February 19, 1898.J
There were 3,699 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 213 were Europeans. H.E. Admiral Büller arrived from the North on 16th February in H.M.S. Alacrity and leaves by to-day's mail for home.
The death rate last month was, for the British and Foreign community, civil popula- tion, 23.6, and for the Chinese community 20.1. The statistics of cases coming under the cognisance of the Police Magistrate's Court and the Coroner's returns for 1897 are published in the Gazette.
The Ordinance to amend the Chinese Extra- dition Ordinance, 1889, and the Construction of Ordinances Ordinance have been approved by Her Majesty.
According to the London and China Express Sir Henry Blake, the new Governor of Hong- kong, will leave London in March to take up his appointment.
The stamp revenue last mouth was $37.271; being an increase of $15,952 on the amount col lected in January last year. Over $11,000 of the increase was in probate duty.
The Portuguese gunboat Tiberal left Sin- gapore on the 7th February for Manila, whence she will cross over to Hongkong and Macao when there is a moderation in the monsoon,
The Hongkong, Canton, and Macao Steam- boat Company's steamer Powan, having repaired the damage sustained in the recent collision with the Kwanglec, has resumed her place as night boat on the Canton line. Captain Clarke, who has been temporarily transferred from the Macao boat Heungshan, is in command.
Inspectors Butlin, Hennessey, Mann, and Hall, and Sergeant Foord retire from the Police Force next month on a pension. The five officers are amongst the oldest in the Force. The steamer On Sang,, Capt. Young, went into quarantine anchorage on arrival at Singa- pore from Hongkong on the 8th February: having on board one case of small-pox and one doubtful case.
At the Police Court on 11th Feb. the Magi:
strate re-heard a case in which Messrs. Linstead and Davis were summoned for neglecting to have four houses in Western Street properly cleans- ed. At the previous hearing the defendants were fined $40. Yesterday Dr. Clark and Mr. McCallum, who supported the prosecution, were willing to withdraw the case providing the work of cleansing the premises was put in hand without any loss of time, the contract for the work having been made before the summons was issued. Mr. F. Maitland who represented the defendant firm, said that China New Year inter- føred with the carrying out of the work. The notice from the Sanitary Board did not reach him and the tenders for the work were on his desk before he was served with the summons.
He
had no intention of evading responsibility. The Magistrate said he was satisfied there had been neglect of the sanitary duties, and it was of the utmost inportance that the sanitary laws should be properly carried out. The other day he mentioned that there was a disposition on the part of landlords to shirk their responsi- bility, but he was glad to find that that was not the case in the present instance. The fine
of $40 would be reduced to one of $20.
1
The Hongkong Volunteer Corps marched to the Polo Ground on Saturday afternoon, 12th February, and went through some interesting field movements. Major Sir John Carrington, Commandant, was engaged in his legal duties until twenty-five minutes to five, but by five o'clock he W&5 on the ground in uniform and he marched back to headquarters with the Corps. After being dis- missed the Field Battery men held a meeting in the Institute and - it was practically unanimously resolved to recommend that in future periodical examinations be held for pro- motions to all non-commissioned ranks, and that the Commandant be asked to make selections for such promotions from those men who were thoroughly qualified after examination. This is certainly a step in the right direction. At present a vacancy in the bombadier ranks is filled by election amongst the men, and in the ordinary course of events the bombadier is promoted by seniority to corporal and then to sergeant although he might have put in only the minimum number of drills and be quite in- competent in his duties. It is to avoid this incongruity that the resolution was passed on Saturday.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
From Straits papers received on 16th Feb. we note that Mr. Ingpen, of the West Yorkshire Regiment, who was damaged in the recent football match at Kuala Lumpor, was recover- ing and was able to take a drive and even to hobble about.
H.M.S. Powerful gave the weekly entertainment On Tuesday evening, 15th Feb., the men of
Kowloon Institute. in connection with the Seamen's Mission in the was a long and most interesting one,
The programme, which was greatly appreciated by the large audience pro. sent, who showed their appreciation by numerous of war and merchant ships besides numerous There were 140 seamen from the men
soldiers and civilians-the largest audience yet at any of the weekly entertainments. The Mis- sion launch Dayspring was busy till nearly 11.30 p.m. returning the men to their ships.
encores,
Shortly after nine o'clock on Friday night, 11th February, a fire broke out on the premises of the Eastern Clock Manufactur- ing Company, Bullock Lane. The fire, which
broke out on the first floor at the rear of the premises, was discovered by a China- man, whose shouts of " tire" were heard in No. 7 Police Station. A despatch box was at once got out, the alarm was given to the Central firemen, and in a very short time Deputy Super- intendent Howe and a number of men were soon on the spot. The fire was fortunately not serious and it was extinguished soon after the arrival of the Brigade. The damage was probably not very great.
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Between Saturday night and Sunday morning last a robbery took place at the house of Mr. G. C. Hayward, 6, Knutsford Terrace, Kowloon, a large number of silver articles, most of them cups won at regattas, etc., being stolen. The thief appears to have been well acquainted with the house.
At a special meeting of the Sanitary Board held on 15th February it was resolved to declare No. 4 Health District an area infected with smallpox. There were 48 cases of smallpox last week and most of them came from No. 4 district. The effect of the resolution is that house to house visitations can be made and steps taken for the proper cleansing of unwholesome premises. It was also resolved to open a free vaccination station in No. 4 district and at the Tung Wa Hospital, and to appoint an assistant sanitary inspector.
