March 18, 1896.j
coolies were engaged to dig pits for the reception of, carcases, but for some reason not an ounce of lime was obtained. The work of digging out the graves proceeded until about three feet of earth had been excavated, when the work was stopped, either because a few stones got in the way of the shovels or there were not sufficient men employed; most likely the latter was the real reason. It must be remem- bered that during all this time deaths amongst the cattle continued to occur. On Thursday the Sanitary Board decided to revoke the previous orders and have the carcases dumped into the sea, and at the ordinary meeting the Secre- tary confidently remarked that Pokfulam would be clear of infected cattle by Friday mid-day, By Friday mid-day not a single carcase had been removed to the cargo boats; indeed. with the exception of about seven which were lying on the beach all the others were lying about the farm and the pathways leading from it to the sea. On Friday mid-night there still remained about twenty carcases unburied, and it was not until about Saturday mid-day that the work of removal was completed.
It does not need a very vivid imagination to picture the disgusting condition of the farm during these days. From Sunday morning, the 8th instant, to the following Friday afternoon at least, carcases of cattle were lying exposed to the atmospheric influences without a single step being taken to cover then with even a dusting of a disinfectant. Some of the cattle had been ripped open by doctors, and all were in an advanced state of decomposition. Hungry dogs from the neighbourhood in search of tasty morsels greedily ate the rotten meat and licked the blood that was lying about the place. The dogs could not be kept away and a couple of detectives went out there and shot a dosen of them to prevent further mischief. Even the coolies who were engaged to remove the carcases out to sea turned up their noses at the putrid stench that pervaded the whole farm-and goodness knows coolies are inured to foul smells. This is no exaggerated de. scription, and an explanation must be made by somebody in authority why speedier action was not taken to get rid of the carcases, although in justice to the Acting Captain Superintendent of Police it must be stated that the fault did not rest with him as the dumping edict did
not go forth until Thursday afternoon. In any other place but insanitary Hongkong decisive action would have been taken by the authorities in such a case as this. As soon as an animal showed signs of the disease it would have been shot and the body either burnt or flung into a pit and covered with quicklime. In Hongkong both these orders were given and almost immediately withdrawn and the long and distinctly unhealthy process of dumping into the ses authorised. It is a paltry excuse that the expense of burning or burying would be too great; no expense should ever be spared in an outbreak of cattle plague, and it is questionable whether after all the Company would not have gained in the long run by erecting suitable paratus for burning the carcases, as was ordered in the first instance by the Sanitary Board. We now see the serious consequences of all this shuffling of orders and dilatoriness in taking proper measures. It is to be hoped that the sixty-seven cattle which were taken ill yesterday with the disease will be dealt with more promptly than the previous sixty-seven. We were informed by the Dairy Company yesterday that one of the cattle had died and the remainder would be shot during the day and dumped into the sea this morning, Why could not this have been done in the first place, or, better still, why was not the burning order enforced ?
ap.
It appears that there was almost a riot amongst the coolies employed on the farm during Thursday for grave digging. As we have previously stated, they had only rice to eat and were told to sleep in an infected mat shed, which was in a filthy condition, and their only covering consisted of a few bags. The coolies became very indignant at their treatment towards the evening, and even when a substantial amount of good food had been procured for them by Detectives Quincey and Holt they threatened to break into open re- bellion at being cast into such disgusting quarters. Force had to be used to detain them,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
but during the night about thirty of them managed to escape in the darkness-there was not a single light on the premises-and they bolted over the hedges and went home.
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229
for 1895, or an average for the whole period of nine years of 2 per cent. The position of the Company at the end of last year was a very pro- mising one; the business had been thoroughly The isolated cattle are kept in the Home organised, a valuable connection had been esta- of Nazareth shed, which is situated some. dis-blished, and in the absence of extraordinary tance away from the other sheds, and the disaster such as that which has now occurred Europeans in charge of it were not allowed to there appeared every reason to anticipate a steady go near the diseased cattle. It was in this ten per cent. dividend. The outbreak of cattle shed that the fresh outbreak occurred, so that plague which has now occurred and swept off the the outlook for the Company is far from pro- Company's herd has altered all that and the mising.
shareholders will have to consider whether it is worth while to start business afresh or whether it would be more profitable to wind up and divide the remaining assets.
17th March.
Happily no fresh cases of plague at the Pokfulam Dairy Farm were reported at the Sanitary Board offices yesterday. Mr. McCallum, the Secretary to the Board, informs us that the real nature of the disease was not known last Thursday week. Some of the cattle showed signs of illness on that day, but it was attributed to ordinary fever. It was not until the following Saturday that the seriousness of the complaint was demonstrated Mr. Walker, the Superintendent at the farm, at once sent a message to the directors, who visited the farm. As we stated yesterday the Government first knew of the outbreak on Monday, the 9th inst., when the Colonial Secretary received a letter from the Company. This letter was forwarded (as it should have been in the first instance) to Mr. McCallum, who sent an inspector to the farm the same morning. Later in the day Dr. Clark, accompanied by the inspector, visited the farm, and on the following day (Tuesday) at noon a special meeting of the Sanitary Board was held. We make these explanations because in our article yesterday we said that the disease first manifested itself last Thursday week, and that Mr. McCallum did not receive news of the outbreak until Tuesday. Of course the latter statement is correct in so far $8 Mr. McCallum did not get definite news of the character of the disease on Monday.
