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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND but if success had attended the movement | there would have been little likelihood of the disinterested and clean-handed section being able to hold in check the disorderly and self-seeking elements that went to make up the rebel forces.
(May 29, 1897.
815 a year may seem a small matter, but there is a large and growing class in the colony who find it necessary to watch their expenditure very narrowly and to them an additional $5 a year would be a con- sideration of some moment. And this is the very class for whom a public library should cater, families of small incomes and young people who have just gone to business and whose supply of pocket money is strictly limited. We would much prefer, if it were possible, to see the subscription reduced to a merely nominal sum or abolished altogether, the library being made entirely free. That could only be done either by the establish- ment of an endowment fund by one or more wealthy members of the community or by the Government defraying the whole ex- penditure, neither of which alternatives seems at the moment at all probable. Some assistance, however, may reasonably be ex- pected from the Government, and a very small annual grant would be sufficient to keep the existing Public Library on its legs 88 which a larger and more popular institution might be evolved in the future. Four or five hundred dollars a year would cover the amount the Hon. Secretary now asks the members to provide by increased subscrip- tions, and that is a very much more modest sum to ask from the Government than the three or four thousand dollars of which Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON spoke at the meeting held eighteen months ago,
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ABROGATION OF THE NIGHT. PASS LAW.
In his last annum report the Registrar- General says:-"Quarterly passes are now "issued to the extent of fourteen or fifteen
thousand, and, as there is no means of detecting the transfer of these passes to
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and will be ready to break out again should the ruling race afford it an opportunity. Although the great mass of the native army remained loyal in the recent outbreak there were nevertheless a considerable number of deserters to the enemy and sufficient signs of wavering to make the Government unwill- ing to trust to this arm of defence so com- THE HONGKONG PUBLIC LIBRARY. pletely as in the past. But a more potent
From a circular issued by Mr. H. E. -influence than the army in the preser- vation of order under the old regime POLLOCK, the Hon. Secretary, we regret to learn that the Hongkong Public Library was the power of the priests. This has now received a rude shock and can no longer is threatened with extinction owing to want there of funds. There are 74 annual subscribers be relied upon. It follows, fore, that a considerable European army and the subscription being 810 the income to $740, while the expenses will have to be permanently maintained in amounts the islands, and as the cost will have to be amount roughly to $50 a month, or $600 defrayed from the local exchequer there a year, leaving only a very small margin will have to be a radical rearrangement of to invest in new books. That the library the finances or greatly increased taxation. is appreciated and freely used by the The country, however, is possessed of great subscribers is attested by the fact that natural resources, which if properly deve- from the 1st January to the 15th May last, a period of 135 days, the number of books loped would yield a sufficient income to cover all costs of government without resort taken out amounted to 1,134. That the being had to crushing taxation. One of number of subscribers is so comparatively the first steps towards the development small may be accounted for by the fact of of a country's resources is the making the library being rather inconveniently of roads, and this has already been housed and inaccessible and also that even its existence is not so generally known as it decided upon, for military reasons, so far as the province of Cavite is concerned. The might be. At the public meeting held in movements of the army operating against connection with the subject on the 21st the rebels in that province were greatly October, 1895, H.E. the Governor promised impeded by the absence of roads, and the his support to the institution and mentioned present Governor-General has given orders as a contrast to the existing state of affairs for the work of making a network of roads in Hongkong the large and useful public to be at once entered upon. The Comercio libraries possessed by the West Indian thereupon urges that railways ought also to colonies of which he had had experience, be made, on account both of their commer- namely, the Bahamas, the Barbadoes, and cial and military advantages, and it instances Trinidad. His Excellency thought $3,000 or $4,000 a year ought to be voted by the in support of its argument the assistance the Dagupan railway afforded in preserving Legislative Council for the support of the peace in the northern provinces and pre- Public Library, which, he said, could not fail venting the rebellion gaining headway there. to be of great public use to the residents of The religious orders established in the Hongkong. The Colonial Secretary at the Philippines are, however, credited with same meeting said he thought the Govern-
