “not for a moment advocate the wholesale employment of aliens to the detriment or ex- reclusion of the true-born Briton; that would, probably, be as impossible of accomplishment as it would, possibly, be inexpedient." The self- anfficiency which these words imply, and the suggestion that the wholesale displacement of Britons by aliens would be only possibly inex- pedient, were, we venture to think, not present in Mr. Braga's mind and arise only from; a misuse of words. On the whole, however, the author's English is correct and he discusses his subject, which is one on which he naturally feels strongly, with moderation and good taste. We do not propose to argue on the views expressed, which would only be to re-open a disagreeable and profitless discussion. Suffice it to say that the rights of aliens in Hong- kong are the same as the rights of aliens elsewhere in the British empire and are in no jeopardy. Mr. Braga's ventilation of the subject will, however, prove interesting to the Portuguese community and to those who feel themselves aggrieved by the competition of Portuguese clerks whether in the public service or mercantile offices. We congratulate Mr. Braga on the manner in which he has dis- charged his self-imposed task, but it is rather to be regretted that while he was about it he did not take the trouble to translate the articles the reproduces from the Macao papers, instead of giving them in the original,
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Yokohama: Torando.
Sketches of Tokyo Life. By JUKICHI INOUțe, MR. JUKICHI INOUTE either writes uncom- monly good English for a foreigner or has had skilled assistance in the writing of his book. However that may be, he has given us a series of inest readable sketches, which are respectively entitled, "The Story-teller's liall" The Actor and the Stage, The Wrestler and his Ring." "The Geisha's Calling,” For- fuue telling and its Professors,” Fires aud Firemen," and The Jinrickisha-man and his Vehicle. All these subjects are treated with an intimate knowledge for which we could hardly look except in a native of Japan and at the same time with a literary ability that renders them thoroughly entertaining. There is a brief introduction, in which, speaking of Occidental civilization in Japan, the writer says:-
The fact of England's consenting to cognise the disputed territory to the east of the Mekong as belonging to France does not at the first blush appear to redound very greatly to the diplomacy or firmness of the present cabinet, but when further details are received it will probably be found that Lord SALISBURY has obtained some quid pro quo. The territory in question had certainly ceased to be of very much value to England since the wrongful cession by China to France of a strip to the north of it, as France had thereby slipped in a wedge between the British and Chinese frontiers and so left us with a detached bit of savage country bounded by the French possessions on the north, east, and south, and by the Mekong on the west. It had already been announced that with regard to China's wrongful cession of territory to The proposed new sanitary by-law re-France England would not look to the latter quiring the limewashing of all tenement · redress, but
would make China houses twice a year ought to comanand pay for her reach of faith by calling general approval. The Board having upon her to surrender territory on the Bur- decided to make limewashing compulsory, mese frontier. The territory hetually oc however, if it wishes the by-law to be carried cupied by England on the east bank of the Mekong therefore became of little use ex- nd provide facilities for complying with it cept as something that might be given to -to establish a limewashing departinent of France in exchange for valuable considera- its own in fact. If any ordinary Chinesɑtion elsewhere. We can only hope that contractor is sent for to limewash premises Lord SALISBURY has obtained its full worth he uses
a rule ordinary whiting, and that the conflict of British and French which from a sanitary point of view is interests in Siam may now be terminated. practically useless. Large property owners As yet, however, there is no indication of no doubt are in a position to make the withdrawal of France from Chantaboon,
hut smaller arrangements, Own owners may not be so fortunately circum stanced, and the ordinary householder who wanted his servants quarters line- washed would find it very difficult indevil to get anything better than common white- wash. The new by-law will of coarse not apply to private houses, but it
1: portionately as important that the necessary Limewashing should be done in them as in European householders would certainly appreciate the convenience if they could have their servants' quarters properly limewashed periodically, and if proper arrangements were made by the Sanitary Board this could be done for them probably at a lower charge than would be demanded by a contractor for inary whitewashing. Probably Chinese house holders would, with few exceptions, pre- fer to avoid whitewashing of any kiud, and, if it were made compulsory, would get it done at the cheapest possible rate regard- less of quality. We think it would be well if the new by-law were extended to cover all Chinese houses and the servants quarters of European houses, provided the Board is prepared to organise an establish- A FEW months ago a correspondence took The place in the local press on the employment of ment for carrying out the work. periodical limewashing of the interiors of Portuguese in the Post Office. Mr. Braga has all the houses of the colony would be one of collected all the letters, together with the elitorial comments on them, and has published the best possible preventives of another them with connecting notes of his own in this epidemic of plague, a danger from which small volume, for which his fellow countrymen the colony cannot yet be considered alto-
wl no doubt thank him. In addition to the gether free, notwithstanding our immunity newspaper correspondence, the hook contains last year. The outbreaks at Macao, Swatow, official correspondence relating to the nationality and Hainan showed that the disease is of children born of foreign parents in the British colonies, which took place in 1862. aud still lurking in our neighbourhood, and
also a piate to the late Sir John Pope Fen- it behoves this colony to see that it is not.
