264
HONGKONG,
More cattle suffering from rinderpest have been killed this week at the Pokfulam Farm and very few animals now remain. The Criminal Sessions were held this week and the principal case heard was one in which an extraordinary tale of losses by fortune telling was told, On Thursday a meeting of the shareholders in George Fenwick and Co., Limited, was held, and the annual athtelic meeting promoted by the Victoria Recreation Club was held on Saturday. On Saturday the Zetland Lodge fur- ther celebrated its jubilee by a dinner and meet- ing in the Masonic Hall, and on the same day a meeting of the shareholders in the Hongkong Rope Co., Limited, was beld. The Willard Opera Company opened a short season this week and have drawn crowded houses.
There were 2,323 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 225 were Europeans. In the football match on the 19th March Hongkong Football Club beat the Royal Engineers by one goal to uil.
We regret to learn that the Hon. C. P. Chater is at present coufined to the house by a severe attack of rheumatic gout.
On Friday afternoon Mr. W.
Barlow gave a very interesting lecture on Chinese chess in the Odd Volumes Society's recm.
The death rate last month was, for the British and Foreign community, civil population, 22.9, and for the Chinese population 28.5.
We understand that as many as us 133 fees have been paid at this centre for Oxford Senior and Junior Local and Preliminary Examinations from Hongkong and Kowloon.
Since the commencement of the year. 296 plague cases have been dealt with in the colony. On Monday only two cases were reported, but on Tuesday the number of cases was ten.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The Earl and Countess Spencer left on the 18th March by the C. P. steamer Empress of Japan. Earl Cairns was also a passenger by the same steamer, which had a large passenger list of over seventy.
this
The tourist season seems to be rather brisk year, and the passenger lists are argumented in consequence. The P. & O. steamer Peshuwur. which arrived on the 20th March, had nearly a hundred passengers.
Amongst the passengers who arrived by the Peshaicur on the 20th March were the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Muirhead, for Shanghai, Bishop and Mrs. Bickersteth. for Yokohama, and Bishop and Mrs. Audry, for Kobe.
The Hon. Treasurer of the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals begs to acknowledge with thanks the following donation to the funds of the Hospitals:-
Collected by Li Shu Ying...
$170
We hear that the Committee of the Hong- kong Branch of the China Association have telegraphed to Singapore inviting Sir Claude MacDonald, the new Minister to Peking, to dine with the Association while passing through Hongkong.
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Acting Sergeant McLennan has won the handicap cup for shooting which was presented by Mr. F. H. May, Captain Superintendent of Police. The cup was competed for by the mem- bers of the police force every month and McLennan prove the best shot. His highest score was 64, which he made twice.
Four robbers, one of whom was armed with a dagger, boarded a house boat off Taikoktsui on Monday night and forced the occupants to maintain silence. The thieves then plundered the boat and took away with them $26 in money and $10 worth of clothing. This class of robbery is getting a little common just now and it is to be hoped that before long the police will be able to check the dangerous evil.
On the afternoon of the 18th March Mr. Arm- strong sold seven lots of leasehold property by auction. The first five lots were in Tsz Mi Alley and were sold as follows-No. 3 for $1,600, No. 17 $2,050, No. 19 $2 200, No. 21 $2,250, No. 23 $2,450. The remaining two lots were at. 126 and 127, Praya West, and each fetched $5,600. The lots in Tz Mi Alley and also the seventh lot, on Praya West, were bought by Chu Seong, and the sixth lot by Yung Cheung.
Referring to the opening of the West River the Extremo Oriente urges the importance of at once proceeding with the dredging of Macao harbour so as to render it accessible to steamers. Unless this is done, our contemporary says, the current of trade will take another direction, leaving Macao on one side, and leading to the establishment of a new port between Lappa and the island of D. Jouo, to the manifest injury of the colony, which would be reduced to a mere suburb of the new port.
Mr. Justice Wise, Puisne Judge, will shortly go home on leave. Mr. T. Sercombe Smith will probably be appointed to the Acting Judge- ship during Mr. Justice Wisels absence, and it is reported that Commander Hastings will replace Mr. Sercombe Smith on the bench at the Magistracy and that Mr. Lethbridge, who returned from leave by the M. M. steamer Yarra on Saturday, will act as Captain Super- intendent of Police as well as in his substan- tive office of Superintendent of the Gaol.
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Two ladies went to make a purchase at a shop in Jervois Street two or three days ago, when one of them was robbed of her watch and chain. They had to go to the second floor of the shop and on returning down the arrow steps one ady missed her watch. She suspected a landthreatened to call a policeman. when one of the occupants of the shop took alarm and came downstairs with the watch in his hand. He said that the owner had dropped it on the floor. This, however, was certainly not the case. The floor was a red bricked one and if the watch had fallen it would of course have shown marks of damage, whereas none were to be seen. The incident shows that ladies cannot be too careful when shopping.
At the Police Court on the 20th March before Mr. T. Sercombe Smith, two men were charged A full dress parade of the Hongkong Regi- with intimidation. The prisoners were oc- ment took place on the morning of the 17th Marchcasional lands at the Huugham Docks and in the presence of H.E. the Governor, Earl Spencer, General Black, and Admiral Buller. A number of ladies, including Countess Spencer, also witnessed the parade.
