IT
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May 27, 1896.)
lating openings, says: "The Board were "convinced that the prompt adoption and prosecution of measures to remedy this state of affairs were the only practical means of arresting the progress of the disease, and the material reduction in the number of cases recently occurring in the city certainly tends to strengthen such conviction." Now, while no one can call in question the desirability of the cleansing operations that have been undertaken in this colony, the evidence does not seem to warrant the conviction that those operations should be credited with the abatement of the disease. The precautions taken at Canton have been of the most superficial character, being confined simply to keeping the streets a little more free from garbage than usual, yet we find the disease abating there as well as in this colony and at a time when in 1894 it was rapidly increasing. This suggests the inquiry whether climatic causes may not have had more to do with the abatement of the discase, in this colony as well as in Canton, than the cleansing operations, or whether the disease itself may not have lost its virulence to some extent.
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We are inclined also to doubt whether the disease has been so bad at Canton this year as has been represented. It was on the 18th May that the Acting Consul reported that the disease had "abated very considerably during the past week." In his previous letter dated the 12th May Mr. FRASER reported that there was no abatement, that he had had the coffins leaving the North Gate counted, and that the average number per dien was 80, which, allowing for the other gates, the suburbs, and Houam, probably represented a total mortality of at least 240 per diem in a population of a million and a half. Upon this the IIealth Officer made the following minute: "This represents a death rate of “55.7 per 1,000 per annum, and indicates the prevalence of some fatal epidemic, presumably plague, from which deaths at the rate of about 800 per week at least are occurring in addition to the ordinary death rate. The value of Dr. CLARK's remarks rests upon his knowledge of the ordinary death rate of Canton, which we have Always understood to be an unknown quantity; if Dr. CLARK is in a position to state with any precision what the ordinary death rate really is the information would be welcomed by all who take an interest in health statistics. Apparently he takes it at a fraction over 29 per thousand, which appears much below what probability would suggest. According to a table given in Whittaker's Almanack, compiled from the returns issued by the Registrar-General, the death rate at Calcutta for the year ending 29th September, 1895, was 38.8, at Bombay 30.8, and at Madras 38.4. In these cities sanitation has made considerable progress and western medical science is more exten- sively availed of than in Canton, from which the inference may be drawn that their death rates would be considerably below that of Canton, where sanitation is prac- tically absent and where the deaths from preventible causes, owing to the absence of qualified medical attention, must be very large. The death rate in Hong- kong is between 22 and 23 per thousand, and having regard to the character of the population, in which there is such a large preponderance of adult males, one would expect to find a much larger difference between the death rate of Hongkong and Canton, where the proportion of women and children to the total population is normal, than six per thousand. If Dr. CLARK's
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
estimate be anywhere near the mark, then Canton When free of the plague must be a much more healthy city than is generally supposed, almost as healthy, in fact, as Liverpool or Dublin, in both of which towns the death rate is over 28 per thousand. If, on the other hand, he has under-estimated the normal death rate he must have overestimated the number of deaths due to plague.
