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the time and when they came back they found themselves homeless. They were compelled to cook their food and sleep in the street. Some kind people have raised a subscription to help them to rebuild their huts.
The Viceroy has granted permission for rice to be exported from Canton and the neighbour- ing districts 'to Macao, at the request of the Commissioner of Customs at Lappa.
On the 21st instant à junk with a heavy cargo of rice, trying to smuggle out from Canton, was seized at Mu-dp-how, in the Canton river.
HO‡GK'NG.
Christmas was, as usual, quietly observed in Hongkong. For those who preferred to spend the holidays out of doors the beautiful weather enhanced the enjoymeut, while indoors the temperature was cold enough to demand a cheerful fire in the rooms. On Christmas Eve | the Chief Justice had an unpleasant duty to perform in sentencing three murderers to death. On the 22nd inst. His Excellency the Governor delivered a most interesting lecture at Govern- ment House, his subject being Two small sketches of two great men." The two great meu were Milton and Handel. On the follow- ing day the Band of the West Yorkshire Regi- ment gave a farewell concert at the City Hall. On Sunday the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment arrived in the colony to take the place of the West Yorkshire Regiment, which 1-aves for Singapore on Saturday.
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H.M.S. Narcissus left for the North og 21st December.
The Dairy Farm Company notifies that it has resumed business.
The C:P.R. steamer Empress of China made a quick run down from Shanghai in fifty hours. A Chinaman was on 22nd Dec. fined $100 for removing milk from an infected cattle shed in Kennedy Street.
On the 24th December Mrs. F. H. May gave her annual Christmas treat to the children of the members of the Police Force.
At the Police Court on 24th Dec, nineteen meu were charged with gambling in a house at No. 45, Nullah Laue. The master was fined $25 and the remainder $2 each.
*
Although everyone recognises that there is a good deal of sham and hypocrisy about Christmas conventionalities, the sentencing of three men to death will strike most people as a particu- larly unpleasant incident for Christmas Eve.
We should think the Chief Justice must have wished that the painful duty had fallen to his lot on some other day.
At the last rehearsal of the Philharmonic Society Mr. W. G. Bentley, A.R.C.M.. was pre- sented with a handsome silver loving cup as a token of the Society's appreciation of his ser vices as its conductor. The presentation was made by the Hon. W. M. Goodman, who re- ferred to the excellent work done by Mr. Bentley and the regret felt by the Society and the com- munity at his departure and that of the West Yorkshire Band.
The hon. treasurer of the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals begs to acknowledge with thanks the following donations to the funds of the Hospitals
wwwww
Ho Ngok Lan
15
Canton
23
Wong Chuk Yau Ip Chuk Kai Cheung Wo
$50
51)
25
15
3
An extraordinary general meeting of the Hongkong Football Club was held on 28th Dec. at the Victoria Recreation Club. The Hon. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, President of the Club, presided. A unmber of rules connected with the constitution and management of the Club were considered and ultimately were proposed for adoption by Mr. H. W. Slade, seconded by Mr. E. F. MacKay, and passed
nem, con.
The German cruiser Kaiserin Augusta ar- rived on the 22nd December. This vessel was at Crete when Kiaochau was occupied and she was at once ordered out to join the German Asiatic squadron. She entered the Canal on the 23rd November, and has therefore. taken twenty-nine days on the voyage out from that point. She is a first class cruiser built at Kiel in 1892, She left on the 26th December for Kiaochau.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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There were 2,341 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 158 were Europeans, The Hongkong branch of the Navy League is arranging a series of lectures upon matters which come within the scope of the objects of the League. The first lecture of the series will be given by Mr. J. J. Francis, Q.C.
When the P. and (). mail steamer Thames ar- rived on Sunday afternoon. 6th Dec., she was flying the quarantine flag and she anchored in the quarantine ground. There was no case of sick- ness on board, however, and the vessel was granted free pratique by the Port Medical Officer. The Thames landed a suspected case of plague at Penang, and on arriving at Singapore the vessel was examined and then allowed to proceed to the wharf.
The West Yorkshire Regiment will embark on the Jelunga at ten o'clock on Saturday morning for Singapore. Invalids and details will proceed to England by the same vessel. The freight ship Borneo loft London on the 27th November with artillery, engineers, aud details for Hongkong. The freight ship Shung. hai left London on the 11th December and will bring the 25th company from Singapore. On her return journey sha will take away the 12th and 35th companies from Hongkong.
In connection with the Christmas festivities, the members of the Taikoo Cinb gave a dancing party in their Club Rooms on Saturday night, when a fairly large number of guests assembled. Daucing was indulged in from eight o'clock till midnight, a few songs being rendered between the dances by Messrs. Dalton, S. H. Somerton. Brown, and O'Connell. The rooms were very prettily decorated, and all the arrangements | were carried out in a manner which reflected the bighest credit upon the Committee-Messrs. J. J. Blake, R. Dickson, and R. Park.
