December 23, 1896.1
- CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. and adequate punishment. was passed. Section 30 of Ordinance IV. || intendent having brought this of 1865 provides that "Whosoever, having gainst the men was entitled to a charge of any carriage or vehicle,, shall, finding
to whether the breach of regula-"by wanton or furious driving or racing, or ions had been proved or not. If it was "other wilful misconduct, or by wilful roved, then the Magistrate might exercise "neglect, do or cause to be done any bodily own discretion as to the punishment. "harm to any person whatsoever, shall be esent the decision is one of acquittal, guilty of a misdemeanour, and, being con- which is directly contrary to the admitted "victed thereof, shall be liable, at the facts of the case. This will hardly tend to "discretion of the Court, to be imprisoned strengthen the authority of the Superinten for any term not exceeding two years, dent or to improve the morale of the Brigade, with or without hard labour." But bicycles and from that point of view the decision is could not be held to
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regretted. But supposing the Magis- | they are not vehiccome under this section if
trate had convicted, nominal fines might have been deemed, sufficient in one or possibly two of the cases. One of the men had leave from Police duty and pleaded that he understood that relieved him from all duty, a point on which any man might honestly make a mistake, the question not having previously arisen and there being no ruling upon it; but on the principle that ignorance of the law is no excuse a con- viction should have been recorded, though with a nominal penalty if the Magistrate accepted the defendant's explanation, or even without any penalty at all. In another case the defendant pleaded that he had a cold and that the doctor had told him not to get wet; but the doctor's certi- ficate ought to have been obtained before, and not, as was the case, after absence from tduty. As the defendant was well aware of ohe rules on that point, being an old member itf the Force, the excuse put forward, though ca might mitigate the offence to a degree colling only, in view of the man's good re- acrd, for a small fine, should not have been thcepted as justifying an acquittal. In the third case the defence was that a man told é defendant that "it was only a chimney n fire." That is a tale to be told to the marines. It cannot be admitted that a fire- man is justified in absenting himself from duty on the report of the first outsider he meets as to the extent of the fire; in the pre- sent case that report proved inaccurate and would be likely to prove so in many cases. Moreover, even if it were admitted that such an excuse could extenuate the abstention from duty, the defendant's informant should have been culled to prove that he had made the report alleged, and what he actually said, in order that the Magistrate might judge for himself as to whether it was reasonable that the defendant should have accepted and acted upon it. That was not
doné.
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BICYCLES AND THE PUBLIC TRAFFIC.
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the con-
It is true that mention is made of bicycles in the Vehicle Licence Ordinance, 1895, in which Private they are included amongst the exceptions, section 2 providing that
I "struction of this Ordinance Private 'Vehicle' includes all carriages, carts, waggons, trucks, and all other vehicles " which do not require to be licensed under Ordinance XXI. of 1887, except private jinrickshas, private chairs, bicycles, tricycles, perambulators, trucks and cars in use on tramways, or such other other "vehicles as the Governor in Council may from time to time exempt." From that it may be inferred that in the mind of the drafter, of the Ordinance bicycles came naturally under the definition of vehicle and required special mention to exempt them from the operation of a law affecting vehicles in general, but an assumption of that kind would not in itself suffice to make any article a vehicle that would not other wise be classed as such. Webster's definition of "vehicle" is "(1) That in which anything is or may be carried; any kind of carriage moving on land, either on wheels or runners. (2) That which is used as the "instrument of conveyance." This seems wide enough to include bicycles, but there is the legal decision already mentioned to the contrary. But whether a bicycle be etymo- logically and legally a vehicle or not it is certainly desirable in the interests of the public convenience and safety that machines of this description should be placed under some regulation, and, as they differ so much from other vehicles, that regulations should be specially drawn up for them instead of simply bringing them under the regulations applying to vehicles in general. Bicycling is now becoming a very common form of recreation in the colony and amongst the riders are some reckless youths who are inclined to display their skill by "scorch- ing down the hill roads and along crowded thoroughfares; there is a laxness also in displaying a light after sundown; and although riders for their own con- venience generally follow the rule of the road, as matters stand this is not obligatory upon them. In England bicycles are dealt with under municipal by-laws; in Hongkong it would be necessary to pass an Ordinance should it be decided to bring them under regulation. That it is desirable this should be done we think there can be no question, for bicycles in the hands of rash or clumsy riders constitute a greater danger- to the public than the few tradesmen's trucks and trolleys in reference to which the Private Vehicle Licence Ordinance was passed. The
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launches in the harbour
Some bicyclists seem to think that when overtaking pedestrians they have, only to touch their bell and everybody is bound to get out of their way, whereas it is their duty to get out of the way of the pedestrian, as they would find to their cost if an acci dent arising from their mistaken assumption gave rise to a civil action for damages.
