-
172
The third and fourth mile also presented several difficulties.
i
I have been personally over the whole trace on foot, parts of it two or three times.
Mr. Hughes sends in a weekly report of his progress.
In addition to the traverse and longitudinal section of the trace he has to take at least 52 cross sections in every mile, to enable the calculation of earth and rock to be made and has also to make enlarged plans of all large stream cross- ings.
In his report of Feb. 12th, he had completed the survey of the fifth mile.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
I have just received the report, dated Feb. 26th, reporting the completion of the sixth mile, and the compass survey and levels for section of seventh mile, which is beyond Stanley.
He informs me that he hopes to finish the eighth mile by the end of next week, which will bring the trace to the Gap beyond Stauley above Repulse Bay.
I expect he will easily get to Aberdeen in March and possibly the whole trace round Mount Davis to Kennedy Town may be com- pleted in April.
A rough, but passable foot-path, is being cut along the trace as I inspect and pass it as approved.
THE SECRET OF THE BRITISHI EMPIRE.
AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.
The great secret of the British Empire was divulged in the Chamber of Commerce Room at the City Hall on Saturday after- noon 26th Feb., to the members of the Hongkong Odd Volumes Society by Mr. W. V. Drummond, who told them in a most entertaining manner what had led to the establishment of the British Empire and what will always continue to keep it intact. There was a very large, influential, and most interested audience.
His Excellency the Acting Governor, Major- General Wilsone Black, C.B., presided and in calling upon the lecturer jocularly remarked that he hoped Mr. Drummond would not let the secret of our success be too broadly known, because we did not want to give the other keen competitors too much of a "tip."
| March 5, 1898. British law was administered, was the quality which had stood the test of the keenest criticism and was fo-day the brightest jewel in the Crown of Britain. (Applause) That quality was of the highest importance. Did they think that to-day the British nation could hold the teeming population of India, which was counted by hundreds of millions, if it were not for the innate feeling of confidence and justice in the British nation that exists throughout the country? (Applause.) Where the English flag flies, where the English rule goes, there went with it a body of administrators of British law, which was tempered and adapted to the wants and feelings of the various. races, and it was that which had such an ex- traordinary success all over the world. (Ap- plause.) That that law was practicable was proved by the simple fact that it enabled us to hold India--putting aside all other of our pos- sessions-with the minimum of force, and we certainly could not do so if the races of the Mr. Drummond, who was received with hearty land had no confidence in our justice and in our applause, prefaced his lecture with a few words impartiality (Applause.) Speaking of the of a personal nature. Perhaps they thought he mighty and vast importance of the Judicial was rather audacious to consent to talk to them, Committee of the Privy Council Mr. Drum- but he asked them to remember that he was a mond pointed out the confidence engendered by resident of Hongkong upwards of a quarter of a that body. For example, a litigant took his century ago, and he had frequently come down case from Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras to from Shanghai since; so that he ought to be the Privy Council. That meant that the man put in a somewhat different character from that who was appealing to the Privy Council was born of a mere casual visitor. He then told them of an Indian race and had probably never been a little story from which he asked them to ex- out of India in his life. He had seen English- tract the moral. A young lady undertook to men working in his country, and that was all, give a lecture, but as she had been guilty of He sent his case to Eugland thousands of miles nothing like that before she asked a professor who off and he left it to be managed there by Eug- visited her at her father's house to give her an lish lawyers at great expense. The case was idea of how to carry out her undertaking. She taken before Lulf a dozen elderly gentlemen asked if it would be better to write the lecture sitting in a dingy room in London, and it was and read it, or learn it by heart, or ahat. confided to their care with the utmost confidence There is just one thing to do," replied the that what was done would be honest and true. professor. Go to your room and saturate your- When he used the word Justice" he included self through and through with your subject, in it everything we knew. of freedom. Justice 'forget everything else, and you are bound to
succeed." The young lady looked up with horror freedom itself. Justice comprised everything was a higher thing and a greater word than
at the professor and exclaimed. "But my sub- that was comprised in the word freedom, and ject is Drink!" The moral was the word "satu something more. Justice, viewed in that sense, rate." The lecturer's mind was saturated with might fairly be called the great autiseptic of his subject, and he had given much attention to British rule. British rule necessarily wounded it. The questions regarding the British Em- some people, but the wounds were no sooner pire were grouped into two classes-(1). How made than they were healed. We could not the British Empire was won and (2), Low it inssibly govern without doing some injury to kept. He had to deal with the second branel. of the subject, but he would first of all like to recommend them to read a book entitled, "Deeds that won the Empire," by the Rev. W. H. Pritchett, a clergyman in Australia. He had nev. r read the deeds that won the Empire put into such magnificent language. One could not read any single page without a lump rising in 1,093.00 his throat and a moist feeling about the eyeslutely necessary to carry civilization into the
The calculation of the quantities of work and the preparation of the estimate will occupy two or three weeks.