nessy, a Governor for whose memory Mr. again allowed to obtain a foothold here by Braga entertains the liveliest sentiments of any want of cleanliness or reasonable sani- admiration and gratitude, an whose portrait Mr. Braga tary precautions,
forms the frontispiece to the book. expresses the hope that by these pages he wil;
have preserved from the haloff chlirionspicuons." the memory of a Governor whose name is a household word in every Porta ruese house
Far East." Halo of oblivion in the reads something like "a blaze of darkness." Another curious slip occurs in the preface, where the author is good enough to say that he
tenement houses.
A collision occurred at Chinkiang recently between the steamers Kutwo and Tientsin. The Kutuo in going alongside the hulk was caught by the tide and drifted down on the Tientsin, which was lying at the C.N. Co.'s hulk, damag- ing several plates, but not seriously.
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Ta réguet expressed in the Supreme Court yesterday at the departure of Sif EIELDING CLARKE, who has so ably till dịthe position of Chief Justice, will be shared by the whole ↑ community. A sound lawyer and a genial gentleman His Honour has been popular both professionally and socially, His at- taiunients are of the highest ofder and in promoting him to a more important colony Her Majesty's Government have recognised sterling merit. Jamaica is to fie congratu=| lated on the acquisition of a Judge who maintains so worthily the best traditions of the bench, and Hongkong will wish Sir FIELDING and Lady CLARKI: in their new home all possible happiness,
REVIEWS.
The Rights of Aliens in Hongkong. Compiled by J. P. BRAGA. Hongkong Noronha & Co., 1895.
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showed twelve centuries ago when she imbibel
The same discrimination that she (Japan)
Chinese literature and civilisation has stood ber
d
in good stord when she is brought face to face with European thengl.t and European arts and sciences. She takes pride now, as she took theu, in the preservation of her national in- dividuality through all her transitions; she does not regard as a reproach the chatre that she only yields to necessity and a sense of self-preservation in adapting herself to the new conditions huposed by contact with Europe, because no nation with the least stunina would with alacrity takaup another civilisation unless. like Japar, it recognises that its own is worn out and exhausted and it can only rega n
vitality by an infusion of a better and more efficient substitute. Paradoxical as it may seem, the Japanese, in spite of his eagerness for the new civilisation with which his country is undergoing rojuvenescence, is at least a stubborn conservative; and though the n. ton hus, it is true, committed blunders and some times been carried from one extreme to another, the general trend of its progress has on the whole been in the right direction, owing to the counterbalancing agencies of liberalism and it is necessary to bear always conservatism. in mind this peculiar trait of Japanese progress in passing judgment upon the phases of Japa nese life and the state of Japanese society. Everywhere is this conservative spirit to be seen; and no profession or calling, however humble, is free from the predominant influence of its past. In the following sketches, which treat of vocations characteristically Japanese, this i will be found to be especially con
In the sketch of "The Jinrickisha-man and his Vehicle" we have the following account of the origin of the man-power carriage
"It was early in 1869 that this vehicle was introduced into Tokyo by Takayama Kosuke and two others, who are believed to be its