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THE "
OPIUM WAR.
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The last issue of the Friend of hina con- tains, an interesting article by the Rev. F
"LYALE'S Memorandum-The Opium War.” STORRS TURNER entitled “ Sir JAM
Thequestion discussed is whether the first English war with China may be correctly described as "the opium war” Mr. TURNER maintains the affirmative, and though we hold the opposite view we have pleasure in recognising the ability and
fairness displayed in his argument. He acknow ledges that "while the opium trade was the immediate, the principal; all but the sole cause of the war, it is not to be denied "that, taking a wider view, there were "other causes in the background.” Elimi- nate the words "the principal, all but the " 'sole," and Mr. TURNER' description of the cause of the war might be accepted as historically correct. It is there that we joiu issue with him. It was the opium dispute that brought matters between the two coun- tries to a head, but according to our view it had even less influence in producing the estrangement that culminated in hostilities than had the question of the Spanish suc cession in producing the rupture between Germany and France, though that was the question which nominally brought about the war between those Powers. We know that if a cable is strained beyond its strength it will break; the question of the particular point at which it will break is mmaterial. So also we know that if per sons of incompatible temperaments have to ive together they will sooner or laterl quarrel, and that it would be entirely erroneous to say that this or that particular incident was the sole or principal cause of the quarrel. Mr. TURNER says that "the argument from 'might have been" is as open to us" (the anti-opiumists)" as to our opponents. They freely assert that, opium or no opium, there must have hap ** pened, sooner or later, a war between "Great Britain and China. The assertion "is worthless. Nobody knows what would "have happened if something else had not "occurred." From that dictum we dissent. Common knowledge of social phenomena warrants the drawing of certain conclusions from certain premises, and an impartial study of the history of the relations between Great Britain and China ought, we think, to lend to the conclusion that war was certain to occur sooner or later. The other causes of the war, besides opium, are enu- merated by Mr. TURNER as follows :—(1) Trade, (2) exterritoriality, (3) diplomatic in- tercourse, and he argues each of these sepa rately to show that neither one nor the other was a sufficient justification for going to war. taking it as it stands it must be remembered that the real cause was not any one of those enumerated acting separately but the whole conjointly. Mr. TURNER's position, how- ever, appears to be that war is a crime in itself and is under no circums able. There we must part co the..rev. gentleman, as longer any common ground of argument, with War is a thing to be avoided by all
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It was recently decided by one of the Courts at home that a bicycle is not a vehicle, any more than a pair of skates are a vehicle. If this ruling is to be accepted in Hongkong it may be argued that bicycles do not come under the provisions of the law relating to furious driving and that they are in fact exempt from all control. Sub- section 7 of section 2 of Ordinance XIV. of 1845 provides that every person shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds ride or drive on any foot-path WEAREm necessity, or shall ride licensing system is, however, one to be de- The list of causes is incomplete, but
પા furious manner, so as to en-precated. It would be sufficient to pass a nger the life or limb of any person, or short Ordinance making it an offence to ride the common danger of the passengers on a public thoroughfare within the limits any public road or thoroughfare; or who, of the city at more than a certain specified or meeting another horseor carriage, speed, to ride without a light after sundown, all not keep to the customary side of or to infringe the rule of the road. If it road Here the mention another were at all feasible it would also be a good * clearly excludes the thing to stop the unnecessary ringing of class of machine that bicycle bells in Queen's Road, iu the same had not been thought of when the Ordinance way that the unnecessary whistling of steam
ithout obvious
ea of a bicycle
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any wit