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We have received the first number of The Rattle, a new serio-comic illustrated monthly published at Shanghai by Messrs. Kelly and Walsh.
Its aim is "to be funny without being vulgar, to point the moral and annex the tael.' We wish our contemporary all success, a long life and a merry one. The principal cartoon in the present number is "The conver- sion of Chon Han," a very clever production. A short sketch of the racing career of Mr. Ring will be appreciated by sportsmen.
At the Magistracy on the 27th May Li Yau Chun and Lo Man Lan, joint owners of the Yu Hing pawnshop at Yaumati, were charged with
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
CANTON NOTES.
[FROM THE CHUNG NGOI SAN PO."] Heavy rain was experienced in Canton and in the mighbouring districts on the night of the 22nd instant. Over one foot of water was
reported in the districts of San-oi, Sun-tak, washed away by the heavy torrents of rain Pun-u, and Hok-shan. Ten houses were in a village in Hok-shan district, about twenty houses were blown down by a strong gale in a village in Pun-u district, and a junk which was plying between Canton and Tak-shik village foundered on her voyage. Nearly all
[June 4, 1896
Referring to the recent land boom at Shang- hai, in which the speculation has been mainly on the part of Chinese, a correspondent of the Mercury writes-In consequence of the high rate of interest charged by the native banks, which as a rule hold all the deeds, prices have gone down considerably and some of the poorer speculators are now trying to resell at a it is believed that, should this go on for any sacrifice, but no one is willing to speculate, and length of time, a great many of these venture-
come speculators will be ruined.
making false entries in their books with regard the streets in Fatshan were completely covered approved by the foreign advisers of Ha Chia-
to nine revolvers on seven different dates. Mr.
K. W. Mounsey appeared for the defendants, who, he explained, did not reside in Hongkong, the business being conducted by an assistant who appeared before the Court that day to answer the charge. Mr. Mounsey, on behalf of his clients, practically admitted the offence and asked his Worship not to inflict the full penalty, as the defendants had done all in their power to assist the police in connection with the recent shooting affray. Inspector
Stanton said the revolvers were described in
the books as broken iron, and were pledged for small amounts. They were actually good firearms. His Worship said it was within his power either to inflict a fine, close the shop, or cancel the licence. Mr. Mounsey hoped the Court would not be so severe as that, as it was impossible for the defendants, although they were responsible, to absolutely supervise what was done by their assistant whilst they were out of the colony. His Worship said a fine of $30 would be im- posed in respect of each offence-8210 in all. He added that in the event of the same thing occurring again the licence would be taken away. The arms were ordered to be retained by the police.
The Hon. Treasurer of the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals begs to acknowledge with thanks the following donations to the funds of the Hospitals :---
Benjamin, Kelly and Potts...
N. J. Ede
Hon. H. E. Pollock
A. H. Rennie...
Colonel Anstey, C.R.E.
$25 25
Shewan and Co.
25 201
Commodore Boyes, RN.
20
H. Z. Just & Co.
15
Tang Man Hing
10
The Eastern Manufacturing Co... 10 Po On Marine Insurance Co.. Ld.
10
W. Hutton Potts
10
Un Lai Chuen
10
James H. Cox
10
10
10
Lamke and Rogge H. Ruttonjee...
Miss R. Mackenzie
R. L. B.
T. Hall
J. H. Maclehose
A. Becker...
L. Mallory
More and Seimund
A. Rodger
K. W. Mounsey
R. C. Hurley
John Lemm
J. Rosselet
F. C. Keeka and Co. M. J. Patell
S. A. Joseph P. C. Patell and Co. J. S. Perry Wan Hoo
Heavy rains at Shanghai have led to the collapse of the roofs of three filatures. On the morning of the 28th May the roof of the Kin-. lung Filatura in Hongkew, of which Messrs. Bavier and Co. are the agents, fell. Three girls vere killed on the spot, and a large number more or less injured. On the afternoon of the same day part of the roof of a new building near Boundary Road, Hongkew, fell in, but i‹rtunately no one was hurt. Ou the 29th the roof of one situated near the Kinlun Filature fell in, seriously injuring three men, one of whom is not expected to recover.
with water to the height of five or six inches.
About one hundred robbers made an attack on a village named Chun-sam-kiang, which con- tains only forty houses. The robbers ransacked every house and took away all the contents of value. The villagers dared not offer resistance. Owing to the large demands for rice from the province of Kwangsi, on account of the famine, the price of that necessity of life is very high. Some time ago the Viceroy sent two weiyuens to Wuhu to buy rice, which arrived on the 25th instant. It is said that half of the rice will be sent to Kwangsi and the other half will be posed for sale in Canton at a cheap rate.
With reference to the new coal and iron mines at Ch'ihsia, Kiangsu, which have been chen, Director-General of Miñes in Kiangsu, we learn that the projected railway between Chinkiang and Nanking will run within five miles of the new mines and that the mine owners there have petitioned the Nanking Viceroy to be allowed to build a branch line from the mines to connect with the railroad All machinery for the mines and proper. branch line will be ordered from Europe.-N. C. Daily News.