Mr. McCallum heard yesterday morning that the mate of the Heungshan saw the carcase of a cow floating in the water as the vessel was steaming towards Hongkong. The mate con- cluded that the carcase was one of the diseased ones dumped in on Friday. If this is the case the bags of stones which were placed round each carcase must have become dislodged from this particular beast by some means; perhaps a sea tenant could give some information on the point.
The whole of the sixty-seven cattle which were seized with the disease on Saturday and Sunday were walked down to the beach during Sunday by a gang of forty coolies. The animals were shot and yesterday they were all dumped into the sea.
THE HONGKONG DAIRY FARM
CO., LIMITED.
ITS POSITION AND PROSPECTS.
In view of the serious disaster which has befallen the Dairy Farm Company a brief retrospect of the financial history of the Company and a statement of its present position may not be without interest. The Company was formed in 1886 with a capital of $30,000. increased in 1889 to $100,000. The results of its working are shown in the annexed table, the profit shown in the first column being the ciation. amount remaining after writing off for depre- For 1892. the gross profit was $10,879.20, while the amount written off was $11,951.61, showing a net loss on the year's working of $1.072.41, as shown in the table:-
Profit Loss Depreciation
$13,186.91
1887 1888 $ 3,584.37 1889 4,373.89
ན
$ 3,623 64 3,207.93 5,109.89 8,044.27
1890
5,562.23
1891
3,419.30
1892
1,072.41 11,951.61
1893
5,316.47
1894
2,691.46
6,076.06 6,005.60 7,868.54
1895 10.024.26
Total $34,971.98 $14,259,32 51,887.54 The net profit for the whole period, after deducting the losses, amounts therefore to $20.712.66, of which $18,000 has been distri- buted by way of dividends, namely, 3 per cent. for 1891, 5 per cent. for 1893, and 10 per cent.
|
At the date of the last report, 19th Decem- ber, 1895, the Company had cash in hand $4,322.58, on fixed deposit $25,000, and ac- counts receivable $4,269.23, giving a total of 333,791.81 in monetary assets, from which has to be deducted the dividend of $10,000 and accounts payable $1,819.38, leaving a balance of 821,972.43, which if divided up would give a trifle over $2 per share. The other assets of the Company are now of doubtful value. The cattle were valued at $21,131.69, and this may be regarded as a total loss. The farm was valued at $27,000 and the buildings thereon at $16,620.05. There is at present no demand for land in that part of the colony and it is doubtful whether a sale could be effected at price, but if the farm were held until there is a tramway out to Aberdeen it might acquire some marketable value. The buildings are useless for any other purpose than that for which they were bullt. The town depot is valued in the accounts at $9,643.72, but the terms on which the land is held from the Government do not permit of its being used for any other purpose than as a depot for the sale of milk and if the Company ceased business the land would be resumed.
any
Some compensation might possibly be granted by the Government for the value of the building standing upon it. After deducting
these items the remaining assets of the Com- pany are small and what they realised would probably be swallowed up in paying the extra- ordinary expenses the Company has been put to by the outbreak of cattle plague.
The directors, we believe, are in favour of "not giving up." Shareholders generally have perhaps hardly begun to think about the future, their attention being concentrated upon the present losses. It is not so much a question of continning business as of starting afresh some months, possibly years, hence. It would take some months to get together a fresh herd, and it farm for a long time to come. would also be unsafe to place cattle on the In the United Kingdom, when cattle plague was experienced there, we believe the policy adopted was to burn all cattle sheds where the disease had shown itself and not to use the same grazing ground again for a year or two. At Hamilton Park, where one of the two remaining herds of Caledonian cattle is kept, the herd was almost totally wiped out by the plague. Six cows and one bull were, however, saved, and these were put down a disused coal pit to keep them from all contaminating influences and were kept there for two years. When they were brought above ground again entirely new. shelter sheds were built for them, the old ones having been de- stroyed. The precautions taken in that instance were perhaps greater than would be deemed ne- cessary from a purely mercantile point of view, but taking the lowest possible estimate it would be six months before the Dairy Farm Company could recommence business. Their connection Has been destroyed and building up the business again would be a slow process, for competition is now keen. The Dairy Farm Company was started with an intermixture of the philanthropic with the commercial element. It was considered, rightly or wrongly, that the milk supply of the colony was not satisfactory and the Company was established with the purpose of amending it and incidentally to make a profit for the shareholders. It was in regard to the philanthropic side of the business that Sir William Des Voeux was induced to grant free of payment the site for the
was town depot, which mistaken dealing with public land; but it is annecessary to go into that point now. The depôt has undoubtedly been a great Iublic convenience and has especially been appreciated
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