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her portholes and at daybreak on the 26th a uspense of seventeen days was relieved by the spectacle of the steamer rounding the point and heading towards the wreck. She dropped anchor about a mile away.
---A very heavy sea was still running, but the wind had moderated slightly. With heartfelt joy, mingled with the tears of the men and hysterical sobbing of the women, they saw the lifeboat lowered. It took her three-quarters of an hour to reach the wreck. Every one rushed to the broken side of the ship. It was the life boat of the Indian Government steamer Mayo, and in charge of Lieutenants Dobin and Goldsmith.
They skilfully avoided the tremendous wash and secured all of the survivors in two trips. Every attention was paid to the passengers on board the Mayo. Their health is improving and they will sail homeward to-morrow | (Wednesday) on the steamer India.-San Francisco Examiner.
AMOY.
10th July. Last week Amoy got caught in the outer northern circle of a typhoon followed by a series of strong south-westerly gales accompanied by deluges of rain Steamers were delayed and telegraphic communication interrupted for several days. The Douglas steamship Thales could not get to Taiwanfoo and had to take shelter for nearly a week in the Pescadores. The barque Claro Babuyan, also on its way to Taiwanfoo, after beating about vainly and in much jeopardy for some time, had to put back to port. Unfortunately, the experience proved the last straw to the worthy captain, Mr. Wm. Brown, who, having been ailing for many months, succumbed to a severe attack of bronchitis yesterday, the 9th of July, and was interred in the Kulangan cemetery at 7 am. to-day. He was believed to be about 48 years of age.
The heavy rains have caused the usual floods in many parts of the inland districts and much damage has been done to the ripening crops of rice. This means a further increase of its cost, which is already considerably above what it was two or three years ago. The week before last it was so unusually cold for the time of year that rumour has it there was ice one night, but the idea of ice in the Chinese 6th month seems almost incredible.
I hear that the mandarins are making great efforts to enforce measures for the daily sweeping and cleansing of the Amoy streets, levying a daily charge of ten or twenty cents from the shops and dwelling houses. But Amoy is such an abnormally dirty town that nothing short of a big fire can eradicate the plague, and that is such a heroic measure that it is hardly likely to be adopted. Large numbers of Chinese have come over to Kulangsu to live, and the last few years have seen a great activity in housebuilding, both of native houses and also larger dwellings after foreign style with verandahs and of two storeys. Many old foreign houses are now in- habited by wealthy Chinese from the mainland as well as from Formosa: and the Straits. N. C. Daily News Correspondent.
The Hupeh Cotton Cloth Mill and the Cot- ton Spinning Mill have both suspended work owing to the stock of raw cotton running short. The cotton goods turned out by the mills have been hitherto eagerly sought for, yielding good profits to the manufacturers. In view of the demand for their goods the managers of the two mills have decided to increase the plant, for which they propose to borrow two hundred thousand taels-Mercury.
Mr. Christiansen, third engineer of the Chowchowfoo, which arrived at Nagasaki on 22nd July, committed suicide by jumping over- loard. The decessed officer was only thirty-one years of age and unmarried, and had been in the rvice of the company for the last eight years. His loss is greatly regretted; not only by his biother officers but also by a large circle of friends at Nagasaki, who feel deeply the sad occurrence, which terminated a very promising
Nagasaki Daily News.
Career
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
MACAO.
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]|
[August 4, 1897. Government is taking the question into consi deration.
The fight, which, as last reported, broke out between San-chuen and Ta-tong villages in Pun-u district, and which had been stopped by the Magistrate of Pun-u, broke out again on the 26th July. Great slaughter has taken place and the Magistrate of Pun-u, who has made several attempts to stop it, but to no pur- pose, has issued a notification offering rewards for the capture of the chief offenders.
The Provincial Government, under instruc tions from Peking is instituting an inquiry to ascertain places where the native poppy plant is grown. It is the intention of the Govern ment to impose a tax on poppy plants.
Macao, 30th July, Another petition was sent in the other day to the Chief Justice by a few gentlemen re- questing permission to re-establish the news- paper 0 Independente. Dr. Alvaro Fornellos, the Chief Justice, declined to give the permis. sion. The petitioners then applied to Senhor Bandeira de Lima, the Colonial Secretary, who is now Acting Governor. This gentleman also declined to give permission: he could not en- trench on others' jurisdiction, and moreover the Governor has little to do with the matter.
Why should Dr. Fornellos refuse the permis. sion applied for? The public very well know. If another newspaper was started there would be more criticison of public officers, perhaps even of Dr. Fornellos himself and his friends. In his office are heaps of petitions which have never been dealt with. For instance, the shop of Cassam Moosa, an Indian cloth seller, was at- tached for debt and was sealed up and closed, by order of the Chief Justice, on the 31st Decem-five. ber, 1896; so the matter has since remained, no mention being made of if in court during the seven months which have since elapsed. Every- thing that can possibly be postponed is post- poned and the office pigeon-holes are full of documents waiting to be dealt with.
