September 23, 1897.]
hibitive to Shanghai or Hongkong visitors, but next year will probably see it completely changed. Ice can be stored locally if the natives are taught how to do it, and some of our local retailers or an enterprising Chinaman will assuredly open a general store, to say nothing of a hotel.
Bathing is excellent and safe and can be indulged in for five months in the year by old and young and even longer by the robust.
Peking higher officialdom is lost in the intoxication of high finance. Li Hung-chang divides his time largely between the Board of Revenue and the Tsung-li Yamen. People here say that the Hooley-Jameson overtures have been rejected. I am, however, credibly informed that at the present moment they are much nearer success than failure. Mr. Platt, of Shanghai, who chaperoned the financiers up North, has returned with them in order to in terview the indispensible Sheng Taotai, and it is understood both here and in the capital that they will be back within a fortnight. The great banks and rival syndicates may announce failure as loud as they please, and it certainly seems to please them to do so, but as a matter of very high probability things at present are not tending that way. Such hesitation as there is lies on the syndicate side and may be summed up in one word, "security."
The
The Pei-Ho river improvement scheme is now awaiting the sanction of Peking. Viceroy, Customs, Taotai, Foreign Consuls, and
Chamber of Commerce have thrashed the ques- tion out and have practically united to commend Mr. A. de Linde's scheme as the initial step. This scheme involves the training of the lower reaches and the closing of the great canals, so as to increase the scour both by narrowing the channel and increasing the volume of water. It means an expense of about a quarter of a million taels; of this sum Wang Won Shê memorializes Peking that he can supply
Tis.150,000; the balance will possibly be raised by a mixed commission, interest and sinking fund to be provided by an insignificant increase in the shipping dues. Should these measures prove inadequate, the Chinese do not hesitate to say they will be prepared to strengthen the tide-way by cutting a new bed at a further cost of half-a-million. This cutting would run for eight miles in a straight line from the Tientsin Reach, and would obviate many acute bends and difficult navigation over a present tortuous course of twenty miles. The cutting" for very obvious reasons has had powerful advocacy among the native minor officials; on its own merits it can also be com- mended, but the course advised by the Cousuls and other foreign bodies is in every way to be preferred.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
There is no shortage in weight or fineness. conceivable doubt where the whole crux lies, viz., in the manufacture of the coins. The official in charge evidently did not know that the reputation of coinage is as delicate as that of Cæsar's wife; they probably were commend ing their selfrestraint in only lessening the weight by two hundredths.
The Peking Railway is rapidly approaching completion. The service of trains is of course far from what it will be when the cars, engines, and permanent way are finished. Even as it is the trains are examined, and the receipts are be- tween $1,500 and $2,000 a day. The Baldwin locomotives have arrived and are now being erected. When this line is in working order, it will be the greatest "objective lesson" in the Chinese Empire: not only will comfort, speed, and economy displace their opposites, but the line will pay splendidly if decently ad- ministered, and will open up endless vistas of new offices, elastic finance, &c., to Peking's impecunious officials.
HONGKONG.
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243
Extract from Hongkong Blue Book:- Political Franchise, Nil." This item is honoured with a full page of foolscap to itself.
It is reported that à committee of the Execu- . tive Council, consisting of Colonel Elsdale, R.E., the Attorney-General, and the Hon. C. P. Chater, has been appointed to consider what proportion of their pension, if any, should be al- lowed to the officers upon whom suspicion bas fallen in connection with the bribery scan. dal.
On the 18th Sptember at 7 a.m., the firemen were called to a fire which had broken out in 'a Chinese house at Quarry Bay. Fortunately, however the flames were controlled by the firemen of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, whose prompt work rendered the assistance of the brigade unnecessary. The origin of this fire is also unknown.
A Tokyo press despatch of the 7th September, translated by the Kobe Chronicle, reads :— To-day's Shogyo Shimpo publishes a Hong- kong telegram of the 6th inst., stating that owing to the fall of sliver numerous orders for sugar are being received by the manufacturers, and sugar dealers have agreed to raise the price by 30 sen per picul.
We hear that the two large houses above Poesnecker have been purchased by the Hum- Queen's Gardens belonging to the late Mr.
The colony appeared to be in imminent peril of a typhoon on Friday, but fortunately the fears were not realized, althongh rather a heary gale blew for a few hours. Many steamers
As this Company already owns St. Andrews arriving here had a nasty experience of the dis-phreys Estate and Finance Company, Limited, turbance, the worst perhaps that of the Arratoon
it is now the possessor of all three houses on Apcar, which had a very rough and dangerous that level. We understand that the price paid passage. In the Supreme Court several cases of interest have been heard during the week. On Thursday the Sanitary Board held a meeting. On Saturday night a man murdered bis wife in Hongkong and then escaped from the colony.
The New Club was opened on the 22nd September.
The meeting of the Legislative Council fixed for Monday last bas been postponed sine die.
There were 1,957 visitors to the City Hall
Museum last week, of whom 177 were Europeans. H.E. the Governor has been pleased to recog- nise Mr. S. Takagi as in charge of the Japanese
Consulate.
I
The death rate last month was, for the British and Foreign community, civil population, 16.5,
and for the Chinese community 19.5.
It is notified in the Gazelle that the Queen's exequatur empowering Signor Ugo Nervegna to act as Consul for Italy at Hongkong has received Her Majesty's signature.
