A BOGUS SCARCITY OF RICE AT
SHANGHAI, ··
Shanghai, 30th June. The fears that have been current lately that the stock of rice in Shanghai was inadequate to the coming demand, induced a number of pro- minent Chinese merchants to concert measures with a foreign firm for the importation of rice from the South. Before settling, however, it was defermined to make a thorough investiga- tion of the stock of rice in Shanghai, and this was done on Sunday last. The result is that it turns out that there is thirty days' stook in the hands of the rice merchants, wholesale and retail; while in godowns in the native city there is a stock of 200,000 large piculs, or forty days' supply, belonging to a prominent local official who bought it before the recent rise and is holding it for a large profit, which he expects to make if the scare can be kept up. There is thus seventy days' supply in Shanghai, and there are large supplies at some of the river ports and in the central provinces, without drawing on which, however, and this the officials are doing all they can to prevent; the stock here is amply sufficient until the new crop comes to market,-N. C. Daily News.
JAPAN AND HAWAII.
Tokyo, 24th June, It is reported that the Japanese Government has abandoned its protest against the annexation of Hawaii. The Government is satisfied if the rights already secured by Japan in Hawaii will not be disturbed. On the Annexation Bill being passed by the U.S. Lower House, the Japanese Minister at Washington was instructed to negotiate with the U.S. Government on those lines, and the U.S. Government is reported to have no special objection to meeting Japan's wishes in that respect.-Kobe Chronicle.
THE KOBE POLICE AND THE COOLIE TROUBLES
The Kobe Shimbun states that on the 22nd inst. the Hyogo and Toba police sammoned the presidents, managers and masters of various companies, jinrikisha stations, coolie stations and barber shops, having men in their employ in the districts mentioned, and requested them to advise the people under their charge not to ase abusive language towards foreigners, nor to walk insufficiently clothed in the streets nor to be guilty of obscenity in language or in any other way. It is added that offenders against these regulations will be rigorously punished.— Chronicle.
"PROFESSOR" RICHARD.
The Japan Herald learns that "Professor' Richard sailed by the Arizona on Saturday last, under the name of Mr. Robinson, accompanied by his wife, who, throughout her talented husband's brief sojourn in Japan, stayed at Wright's Hotel under the same name-with her husband's baggage. It seems, says the Yokohama journal, that the " Professor" has improved the shining hour by victimising several Japanese for large amounts. His fees, of course, were always paid in advance-a most convenient arrangement for the "Professor." In one authenticated instance he undertook to cure a guileless native of heart disease. He assured his patient, however, that the cure would occupy two months, and that yen 500 must be paid in advance. Strangely enough he got the money, but we have not heard that his patient derived any material benefit from the Pro
fessor's" electrical treatment. At least one foreigner was duped to the amount of yen 200. Undeniably "Professor" Richard must have found his visit to Japan profitable.
THE HONGKONG WEELY PRESS AND
CANTON NOTES.
[FROM THE CHUNG NGOI SAN PO” The gunboats Nganchin, Kwonglee, Taichai Tsanto, Kungmo, and Tangkung have been sent to the rebellious districts in Kwangsi together with one thousand soldiers from Canton and six hundred soldiers from Lukfung. The situation is very serious and all business is at a standstill. There are about six thousand rebels, who are forcing the natives to come to their side, threatening that otherwise their houses will be burnt and they will be killed, so that the force of the rebels is gradually increased.
On the 3rd instant the Assistant Magistrate of Namhoi with a number of Yamen runners made a raid on a fantan gambling house in Hachan-Toug, on the west side of Canton. When they arrived, the gamblers commenced to stone them, so that they dared not go near. The Magistrate, finding that the gamblers were so strong, was obliged to go back to his yamen on foot, his chair having been smashed by a shower of stones.
A gunboat named Teantung recently captured near Tiger Pass a junk which had on board five hundred and sixty rifles and thirty cases of gunpowder. The junk was abandoned by the smugglers before the gunboat came up.
Heavy rain and a strong gale were experienced in Canton on the 1st instant. All the small boats ran to places of safety. Two small boats were capsized, resulting in the drowning of two of their occupants.
A Chinese woman named Ma Yau-shi, a natu- ralised American subject, sued a Sansz named Chan Poi-yung for one hundred thousand dollars, being money lent to the defendant on a promis- sary note, in the court of the Magistrate of Pann. The Magistrate refused to try the case, as the evidence given by the plaintiff was only a photo of the promissory note, but the plaintiff was given leave to sne again if she can produce the real promissory note.
On the 2nd instant five criminals taken ont from the Punu prison were carried in baskets to Tin-tsz-ma-tau for decapitation.
HONGKONG.
There were 1,574 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 152 were Europeans. It is reported that H.M.S. Tweed is to be sent up to Wuchow, in view of the disturbed condition of Kwangsi.
At the Magistracy on 4th July two boatwomen were each fined $5, or 14 days, for refusing to accept a legal fare at Pedder's Wharf.
Branch post offices were opened on 5th July in the Wharf and Godown Company's premises at Kowloon and at No. 111, Praya West.
A couple of coolies were on 4th July fined $10, or a month, by Commander Hastings for cut. ting and damaging trees at Wanchai Gap.