persons who are not really the holders of having opposed the construction of railways ment might give something in the way in the past, as they have opposed all other of a grant of land for the erection them, there appears to be a danger of the pass becoming a protection for rather than progressive measures, and their influence of the library building which Hongkong
a safeguard against persons who are on should possess. Mr. T. JACKSON, the Hon. will doubtless still be exerted on the same
"evil bent. In the opinion of many the side. And these orders possess the power of T. H. WHITEHEAD, and other gentlemen
"time has now arrived when the pass system the purse, through which they are enabled to also spoke in support of the institution
might be with advantage abolished in exercise vast political influence in Spain and at that time the prospect certainly
ordinary times and enforced only on occas- "ions of an unusual nature." At the last as well as locally in the Philippines, looked fairly promising. So far, however, having, as is reported, a fund of over the Government has done nothing and twenty million dollars upon which they the institution has been left to struggle meeting of the Legislative Council an Or- on with the funds provided by the dinance was passed effecting an amendment can draw for this purpose. They were,
Had it not of the law in the sense recommended by the however, not strong enough to prevent subscriptions of members.
exertions of the Hon. Registrar-General, and the colony is to be their disestablishment in Spain, and though been for the it is not likely, unfortunately, that they will Secretary, who has also given financial heartily congratulated thereupon. The be at once disestablished in the Philippines, assistance, it is doubtful whether the night pass system has in its actual working it is possible that as a result of the recent library could have existed so long as it has proved the occasion of an immense amount disturbances they may find their power done. In the circular now issued to the of injustice and of State created crime. considerably curtailed. With the increase members Mr. POLLOCK, after stating the Thousands of men guilty of no moral offence of their wealth and their aggrandising pro- financial position, says "Under the above have been fined and imprisoned under it, "circumstances it appears to be manifestly and frequently under circumstances of con- clivities the orders have outgrown the use-
necessary that the subscriptions to the siderable cruelty. The Government has fulness they possessed in earlier days when
Library should be increased if it is to be never enforced the law continuously for any their members acted as bona fide missionaries,
"continued as a going concern, and, unless very long period, but simply by fits and and the sooner their present influence decays
'all the present members of the Library starts; after it had been allowed to remain the better will it be for the country. If it be
are willing to raise their subscription from in abeyance for a time it would suddenly be found that the recent rebellion has conduced
$5.00 a half year to $7.50 a half year, it revived, according to the fancy of the officials to that end it will not have been without
appears to be absolutely impossible that who happened to be responsible for the matter at the time, and with little or no its good effect. But while acknowledging the good, we would not wish to be understood, "the Library should be carried on in an
efficient and satisfactory condition, and warning, so that large numbers of respect- as approving the means by which it has been
"there would seem to be no alternative inable persons were apprehended, some of achieved. Had the rebellion succeeded
"that case but to close the Library and to them simply for crossing the street from the Government that would have been
"sell the books, many of which are standard a friend's house to their own. Even established would have been worse than the
"and valuable works, at a sacrifice." if it could be shown that any advantage one it replaced, for the Philippine natives are not yet sufficiently advanced for uncon- We trust, however, means may be found for attached to the law the disadvantages been shown that the law has proved of any trolled self-government. They have proved carrying on the institution without in-greatly outweighed it. But it never has use whatever, nor can it be so shown, its that they possess patriotism, and from the creasing the rate of subscription. What accounts of some of the Spaniards who were the colony requires is a "public library in the hands of the rebels as prisoners for in the true sense of the term, and the idea effect on the criminal classes being purely a longer or shorter periods it would seem that of a high subscription is not usually matter of conjecture. If it kept bad charac some of the leaders were also capable of mo- associated with that of a public library. ters in-doors at night, that would be an deration, self-control, and even magnanimity, To many members of the community advantage undoubtedly, but it has been
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