The Austrian steamer Gisela, from Trieste
23rd July, reports:-In lat. 20 N., long. 112 E., the 17th at 3 to 6 p.m., met a typhoon force in full power and heavy sea from everywhere; lost two boats and others damaged.
At a meeting of the Jubilee Lodge of In- truction held at Freemason's Hall on Saturday night Worshipful Brother G. A. Caldwell read an exceedingly interesting and instructive paper "The doctrine of Freemasonry." The reader was listened to with much pleasure and at the conclusion he was heartily thanked for his able address.
on
The anticipations regarding Mr. Woo Jem Pao's restoration to the directorate of the Tientsin-Shanhaikwan Railway have not been realized, much to the regret of everybody who wants to see intelligence combined with honesty in native administration. By-the-bye, in a
Messrs. Lutgens, Einstmann & Co., General recent paragraph you quoted Mr. Woo as Ex-Agents of the Great Eastern and Caledonian Compradore of the Hongkong and Shanghai Gold Mining Co., Limited, Bank in Tientsin; I have pleasure in stating that telegraphic advice has been received that the "es is superfluous.
"
Woo Taotai has never been popular with the hungry crowd of expectant Tuotais and minor officials. He is anathma maranatha to the ignorant scholars and yamen parasites simply because he is a self-made man, no sycophant, and is possibly deficient in the classics. At present he is the object of more than usual de- traction in connection with the discredit of the new Pei-yang dollar. This coin was in some cases issued 2 and 3 per cent. below its stated weight, whereupon the two British Banks refused to accept it as equivalent for the honest Mexican or British dollars. Of course there was a terrible outcry, as this initia. tive was followed up by the money changers and bullion men in the city. The Peiyang's reputation was imperilled. The authorities promptly sent for the native hong people and brought pressure upon them more sinico; but of course they could not intimidate the British Banks. Still, they had the satisfaction of put- ting whatever discredit the agitation had brought about to the account of Mr. Woo.
Curiously enough, the German and Russian Banks accepted the discredited dollar. The fact is that the issues are not all marked by
from Mr.
Carl Georg.
inform US
from the mines
at Mount McDonald, to the effect that all preliminary arrangements have been completed and that work is being started at once.
The following are the lecturers at the College of Medicine for Chinese for the session which commenced on 15th Sept.:-Surgery, Dr. Rennie; Materia Medica, Dr. Thomson; Osteology. Senior Students; Physiology, Dr. Clark; Medical Jurisprudence, Hon. Dr. Ho Kai; Chemistry, Surgeon Gilmour, R.N.; Anatomy, Dr. Pathology, Dr. Carvalho; Paulun; Practise of Medicine, Dr. Jordan, There are at present thirteen students on the roll.
The Straits Times of the 7th September says:-The steamer Kutsang arrived at Singa- pore yesterday afternoon from China. The captain reported to the Police that, during the previous night, a band of coolies got together, seized a Chinese coolie recruiter, and threw him overboard. He was not recovered. In conse- quence of this information, the Police yesterday made thirteen arrests. A similar case occurred quite recently on board the steamer On Sang, and five coolies will be charged with that murder at the Assizes this week.
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was considerably less than the actual cost to the late owner.
The British barque Fannie Scholfield, from Singapore to Shanghai with a cargo of hard- wood, arrived here on the 21st Sept., having put in for repairs. She was caught in the recent typhoon, in which the cargo in the hold broke adrift, severely straining the ship, and as she was leaking badly and the shaft of the pump was broken, rendering the starboard pump
useless, she made for the nearest port.
will leave Singapore, as now arranged, by the The Straits Cricket team to visit Hongkong
P. & O. steamer Rosetta on October 25th, arriv- ing in time to allow of a few practice games. On Monday and Tuesday, 8th and 9th Novem- ber, the Straits will play Hongkong. On Wednesday and Thursday Hongkong will play Shanghai, and on Friday and Saturday the Straits will meet Shanghai. The Straits team- will leave Hongkong on November 18th, pre- sumably by a P. & O. steamer, returning to Singapore about November 23rd.-Singapore Free Press.
Lieutenant Cruickshank, R.A., charged a coolie at the Police Court on the 21st Sept. with stealing $1. Prosecutor placed three $5 notes and two silver dollars in a drawer of his dress- ing table and then took his bath. On returning he found one of the silver dollars missing and as the coolie was the only servant in the house prosecutor charged him with the theft. The dollar was not found on the prisoner, who denied the charge. The Magistrate considered the evidence sufficient to order the accused to enter into recognizances to be of good behaviour
for three months.
Mr. T. W. Quincey, son of ex-Inspector Quincey, has been dismissed from the Govern- ment service, the allegation against him being that he had accepted bribes. He was in the Re- gistrar-General's department, and for some months past he has been at Peking studying the Mandarin dialect, but he was recalled from there a few weeks ago. He was a very intelli- gent young man of great promise. His case was inquired into by the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, and the Crown Solicitor. We also understand that one or two Indian police sergeants have been reduced to the ranks.
Two raids on gambling houses were inquired into by the Magistrate on 20th Sept. In a house in Centre Street nine men were caught by Inspector Hennessey. The two principals were fined $50 each and the remainder 85 each. Police Sergeant Gillies bad charge of the second case, which came from Peel Street. On a Chinese constable entering the house a man who was on watch at the door shouted upstairs and told the gamblers to run away. The police, however, caught several men although ingenious means of escape were found in the house. The two keepers were fined $150 each and the others $25 each.