There was no steamer to Macao on Wednesday, 18th March. Owing to heavy fog the Heungshan did not arrive at Macao on Tuesday evening, having to lie somewhere outside all night and getting in only at nine o'clock yesterday morn- ing. She will leave Macao at the usual time to-day.
There was a good deal of firing on the night of the 18th March, the occasion being the repulse by the Garrison of an imaginary land- ing by an enemy in the neighbourhood of Pokfulam, the forts on Stonecutters at the same time being engaged against the enemy's fleet approaching from the south.
It is notified in the Gazette that the Governor has given his assent, in the name and on behalf of the Queen, to the following Ordinances :--- An Ordinance to prevent doubts as to the validity of documents heretofore sealed with the Seal of the Colonial Court of Admiralty, an Ordinance to amend the practice as to the vacating of the registration of a Lis pendens, the North Borneo Extradition Ordinance, and the Basel Mission Incorporation Ordinance.
worked as painters. Some dissatisfaction had been expressed by some of the painters because they were refused a rise of wages and a strike was threatened. On Wednesday fourteen men were engaged at Taikoktsui and as they were walking to the docks the prisoners met them and threat ened them with violence if they went to work at the docks. In consequence of the threat extra police were put on duty at Hungham and the prisoners were arrestell. His Worship sent each of them to goal for three months with hard labour, the maximum penalty.
[March 26, 1896.
We hear that a Devonshire dinner was held at the Hongkong Club on Saturday evening, when eighteen Devonians sat down, with Vice- Admiral Buller, C.B., in the chair. The Queen and the County having been duly toasted, a resolution was passed to form themselves into a society to be called The Devonian Society in Hongkong" and Admiral Buller was elected President. Songs followed the speeches and many a good "tell in Devon lingo concluded a very jolly evening.
About six o'clock on the morning of the 17th March the British steamer Menelaus (Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, agents) was leaving the harbour for Shanghai when she went aground near the Commissariat Pier. A. junk got in the way of the steamer and it was while avoiding a collision that the vessel touched bottom. Fortunately it was a mud bank, and in four hours the vessel was got off by a tug belonging to the Dock Company, and as no damage had been sustained she was enabled to proceed on her, way to Shanghai,
Late on Sunday night a dead Chinuman was picked up in a yard at the back of a shop in Second Street. The body had several marks of violence upon it and the police at first thought the man had been the victim of foul play. This idea, however, was soon dispelled by inquiries which were made. The man had not been murdered. He had been gambling in a house with a number of men when an alarm was raised that the police were coming, and he took the nearest route out of the house. He opened the window and jumped through, with the result that he suffered injuries which proved fatal.
We believe that a petition has been forwarded, or is to be forwarded, to the Government by several Chinamen complaining that plague patients at the Kennedytown Hospital are not allowed to be visited by their friends should they wish to settle their affairs. We have seen Dr. Atkinson on the subject and he informs us that there is no truth in the allegation. Every plague patient admitted to the hospital is afforded the privilege of being visited by friends, and arrangements for the disposal of property can be made without any hindrance. The name and address of each patient and a list of the property found upon him are recorded in a book and forwarded to the Registrar-General's office and also to the Tung Wah Hospital, so that in case a patient's friends are not in the colony they can, should death occur, learn all particulars at either of these places. Of course some of the patients become too delirious to be seen, but whenever possible a patient can be seen by friends after obtaining an order from Dr. Atkinson.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Mr. R. H. Mortimore goes to take charge of the British Consulate at Wahu, Mr. E. F. Bennett going to Shanghai as assistant in the Consulate-General.
The four-masted American schooner Lyman D. Foster, on arrival at Shanghai on the 28th March, reported that while at Puget Sound the cook, a Japanese, shot the captain and then jumped overboard and was drowned.
His Excellency the Governor-General of Indo-China, M. Rousseau, was a passenger for Saigon by the French mail steamer Yarra. He landed at Singapore, where he was received by a guard of honour, and lunched with the Governor.
According to Bangkok papers negotiations have been going on through Mr. Jerome Dyer for the sale of the two Australian gunboats Victoria and Albert to the Siamese Government. It is said. the price asked was $45,000, which was subsequently reduced to $30,000 without the armament, but the negotiations do not appear to have resulted in a contract.
Mr. Mathieson, late Chief Inspector of Police in Hongkong, died on the 7th February at Banff, Mr. Mathieson had been in the Hong- kong Police Force from 1872 to last year, when he returned home on leave. He afterwards got According to a Reuter's telegran.-In a married, but owing to ill-health he was not debate in the Reichstag the Foreign Mi- allowed to return to take up his position and nister jsaid that Germany had been obliged he retired in December last on a pension. to join France and Russia against Japan in His health gradually gave way and, to the the first instance,, not from any hostility to regret of all who knew him, he was not destined Japan or partiality for China, but solely to to enjoy his pension for long Mr. Mathieson, guard her own interests. The young energetic besides being a most capable and energetic Japanese nation, which had shown her sword officer, was a most kind-hearted and genial to be sharp both at sea and on land, might now gentleman and his death has caused genuine count on the protection of Germany, and he regret not only amongst the police force but hoped soon to place the commercial relations amongst all his numerous friends in the colony. I of Germany with Japan on a firm basis.
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