It is said that a roluminous correspondence has been going on between our Government and the Chinese Authorities with reference to Kongmun and Komchuk and that the mat- ter is now in train for a satisfactory settle- ment. It is hoped that all the present dif- ficulties in the way of trade will shortly be removed and that steamers will be allowed to call at those ports and land cargo without having first to proceed to Samsbui. "The sooner the matter is settled the better it will be for both parties. Up to the present there has been no improvement in the trade of this colony from the opening of the river, from which every one anticipated so much, but rather the contrary, because exports from Kongmun and Komuhuk that used to come to Macao are now finding their way via Samshui and Canton.
The dredging of the harbour is now goin on regularly and it looks as if something substantial would be accomplished.
Invitations have been sent to all the capital- ists of the colony to form a syndicate or company to undertake, in agreement with the Government, the great work of reclaiming the ground from Macao to Green Island, and to carry out the plan of Senhor Loureiro, engineer, making docks and workshops on the new ground, and filling in the old docks and filthy puddles of Tarrafeiro and Sakong. This would be a great improvement to the colony.
No doubt we shall soon see as great a trans- formation at Tarrafeiro and Sakong as at Volong. It is to be hoped the Leal Senado will follow the example of the Government and carry out the required improvements in its jurisdiction, though the prospect does not appear very promising. Almost half the income of the Corporation is paid away in salaries, and private interests are largely con- sidered in the expenditure of the public funds.
- CANTON NOTES.
+6
FROM THE CHUNG NGOI BAN PO.” Rice is exceptionally high in Canton. A pioul of good quality is sold for $4.30. There is a large demand from Japan and the Straits Settlements and the rice merchants are taking this opportunity to raise the prices.. This high rate is a great hardship to poor people. The charitable institutions petitioned the Viceroy some days ago to prohibit the exportation of rice to foreign countries which they say, is the cause of rice being so dear. His Excellency said that the request could not be granted, but he would do his best to send gunboats to other provinces to carry rice back to Canton to give to the rice merchants for sale at low prices. The charitable institutions have again sent another petition to the same effect to the Viceroy saying that the rice conveyed back by the gun boats is a thousand times smaller than the quantity exported and that, if the exportation of rice is not to be prohibited, the greater hard- ship to the people may be anticipated. The
A school for importing education in English is going to open in Wnchow. Two Chinese educated in English have been engaged as teachers. The Prefect of Wuchow has issued a notification inviting people to send their sons as pupils. No pupils are to be admitted if they are unable to write a Chinese essay and their ages must not be under fifteen nor over twenty. As the funds are too small to meet the total expenses of the school, the pupils must pay five dollars per annum for stationery, but they are not required to pay school fees or other expenses.
HONGKONG.
The proximity of a typhoon caused heavy rain on Monday and spoiled the Bank holiday, which it was expected would have been observed more generally than usual, as there were no mails arriving or leaving. The sensation of the week has been the Witchell trial, which was concluded yesterday, when the accused, an In- spector of Police, was found guilty of receiving bribes in connection with gambling. The jury recommended him to mercy on account on his previous good conduct and he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment without hard labour.
We have received a further list of Chinese subscriptions to the Diamond Jubilee Fund, bringing the total of the Chinese subscriptions пр to $40,266.44.
The appointment of Sergeant E. D. Sanders to be Captain of the "A" Machine Gun Com. Captain C. Murray Adamson, resigned, is pany
of the Hongkong Volunteer Corps, vice
gazetted.
A.M. Thomson has been appointed Acting In- It is notified in the Gazette that the Hon.
of Examiners for a period of two calendar spector of Schools and Secretary to the Board months with effect from the 4th August.
It is notified in the Gazette that in pursuance of instructions from the Secretary of state for the Colonies, H. E. the Governor has been pleased to recognise Herr Heinze as general re- presentative the Imperial German Consul at Hongkong in case of the absence or inability of the latter to perform his duties.
Hock Goon, licensee of the Grand Hotel, was charged on remand at the police court on 28th July with selling adulterated whisky. Mr. J. F. Reece appeared for the defence and raised several technical points. These, however, were overruled by His Worship, who found the offence proved and imposed a fine of $50.
The trial of Inspector Witchell has so far resulted in two really good jokes being made, the perpetrator in each instance being Mr. E. Robinson, who is conducting the defence. The second one-the reply to Mr. Francis when that gentleman objected to his friend's mode of put- ling a question has been published, but the first one was lost to all but a few in court as it was not clearly heard, and therefore it was missed out of our report. We now learn that what took place was this. The Attorney- General's gown had slipped off his back and fallen ou to his chair and when he rose to examine a witness the Chief Justice, who is most punctilions in these matters, remarked, “Mr. Attorney, I do not see you. The Attorney-General apologized and explained that the gown had accidentally dropped off. Mr. Robinson immediately replied, “ My learned friend has lost his suit, my Lord. While the few who heard the joke laughed Mr. Robinson assisted the Attorney-General in regaining his lost "snit.