100
The Governor of Macao has addressed a cir- ! cular despatch to the Portuguese Consuls at Hongkong, the treaty ports of China and Japan, Manila, Macassar, Sourabaya, Bataria, Singapore, Bangkok, aud Saigon, requesting them to obtain as complete a census as possible of the natural born or naturalised Portuguese subjects in their respective jurisdictions on the 13th February next, the date on which the census of Macao is to be taken. As regards Hongkong and Singapore the proposed enu- meration may have a bearing on the legal status of some of our fellow residents of Por- tuguese race, many of whom have been born in these colonies and are entitled to the rights of, British subjects if they choose to claim them. If they return themselves as Portuguese sub- jects it would be in effect a renunciation of their claim to be British subjects.
At the Chess Club on Thursday evening Mr. T. H. Reid played nine members simultaneously, and of the games he won seven, drew two, and lost one--a very good performance. The games with Mr. Piercy and Mr. Danenberg were not played out, but Mr. Reid had the better posi- tion in each case and victory was awarded him. In Mr. Solly's second game, which was not finished. Mr. Reid had two pieces to the good and was bound to win in a few minutes. The game with Mr. Barlow was the best. Mr. Bar- low, after losing a piece, played pretty and well conceived chess and for the greater part of the game Mr. Reid was kept busy avoiding all manner of traps. The game with Mr. Cowen was concluded with a very pretty mate. The following are the scores :
W. C. Barlow
B. L. Batliwara
T. Cowen
M. J. Daneuberg
J. Hooper
E. J. Moses
G. Pierey, Jun.
S. D. Setna
W. J. Solly
0
T. H. Reid.
In reference to remarks made at the meet-
ing of the Land Investment and Agency Company, held on the 23rd January, it may not be out of place to suggest that the interest payable ou money on deposit with the Company should in future be shown Shareholders would then be able to see what the Company's own funds were earning, which at present cannot be gathered from the accounts as published. As stated in a
in the accounts.
paragraph a few days ago. the amount
|
advanced ou mortgage is $2,512,624, and the interest shown in profit and loss ac- count amounts to $166,277, which would appear Part of to show a return of 6.1 per cent. the amount advanced, however, is money ou deposit with the Company, on which, it should be added, a profit is made. the money being borrowed at one rate and lent out again at another. Deducting borrowed money, the earn- ings of the Company's own funds invested on mortgage amount to something over 7 per cent.; the exact percentage it is impossible" to It would be well, work out from the accounts. also, as in the case of the Shanghai Land Invest- ment Co., Limited. if in the report some parti. culars were given of the Company's properties and their development. Mr. Shewan spoke of the Company's shares as the consols of Hongkong and it would certainly be difficult to find any- where a safer investment, though the return is not particularly handsome. The reserve fund does not consist of accumulated earnings. but of hard cash subscribed by the shareholders by way of premium on the second issue, aud the net earnings of the capital and reserve fund amount to 5.66 per cent., which admits of the payment of a dividend of 8 per cent, on the capital. The dividend is never likely to be less and shareholders hope that in time it may be much more, as a good deal of the Some informa- property is undeveloped. tion ought to be afforded, however, as to the progress of the development, and if, as Mr. Shewan suggested at yesterday's meeting, an application is to be made for legal sanction to the investment of trust funds in the Company's stock the application would have to be supported by much more detailed particulars of the business and investments than are given in the accounts presented at the meeting of the 23rd Jan.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
On Sunday Mr. R. K. Leigh made a sad discovery at the Peak. In a thicket some distance below the road near Magazine Gap he saw the skeleton of a human being dressed in the uniform of the Rifle Brigade. Mr. Leigh at once gave information to the police and the remains were removed to the mortuary. There is no doubt that they were those of Private Barton, who has been missing since last June. The poor fellow was not quite right in his mind, and it was while staying at the Peak Sanatorium that he was missed. It was at first thought that he had committed suicide and various places were searched without result, and it was then surmised that he had deserted. How the unfortunate man met his death cannot, it is feared, ever be known. An inquest will of course be held.
Two Dutchmen have been sentenced nt Saigon. the one to twelve months' and the other to six months' imprisonment. for attempting to induce soldiers of the Foreign Legion to desert. The colonial army in Java, the Courrier de Saigon says, is composed of mercenaries re- cruited locally or abroad, and travellers are engaged to hunt up recruits in the neigh bouring colonies. Two men named Geyer and Dubry were, it is alleged, exercising this calling at Saigon aud endeavouring to corrupt the soldiers of the Foreign Legion, and they have been sen- tenced as above stated. Our contemporary, having given the facts, goes on to rail at the Hongkong and Singapore journals. evidently with reference to the case (although it is not specifically mentioned) of Captain Ballentyne. of the steamer Flintshire, who, it will be remem- bered, has been imprisoned on a similar charge because two men whom he possibly did not know to be deserters engaged passages on his vessel. "A contemptible outrage, indeed.” exclaims the Currier, quoting in English a phrase which seems to have rankled, and it goes on to ask if it is a crime on the part of the French Government to prefent desertion. Our contemporary misses the point, as excitable people are apt to do. If Captain Ballentyne were guilty of inducing solders to desert he would be justly punished, but to convict him merely because the deserters applied for a passage on board his ship, he not knowing that they were deserters, seems to be correctly described as "a contemptible outrage.“ We notice that our contemporary has published no report of the trial. It would perhaps be unfair to accuse it of having suppressed the report, for it is not in the habit of giving reports of law cases uuless they arise out of personal polemics, but under the circumstances we think our contemporary has failed in its duty in not having made an effort to give some account of Captain Ballen- tyne's trial. No one disputes the right of the French Government to punish any attempt to induce or assist desertion from the French army, but the question is whether Captain Balleutyue was guilty of any such attempt. It is no use our contemporary getting excited about the matter. because the French understand as well as the English what justice is, and according to the information available Captain Ballentyne has been unjustly convicted and punished; if the editor of the Courrier would give a clear state- ment of the grounds of the conviction it might possibly remove the suspicion under which the administration of justice at Saigon at present
rests.