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THE GAP ROCK LIGHT DUES,
At the recent meeting of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce it was stated that the Committee had not lost sight of the question of the additional dues imposed on shipping to pay for the construction of the Gap Rock lighthou
buse. How important it is that this subject should not be allowed to rest, now that the amount collected is more than sufficient to cover the cost of the light may be inferred from some remarks made by a Shanghai contemporary. The Mercury devotes a leading article to the proceedings of the Chamber at its annual meeting. After some remarks on the importance of treating political or commercial questions with a due sense of responsibility, the writer goes on to say:This sense of responsibility, it is need "less to say, is not always the predominant "motive in these periodical gatherings, and "there is more frequently an utter want of "the feeling of proportion, so that trivial "and petty details are often put forward "with a gravity that seriously detracts from
the value of the individual Chambers | recommendations on more important "issues. In this respect the Chamber at Hongkong was this year more happy that "usual and touched upon topics of local and general commerce with a juster sense of perspective. Perhaps the one point on which the Chamber was merely petu "lant was on the light dues. The Colony is already, the Chamber tells us, heavily taxed, indications are that it may be sought to tax i more; the Chamber anf xiously desired that the approaches to the harbour, one of the largest shipping centres in the world, should be lighted lighting and upkeep cost money, and yet "the Chamber objected to the vessels that "made use of the lights paying for "them." If this is the way in which the question of the light dues is treated by an intelligent journal which pre sumably has the interests of trade at heart, what may be expected from a Government pressed for funds in consc quence of the costliness of its administra tion? There was no petulance in the way in which the question was treated at the meeting, and the statement in the last sentence of the passage quoted, namely, that the Chamber objected to the vessels that made use of the lights paying for them, is directly contrary to fact. The mistake into which our contemporary has fallen is in excusable, inasmuch as it was clearly stated by the Chairman of the meeting that the dues "were first levied to pay for the construction and lighting of Gap Rock lighthouse and a pledge was given by the then Governor that "they should cease when the object for which
they were imposed had been attained." That object has been attained and what is now asked for is the fulfilment of a contract entered into by intelligent men representing on the one side the Government and ou the|| other the commercial interests of the port. The cost of the Gap Rock lighthouse has been more than covered by the dues col- lected and the other lights have been paid for several times over. The cost of upkeep is a small matter and might very well be
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borne by the general revenue, but that is not at present suggested, all that is asked for being the removal of the special dues levied to cover the cost of constructing the Gap Rock light; the original dues of one cent per ton would remain and would still yield a handsome revenue to the Government after paying for the upkeep of all the lights. If the colony had possessed a Harbour Conservancy Board the cost of constructing the lighthouses might have been treated as a loan from the Government to the Board, in the same way that Governments make ad- vances to municipalities for specific pur- poses, and on the loan being repaid the transaction would have been closed. But according to our Northern contemporary, simply because we do not happen to possess any representative body with a legal status to take charge of the lighting of the port and the light dues, and the matter has to be left to the honesty of the Government, therefore the Government is justified in continuing to exact payments on account of what was a loan in all but name long after the loan has been repaid.
TE GOVERNOR OF THE STRAITS AND THE SINGAPORE MUNICIPALITY.
Municipal questions are to the front at Singapore as well as at Hongkong, as will be seen by the letter addressed by the Straits Settlements Association to the Governor; Sir CHARLES MITCHELL. Singapore pos- sesses a municipality, an institution which apparently works well, but of late the Government has evinced a meddlesome disposition towards it and, amongst other things, has interfered to prevent the payment of what the municipality con- sidered reasonable salaries to municipal servants. The local branch of the Straits Settlements Association therefore appeals directly to the Governor to divest himself of his powers of interference. What Sir CHARLES MITCHELL will say to the request remains to be seen, but the Straits Times opines that His Excellency will not grant ii. Our contemporary impugns the autho- rity of the Committee to speak for the Association and goes on to say:-"There "is not in Singapore any widespread interest "in municipal affairs. So far as the Straits "Association. implies that there is such an "interest, the Association obscures the truth. "The general public does not care twopence
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about such matters." Notwithstanding our contemporary's local knowledge we venture to think he is mistaken in his estimate of the feelings of the Singapore community, for we cannot conceive of any body of intelligent Englishmen being indifferent to the character of the adminis- tration under which they live.
When they have no power to carry their ideas into effect people may not give close attention to ques-` tions of detail, but that is not because they do not care twopence about such matters," but because of the uselessness of troubling themselves about things they cannot help. If there really be the indifference alleged by the Straits Times it is a very unhealthy sign and in the in- terests of good government and the general prosperity every effort ought to be made to remove it and to stimulate a healthy in- terest in public questions, really appear that much stimulus is neces- sary, for our contemporary admits that "the inore rational, the more moderate, public 'opinion," though not against the Gov- ernment, is, unhappily, setting against the present Governor. It should follow from
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But it does not