The operation of raising the Laiyuen, a Chi- · nese cruiser sunk at Weihaiwei, it seems, is ex-being pushed forward with success. Intelligence has been received at Yokohama to the effect that an anchor of new pattern, a shaft, 111 tons of iron, and 35,200 catties of yellow metal, which were recently raised, had been shipped by the Kokura-maru, together with sundry articles. They are expected to arrive there shortly. The divers working on the cruiser have been rewarded with unexpected gains. Firewood being very scarce, at Weihaiwei, they recently raised a sailing vessel with a view to using her for feel They obtained a sound mast, two anchors, and 15 chains, in addition to brass and other metals.
Japan Advertiser.
Viceroy Tan Chung-lun has ordered Colonel Ching Yan-tsoi, under instructions from the Peking Government, to disband thirty per cent. of the force of soldiers throughout Kwangtung. Telegraphic information has been received in Canton to the effect that H.E. Hu Tsan-wai, the new Governor of Cantón, passed the Nam- His Excel- hung mountain on the 24th inst. lency has brought with him a Chinese writer, a military officer, and thirty servants. It is said that he will arrive at Canton in a day or two.
The eldest son of Viceroy Tan arrived at Canton on the 22nd instant. with him for his father a coffin, which is com
He has brought pletely covered with red satin.
On the 17th inst. in Kwai-sin district seven soldiers passing along the street wanted to buy sugar-cane from a woman, but they did not pay what she asked, and the woman refused to sell the sugar-cane to them. The soldiers began to strike the woman and took away all her sugar- cane. The woman followed them and cried. The occupants of a shoemaker's shop named Sai-wo had watched what the soldiers had been doing, and they sprang forward and forced the soldiers to return the sugar-cane to the poor woman. The soldiers then threw the sugar cane on the road and ran away.
A few minutes afterwards four- teen soldiers broke into the shoemaker's shop and took away all its valuable contents and threw all the other things out into the street. The Kaifong people, who became very angry, at once shut all the gates and tried to capture the soldiers, who immediately escaped. At last three soldiers were captured and they were sent to the Magistrate of Wai-eyi district. The other soldiers, who resented the capture of three of their comrades, at once gathered a large number of soldiers, surrounded the city, and demanded the release of the captives. The Magistrate was greatly frightened and ordered the city gates to be closed. Some soldiers tried to get into the city by breaking down the city wall At last General Cheung Chang-fat arrived and the soldiers were dispersed. All the shops were closed from the 17th to the 20th and the shop people did not reopen their shops till the Magistrate came to them and said that he would adjudicate on the matter rightly and justly. The Magistrate distributed small packages of fire-crackers to each of the shops and when they reopened their shops they all fired the crackers.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The following telegram was sent from Shang- hai on the Queen's Birthday Queen Victoria, Windsor. British residents Shanghai send respectful heartfelt congratulations Her Majesty's seventy-seventh anniversary." The following telegraphic answer was received- "Windsor, 24th May. To British Residents, Shanghai. The Queen thanks you for kind message. Private Secretary."
The Courrier de Saigon of the 27th May says:On the occasion of the fêtes in connec- tion with the coronation now being celebrated, in the presence of representatives of all nations, in the ancient Muscovite capital, the men-of-war have hoisted their great flag. This has been arranged under Ministerial orders received direct from France. It appears strange to us that the fête should be honoured only by the hoisting of a few Russian and French flags. Not a single gun fired, not a single Venetian lantern displayed! Everyone in Saigon has been shocked by the little regard paid, under the special circumstances, to the ties which unite us to Russia. Was it necessary to adhere strictly to the orders from France? The Gov- ernor ought to have remembered that the Ministers are either fools or idiots.
We
Referring to the court-martial held at Han- kow on the Chinese cook of the Esk who some months ago accidentally shot a man while firing on a range in connection with sports held an shore, the N. C. Daily News says: learn that on the arrival of H.M.S. Spartan at Hankow no one seemed to know if a Chinese Captain Winsloe accordingly sent his card to official was going to attend the court-martial. the Taotai with a message saying that he had come up to hold the trial of the Chinese cook of the Esk, and that an official would be admitted- to the Court, if one wished to attend. The reply was that the day fixed was most inconvenient, as it was the day for holding criminal appeals, but that if Captain Winsloe would postpone the trial for one day the Tautai would attend in person. This was a most inconvenient request, as it might cause some of the witnesses to miss the Empress of Japan, by which they were going to Yokohama, and it also seemed that as
the Taotai had had three weeks' notice of the date of trial, he might have objected earlier. However, Captain Winsloe acceded to the request, as he did not wish the Taotai to be able to say that the court-martial was held ou a day? on which he could not possibly be present. Captain Winsloe then found that the Taatai proposed to sit on the bench as a magistrate with him, as is done in a Mixed Court trial, and when it was explained to him that he was only invited to come as a spectator, he turned round and said he had no instructions and would not come. The investigation proved the affair to have been a pure accident on the part of the cook, and that the person who selected the range put it in a very unfortunate place,