When the plans and estimate are complete, the construction of the road may be divided into three or more sections as may seem desirable, tenders invited, and if satisfactory contractors can be found, work commenced at both ends, and one or more points between the termini.
R. D. ORMSBY,
This report having been read, a question was asked how wide it was intended that the pro- posed road should be.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied that it was intended to make a cut of 18 feet in the solid and that would make the road
surface at least 20 feet.
A question was also asked whether it was intended to commence the road at both ends.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied that when the survey was completed it was hoped to be able to commence at either end.
The CHAIRMAN then laid upon the table the following account.—
THE DIAMOND JUBILEE COMMITTEE IN ACCOUNT WITH T. JACKSON, HON. TREASURER.
To steam launch procession on Jubilee night To celebration at Happy Valley on Jubilee day To illuminations and fireworks
To Flower show
To curio show.
To entertainment of H.M. sailors and soldiers
and Hongkong police on Jubilee day.
To entertainment of inmates of charitable in-
stitutions on Jubilee day..
+
To expenses in connection with laying the foundation stone of the Jubilee Hospital and Road
To expenses of Jubilee Gymkhana.
To advertising and printing..
To address to Her Majesty the Queen
To Chinese addresses to H.E. the Governor
andolonial Secretary..
To sundries.
To balance
To bands.
To gratuities
To stationery and postage
By amount of foreign subscriptions per lists.. By amount of Chinese subscriptions per lists By received from Hongkong Government. By interest from Bank
$3,04.35 3,009.17 2,132.41 2,091.54 311.42
426.00
351.69 629.33 595.93 200.00 280.00
31.91 293.00
207.10
*
of which no-one would be ashamed. Passing to the subject of his lecture-the way in which the Empire is kept-Mr. Drummond remarked that it was an old saying that it was easier to make money than to keep it. With the Empire it was the same. The quality that had served in the world's history to build up an Empire had often failed to keep that Empire together; but that was where the great Empire of Britain shone couspicuously amongst the Empires that bad preceded it; it was the cementing quality that 6.51 kept it together, that maintained it intact, and 184,381.38 made it the great power it is to-day. The name of that quality—the secret-was a very peculiar 199,741.94
one and a very important one, and one that per- haps they did not know of before. He asked them $58,625.84 40,206.44
two questions: Could they name in their own 98,892.28 minds any great principle or quality which had 1,957.38 worked round on every side, in every part of the British Empire, and which was peculiarly $199,741.94 characteristic of the British Empire-a quality which was exercised every day by the British Empire more conspicuously than any other Did they know of any Institution existing to-day in the British Empire which carrying that principle into actual daily work, which was exercising a great influence on the lives and fortuues of the British people all over the globe? The principle was Justice; the Institution was what was known by lawyers as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. There was the secret. Consider those two things-Justice, and Justice administered by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Justice which was carried all over the whole world, not only in British possessions, but in other countries besides where
DEATH OF THE TAI-WO -KUN, Telegraphic news was received at Shanghai on the 26th February from Seoul of the death of the truculent and grimly humorous old con- spirator, the Tai-wön-kun, the father of the present Emperor of Korea, only a little while after the death of his wife. His death will distinctly diminish the interest of the news from the peninsula; for he was never long at rest, and might always be relied on to provide some new sensation, alone or in company with any- one whom he could induce to join him in a coup d'état of some kind.
was
That
others. We brought the Paz Britannica and we insisted upon peace, and that fact alone was an injury to some people. Not to have a war was a grievance amongst some races. was of course an extreme case, but there were many other cases in which we were obliged to tread on their feelings. We had to enforce sanitary laws and other laws which were abso-
land. We endeavoured to be strictly just between man and man and to give each race equal chance with one another. (Applause.) He heard the other day a conversation between an Englishman and a citizen of unother nation- ality. "The citizen of another nationality said,
..
You Britishers seem to try to act on the principle, Do unto others as you would they should do to you? Well, that is too long for us. We cut it short, as we do most things. We say Do others as you would expect them to do you." (Laughter). There they had the two sides of the question in a nut-shell. Each country_chooses which of these principles it likes. He did not pretend to say that the British rule was perfect; the tendency was to improve it and make things better and bettor; but they could stand before a higher test than had ever been demanded by any race in the world. (Applause.) Passing to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and its special |-work Mr. Drummond remarked that it furnished one of the most striking thoughts, which he asked them to consider in the secret he undertook to disclose to them. The work of the Privy Council was extraor- dinary. Let then take a sketch map of the world without any colour upon it and just make red every bit of the earth's surface which was governed by and subject to the jurisdiction of the Privy Council in London, and the result would be astounding to them. It was the most unique thing in history from the earliest time the world's history had been recorded up to the present moment, and there was nothing in the world to approach it. To that little room in London, where sat the six elderly gentle-