The troopship Jelunga, with the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, from Malta, arrived on Sunday morning, 26th Dee, and the Regiment was disembarked in the afternoon, proceeding at once into barracks. The following are the officers -- Lieutenant-Colonel J. Rowlandson, Major J. M. Gawne (second in command). Major W. H. Duffiu, Major T. C. F. Somerville, Captain Godfrey L. Hibbert, Captain T. B. Dixen, Captain J. A. Paton, Captain D. M. McLauchlan. Lieut. H. Galloway, Lieut. and Adjutant J. H. Lloyd, Lieut. F. S. B. Johnson, Lient. T. D. L. Whittington, Lieut. W. A. L. Lethbridge, Lieut. R. G. Parker, Lient. J. H. Morrah, Lieut. R. E. R. Donajowski. Lieut. R. N. Dob-
801,
Lieut. W. B. Malony. Lieut. S. R. Fletcher, Lieut. W. E. S. Woodgate, and Quarter-Master T. Batchelor (Hon. Lieut.). Colonel Rowlandson served in the South African war, 1879, and the Zulu campaign. Major Gawne also served in the South Africa war, 1879, and Zulu campaign. and also in the Bechuanaland expedition 1884-5: The following officers' wives accompany their husbands: Mrs. Rowlandson, Mrs. Gawne, Mrs. Duffin and Mrs. Batchelor.
A letter from a Chinese correspondent ap- pears in the Chung Ngoi Son Po in which the writer complains that since the abolition of the system of registration Hongkong has been overrun with brothels, to the great detriment of legitimate business. Cases of embezzlement have of late leen of frequent occurrence, the explanation being that the shop fokis, who dare not show their faces in public and open brothels for fear of being seen by their masters and friends, go secretly to the sly brothels, which in outward appearance are indistinguishable from family houses. Here they do not run much risk of being recognised and they are able to spend their masters' money without exciting suspicion. Another effect of the increase in the number of siy brothels is that the demand for honse accommodation has caused a great increase in rents. The public health is also affected, as may be judged by the many sign boards seen at shop doors inviting those suffering from disease to enter and be cured. The poise of chai-mui playing is heard in the Chinese quarters the whole night through, and the behaviour of the girls in the streets is often It is sincerely to be hoped. the scandalous. correspondent says, that Mr. Fung Wa-chuen, the Chairman of the Directors of the Tung Wa Hospital, who is well acquainted with English, will try to explain to H.E. the Governor how the Chinese have been affected by the abolition of the registration system.
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December 30, 1897.
H.M.S. Grafton, which arrived on Monday afternoon from Singapore, has gone into dock at Kowloon. We hear that she is expected to leave for the North to-day or on Friday to join Admiral Buller.
An Indian was found in British Kowloon on the 15th instant without any visible means
Hon. of subsistence.
H. E. Wodehouse declared him a vagrant and sent him to the house of detention.
For stealing four blankets and an oil cloth, the property of the War Department, on the 21st instant, a Chinaman was ou 23rd Dec. sen- tenced by the Police Magistrate to three months imprisonment with hard labour,
The Count d'Eu, with his son Prince Pierre of Orleans, who is an officer in the Austrian army, and Count de Bégassière, who are making a tour round the world, arrived at Shanghai from Japan on the 16th December.
The British steamer Nuyong, which arrived on 23rd Dec. from Singapore, reports that on the 22nd she passed a dismasted Wenchow junk at anchor in lat. 19.35 N., long. 114.02 E. The crew refused to leave her, but wanted to be towed to Hongkong.
A boy who was employed in the regimental canteen at Kowloon was on 28th Dec. sent to gaol for six months for stealing $1 from the till. For some time past money has been missed from the canteen and the prisoner's arrest was the result of a watch which was kept on his
movements.
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The P. & O. mail steamer Chusan, which left Hongkong at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the 14th December, did not arrive at Shanghai until 10 a.m. on Sunday. the 19th. The delay was due to rough weather and beary seas the way up. Part of the time, although her engines were going at full speed, she hardly made any headway at all. and on Saturday morning the weather was so foggy that the lights could not be discovered at a distance three miles away. The Jaru, which left two hours later than the Chusan,» ex- perienced similar weather and also took five days on the voyage.
We have received the time table of the Mes- ageries Maritimes, for 1898. The mail leaves Hongkong on Wednesday until the 2nd Febru ary and from the 12th February on Saturday, thus synchronising with the English_mail. With a Saturday mail day the Good Friday holiday will necessarily cease to be observed as such, but possibly Easter Monday may take its place. The day of arrival of the French mails in Hongkong is alternately Tuesday and Satur- day, the mail brought on to Colombo by the Australian steamer being allowed twenty-seven days to reach Hongkong while the direct. steamers are allowed thirty days.
A special session of the Justices of the Peace was held at the Magistracy on 21st Dec. to con- sider the application of Jules Marcesse for a publican's license for the Travellers' Hotel, Nos. 12 and 12, Queen Victoria Street. Hon. H. E. Wodehonse presided and the only other Justice present was Mr. W. M. B. Arthur. Mr. E. J. Grist appeared for the applicant. The police report, which was read by Mr. Wode- house, stated that the applicant ad not held a licence before and in 1895 he w* convicted and fined $100 for selling liquors without a licence. Previous to that he had been suspected of illicitly distilling liquor. Mr. Grist asked the Justices to grant the application as Marcesse bad been punished for his one offence and since then he had done no wrong. There was no evidence to prove that there was any ground for the suspicion entertained against him. If the application was refused the applicant would be deprived of his means of livelihood. During the past two years he had lived on his means. In reply to Mr. Wodehouse Mr. Arthur mentioned the fact that when the applicant was fined a very large quantity of chemicals the value of $400 and compounds of were seized at his house at Pokfulam and that tended to show that there was a very ex- tensive manufacture of auwholesome liquor at the place. Notice of appeal was lodged, but it was not proceeded with. There was ample evidence that the man had been engaged in the manufacture of those crude liquors to which so much attention had been drawn of late. The Justices refused to grant the application, Mr. Wodehouse expressing the opinion that it would be most improper to give the applicant a licence,
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