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs of the We have to acknowledge receipt from the Medical Reports for the half-year ended 30th September, 1896. The ports covered are New- chwang, Chefoo, Chungking, Hankow, Wuhu, Wenchow, and Lungchow. Dr. E. W. von Tunzelmano's report on Chefoo is especially interesting, as the writer claims to have dif-
ferentiated a non-malarial remittent fever which
has hitherto been confounded with typhoid, and he describes two new blood parasites which he found associated with the disease. The report is a valuable contribution to science.
MISCELLANEOUS,
We have to acknowledge receipt of the List of Chinese Lighthouses, Light vessels, Buoys, Maritime Customs. and Beacons for 1898, issued by the Imperial
Regarding the United States Consulate at Hongkong the Secretary of State said, under date of 13th November, 1897, in his annual message to congress:-" Rank raised from Con- sulate to Consulate-General. Other countries kong, and it is thought that our representative are represented by Consuls-General at Hong- there should bear that rank. The port is one of the great ports of the world, and American in- terests are extensive and capable of expansion," sag, belonging to the same company.
It will probably be some two or three months before officially recognizing Mr. Rounsevelle Wild- the Queen's exequatur will arrive man's new rank.
A sad occurrence took place on board the N.D. L. steamer Darmstadt on the passage down from Shanghai. About seven o'clock on Satur. day evening, 12th Feb., Captain White, one of the passengers, suddenly jumped over the rail aft, in full view of several of the other passengers. The ship was at once stopped, a boat lowered, and search made for the unfortunate man, but with out result. The deceased had given no previous indication of insanity or of any intention to commit suicide, and nothing is known as to his
motive. Captain White, who leaves a widow and family residing in England, had been for several years employed in different capacities in the China coasting trade.
A gentleman who was recently, in Canton in connection with the celebration of the marriage of a son of Mr. Li Sing, merchant, Hongkong. writes stating that a most daring armed attack took place in the twelfth ward of Canton on the 11th inst. It should be first mentioned that about six hundred guests, including about two hundred mandarins, were present at the wedding celebration, which lasted four days, and as a precaution eighteen braves armed with carbines and revolvers were stationed at the entrance to the mansion where the festivities were held, while a police station is situated not fifty yards away. Yet, in spite of these precautions, there was an armed attack in the immediate neigh bourhood and only ten houses away. Three rob- bers entered a family house, gagged the inmates, and took away $2,000 worth of money, jewellery, and clothing. The inmates were powerless to give an alarin and when the robbers had got all they could carry away they decamped by the back entrance. When the marriage guests heard of the robbery they did all they could to capture the thieves by directing the pursuit, but unfortunately no arrests were made. Armed attacks in Canton city are of almost daily oc- currence just now. On the morning of the 11th inst. a mandarin was stopped in his chair and a scent bottle, wrapped in a piece of paper, was presented at his head. The mandarin was very frightened and thought the scent bottle was a revolver, and so he submitted to being stripped of his official robes and some money.
Whilst leaving Nagasaki on the 8th February the Yiksang collided with the Russian gun- boat Zubiaka, lying at her moorings. It would seem that the former vessel in turning made rather a large circuit, passing close over to the
She then proceeded up the harbour, heading in the direction of the Russian gunboat. When Yiksang suddenly stopped, owing, it is thought, within a short distance of the latter, the
to an accident to her steering gear, and drifted into the gun-vessel, carrying away a boat from the davits and injuring the vessel's side. The Yuksang sustained no damage and after a short time continued her journey. A claim for damages to the extent of $1,500 has been lodged by the Russian Cousul with Messrs. Browne & Co., the local agents for Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., the owners of the steamer.—— Nagasaki Press.
In the United States Consular Court at Shanghai on the 10th February Thomas Gay, an able seaman on the American ship Luzon, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to set the ship on fire. He said:"I went aboard the ship on Tuesday night, and I went into the fok'sle. I went to my bunk and took out an old pair of drawers and soaked them in kerosine, set them on fire, and dropped them down the ventilator." Having committed the act he said he felt sorry for it, and he woke the men up. He had not been thinking about setting the ship on fire before, and he did not know what came over him. He wanted to get away from the ship. The court found the prisoner guilty of arson in the first degree and he was sentenced to two years' penalservitade.
The Avenir du Tonkin says:- -We stated in our last number that the Nhatrang Institute was to be reorganised. From information since received we learn that it is the Saigon Institute and not that of Nhatrang that requires reorganisa- tion. A short time ago the English papers stated that an Englishman, a Commissioner of the Chinese Customs, having been bitten by a dog, went to Saigon to receive hydrophobia inoculation. He then considered himself safe, when suddenly and without any new bite hydrophobia appeared, and he died of that malady. The Saigon hydrophobia vaccine is there- fore valueless, like the smallpox vaccine we receive from Cochin-China. It is known that
four unsuccessful attempts have recently been made to vaccinate the Governor-General's child with this lymph. A reorganisation of the Saigon Institute is therefore necessary, and it is either to be reorganised as it exists or to be transferred to Nhatrang. Dr. Yersin will assume the direction of the amalgamated service.