CANTON NOTES.
[FROM THE CHUNG NGUI SAN-PO."] Two fires occurred in Kweisin, the capital of Kwangsi province, last month. One broke out on the 16th nitimo in which one hundred and fifty houses were destroyed; the other on the 22nd ultimo, when fifty houses were burnt.
On the 22nd instant eleven criminals were taken from the Namhoi prison and two from the Punu prison and carried in baskets to the Tin-1sz-ma-tau for decapitation. One of the criminals was the kidnapper who fatally shot в policemen in Shaki as already reported.
Owing to the large demand for copper cash from the province of Chekiang, where one dollar can only be exchanged for 800 dash, some mer- chants in Canton have been briskly sending consignments of the coin to the province in question. Now in Canton one dollar can only
[January 30, 1896.
purchase 950 copper cash, which is the lowest point to which silver has ever fallen in Canton. The Prefect and the local Magistrates issued a joint notice the other day to prevent the ex- portation of cash under heavy penalty. Persons offending are to receive one hundred blows and to be banished to some place at a distance of 1,000 l.
A petty military officer arrested some rob. bers in the district of Sun tak the other day and they were all sent up to Canton for trial. The brother thieves of the captives getting angry with this songht revenge. They broke into the house of the petty officer on the 16th instant with the intention to kill him, but the officer was out and only his ser- vant was found. The robbers therefore killed the servant and absconded with all the valuables found in the house.
The coffin of the late Provincial Treasurer has been placed in a large boat and it is said that it will not be conveyed to Tientsin till after the Chinese New Year, on account of the Tien- tsin river being frozen.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The steamer Riversdale has been sold to a Japanese firm.
The Gondoliers " has been very successfully placed on the stage by the Shanghai Amateur Dramatic Club.
The Haugehow correspondent of a Shanghai native paper states that it is rumoured in Hangchow that some foreigners have petitioned the Hangchow authorities for permission to construct a horse road from the termination of the Japanese Settlement. Chu'ye'tune, to Shibtaptan, for convenience in travelling to the beautiful lake Sihu. It is said that the request will not be granted by the Hangchow authorities.
The China Gazette says:-The Shanghai Municipal Council, when the question of a paid Chairman was mooted, advertised for an assistant secretary, as our readers know, as a way out of the difficulty by deflecting a great deal of the work which now falls on the Chairman to the
Secretarial Department. The salary offered was Tls. 4,000 per annum and no allowances, but it is understood,the post carries a strong reversionary interest to the Secretaryship of the Council. About a squre of applications were received and the lucky one is Mr. J. Q. P. Bland, the I G's ex-Secretary, and at present on the staff of the Customs at Shanghai. Mr. Bland is a Chinese scholar and knows French and German in addition to having earned a reputation as a writer of pretty verse under the nom de plume of “ Tungchia. He has a high reputation in the Customs and ought to make a valuable assistant secretary, though it is a bit rough on the permanent staff who naturally looked for promotion.
A correspondent writing from Ichowfu. Shantung. to the N. C. Daily News says:- Sooner or later a port will undoubtedly be So far as opened at some point ou this coast. anchorage is concerned, the fiue bay of Kiao- chou unquestionably offers a tempting site for a foreign port, but it would interfere more directly with the trade of Chefoo than would a more southerly point. An open port at Ngan- tungwei, Chingkou, or Haichou would not only attract and stimulate the trade of southern Shan- tung and northern Kiangsu, but would probably have an indirect result in another direction It is well known that the unreasonable number and corrupt administration of the likin barriers along the Grand Canal operate disastrously upon local commerce. Strawbraid and hemp, for instance, now go north in considerable quantities from this region and northern Kiangsu to Chefoo by barrow or pack-mule, a distance of from ten to twelve hundred li, instead of going direct to Shanghai by the neighbouring canal. The merchants say that they cannot afford to pay the extortionate charges and submit to the exasperating delays incident upon a passage down the Grand Caual. The same is true of north bound trade, even to a certain extent of to the that in foreign goods, "transit passes
The opening of a contrary notwithstanding! port at some point along this coast would pro- bably force an improvement in the above respect, thus proving a great blessing to the millions living along the canal.
:)
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