A boilermaker who had stolen four coats and a cape from Victoria Barracks was on 4th July sentenced to four months' imprisonment for the offence.
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[July 9, 1898.
For assaulting the foreman of the Electric Light Works three coolies were on Thursday fined $15 each, and three witnesses whom they called $2 each for telling lies. Mr. Melbourne appeared for the prosecution.
Messrs. Lamke and Rogge kindly inform us that they received a telegram on 4tli July from Messrs. W. G. Hale & Co., of Saigon, to the effect that quarantine on all vessels arriving from Hongkong has been removed.
With this issue is given a plan, prepared by our correspondent with the American fleet, showing the positions of the American squad- ron, the sunken Spanish vessels, and the foreign men-of-war at Cavite and Manila.
A native passenger died of fever on board the Wingsang on the passage up from Hong- kong to Shanghai, and as there were several other like cases on board, the vessel was placed in quarantine. The nature of the disease was not precisely known, but Dr. Cox had all the suspicious cases under observation.
A proclamation by H.E. the Acting Governor is published in Saturday's Gazette revoking the proclamation of 9th April last by which Canton, Whampoa, and Macao were declared infected ports, the revocation taking effect from the 2nd July. The medical examination of vessels arriving from the ports named is therefore dis- continued.
The Secretary of the Punjom Mining Co., Limited, advises ns that he has received the following telegram giving the result of the June clean up:―The mill ran 25 days, crushing 2,100 tons, yielding 205 ozs. of smelted gold. The cyanide plant worked 10 days, treating 200 tons of tailings, yielding 73 ozs. of bullion, valued at £1 3s. 9d. per ounce.
The P. and O. steamer Ganges, whose loss by fire is recorded by Reuter, was until recently on the line from Bombay to China, but has. latterly been running between Bombay and Aden. The Company has had the proverbial succession of three accidents--the Aden, the China, and the Ganges, all totally lost. We' wish it a long immunity from similar disasters in the future.
At the Magistracy on Saturday Commander Hastings had before him two Chinamen who the harbour to prevent seizure. were charged with dumping 2 cwt. of coal into On Friday morning P.C. Hammond followed defendant boat in police pinuace No. 3, and observed them throw the coal overboard off Blackbead's Point.
One of them was fined $50 and the other $10. They were also sentenced to 42 days' imprison. Messrs. Blackhead and Co. ment for stealing a ton of coal belonging to
Some of the Indian constables in the Hong- kong Police Force have latterly expressed dis- satisfaction with the pay they have been receiv- ing, contending that in view of the dearness of food it is not sufficient. Their wages range from $12.50 to $15-50. On Friday 27 of them refused to accept their monthly pay unless promised an increase. This, of course, amounted An old woman who was hanging out some
to insubordination, and in the exercise of the clothes on the roof of a house in Pottinger powers vested in him by the Police Force Con- street on Thursday morning fell into the back-solidation Ordinance 14 of 1887, the Captain yard, being killed instantly.
Superintendent of Police (the Hon. F. H. May) sentenced them to seven days' imprisonment. Twenty-two of the offenders came from India last January.
The Pacific Mail steamer Peru has been char- tored by the U. S. Government and consequently there was to be no departure from San Francisco for China on the 28th June.
Among those who arrived by the English mail on Thursday were a number of Royal Engi- neers, who are en route for Weihaiwei, where they go for surveying purposes.
On Sunday four coolies who were far on in drink deposited a sick person in a public street. They were taken to the Police Station, and yesterday fined $3. It was not a plague case,
It is notified in the Gazette that the services of two nursing sisters for private nursing are now available for the public. Application has It is perfectly true that the Hongkong and to be made by the doctor in charge of the case. Shanghai Banking Corporation having settled We are informed by the Colonial Secretary's a loan to the Imperial Chinese Railways for Office that quarantine has been removed at the construction of the intended line from Saigon as regards arrivals from Hongkong, thanhaikuan to Newchwang, the Russian Chargé but vessels will be subject to medical inspection. d'Affaires sent to the Tsungli Yamên a formal While the steamer Esmeralda lay in the quaran- written protest against it. Does Lord Salisbury tine anchorage on Sunday night a boatwoman propose to sit down quietly and allow the approached within 30 yards of her without hav- 1ussian Chargé d'Affaires to annul a contracting a written permission from the medical between an English Bank and a Chinese Goy-officer, and for this offence she was yesterday ernment Department?-N. C. Daily News. fined $5.
The mystery with respect to Mr. Chamber- lain's statement in the House of Commons about Hongkong and the Contagious Diseases Ordinance is now solved. It was all duo to a mistake of Řenter. What Mr. Chamberlain said was that it had been decided not to sanction the re-introduction of the Ordinances. The important word “not' was omitted from the Hongkong telegram, which appears in the Times of Ceylon as follows: Mr. Cham- berlain in the House of Commons announced had been decided ( not) to that it sanction the re-enactment in Hongkong of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance; but he was conferring with the Governor of the Colony regarding other measures for checking venereal Had the latter part of the telegram disease." been sent here we would have been able to supply the missing word by the context, but what we were favoured with was simply the bald and misleading, statement that Mr. Cham-- berlain said it had been decided to sanction the reintroduction of the Ordinanceɛ.