312 THE ALLEGED SHELL FISHING MONOPOLY,
The Hon. T. H. Whitehead writes:-I en- close copy of my letter of 18th inat to the Colonial Secretary and of the letter of same date addressed to me by certain fishermen. I shall be much obligad if you can find space for same in one of your early issues :-----
HON. T. H. WHITEHEAD TO COLONIAL SECRETARY,
Hongkong, 13th December, 1899. Dear Sir,--For the information of His Ex- cellency the Governor I beg to enclose herein oopy of a letter of yesterday's date received by me from certain fishermen in connection with the alleged permission granted by the Govern- ment to a firm named the Lee Hing Company to collect shells for the term of five years in and around Ping Chan Island, and a copy of the translation of a notice said to have been posted up on the island by the said Company.- Yours truly,
T. H. WHITEHEAD. The Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart,
C.M.G., Colonial Secretary,
THE FISHermen to THE HƠN, T. H. WHITEHRAD,
Hongkong, 12th December, 1899. To the Honourable T. H. Whitehead, Mem- ber of the Legislative Council of Hongkong,
&c. &c, &o., Present.
Sir,-We the undersigned fishermen beg most respectfully to bring to your notice the following facts and circumstances in connection with the dredging and collecting shells monopoly. We sincerely hope that you will be good enough as a Member of the Legia lative Council of this Colony to move the Govern- ment on the subject at the next meeting of the Legislative Council and ask the dovernment to cancel and abolish the alleged monopoly.
2.-That we have been dredging and collect ing shells in the waters of the Island of Ping- Chau and its vicinity for a great number of years before the said Island was leased by the Emperor of China to Great Britain.
3.-That we have paid no taxes or duties to the Chinese Government for collecting the shells in the waters of the aforesaid Island and in the vicinity thereof.
4.That we have solely and entirely depen. dent our living and the support of our families by dredging and collecting the shells.
5. As ngnal we recently went out to dredge and collect shells at the place before mentioned, but we were stopped from doing so by some people of the Ping-Chau Island.
JLE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
| monopoly of the Lee Hing Company so that we may resume our usual dredging operations in the place in question.
11.-We beg to enclose herewith a plan and translation of a notice posted up at Ping Chau Island by the Lee Hing Company showing the boundary lines, &o. Nobody is allowed to collect shells within the specified boundary.
12-Iu onclusion we beg you to pardon us or approaching you on the subject and we fncerely hope that you will on our behalf move the matter in question as it is of vital import- and maintenance of our families, and by your ance to our interest and to the future prospect doing so we shall feel extremely grateful-We have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servants,
Cheong Fong Chow, CHEONG SHUET, Yow SHIU CHEE, LEE YUEN.
Agents for and owners of Boats.
TRANSLATION OF NOTICE POSTED UP AT
PINGCHAU ISLAND BY THE LEE HING
COMPANY.
Lai Po and Leung Lai Tong of the Lee Hing Company, merchants, have obtained permission from the Government to collect shells for the term of 5 years.
The boundaries are as follows:-
The Northern Boundary-From the North of Pingchau-a straight line running up to the chimney of the Hung Hom Glass works.
The Southern Boundary-Chea Kung Muu. The Eastern Boundary—A straight line from the North East corner of Ma Wau.
The Western Boundary-Tai U Shan. Names of the fishing juuks.—Tanu Hing, Tai Hing, Shin Wo, Tang Wo, Tai Lee, PHO Wo, San Tak Shing, San Yau Lee, San ing.
We have received the following further cor- respondence on this subject:
Sir,-With reference to the correspondence in connection with the rights of fishermen at Ping Chau which appears in to-day's issue of the Hongkong Daily Press, I am directed by the Honourable Colonial Secretary to inform you that the following reply has been sent this day to the Honourable T. H: Whitehead's letter of the 13th instaut.-I have the honour to be, sir, your most o'edient servant.
R. F. JOHNSTON. Assistant Colonial Secretary. The Editor, Hongkong Daily Press.
Colonial Secretary's Office. Hongkong, 15th December, 1899. Sir, I am directed to acknowledge the re- ceipt of your letter of the 13th instant, enclos ing a copy of a letter received by you from certain fishermen in connection with the colleo- tion of shells at the island of Ping-Chau.
6-The people who stopped our dredging operations are the employées of the alleged monopoly. The name of the alleged monopoly is Lee Hing Company. These employées in. formed us that the aforesaid Company has the exclusive rights and privileges for collecting the shells and unless we pay them or to the said Lee Hing Company a sum of one candareen per picul for the same they would seize and confis cate our junks and they will also arrest and put The Honourable T. H. Whitehead. us in prison.
7. On being informed of this we forthwith petitioned the Government on the subject and asked for the abolition and cancella'ion of the alleged monopoly.
8.The petition in question was forwarded to His Excellency the Governor through the Honourable the Registrar-General, but we have received no satisfactory results or answer on the subject.
The statement in the 8th paragraph of that letter, that no answer was given to the petition of the fishermen. is untrue. I have,.eto,
J. H. STEWARt Lockhart, Colonial Secretary.
LOSS OF THE STEAMER „ST. HELENS."
Our Saigon correspondent sends us the fol lowing translation from the local paper Opinion of an account of the wreck of the British steamer St. Helens :-
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The steamer St. Helens, of 3,994 tons register, 9.-We therefore most humbly beg you to belonging to the European Petroleum Co., lay these facts before His Excellency the Gov. Limited, was on a voyage from Hongkong to ernor at the next meeting of th Legislative Singapore when on the night of the 14t Connell and move for the cancellation and November, during heavy weather and with a abolition of the alleged monopoly in question bigh ses running, she struck the Bombay in order that we may resume our usual avoca- Rock on the Paracels, about 420 miles from tions without being interfered with by the em- Cape St. James. When it was seen that the ployees or members of the said Les Hing Com- | damage was too great to be repaired the pany
crew, consisting of six Europeans and forty. 10. In the event of His Excellency the Go-five Chinese, decided to abandon the ship. vernor refusing to abolish or cancel the alleged monopoly we beg His Excellency to entertain sour proposals as follows —
(a) To put up the said monopoly for sale by
public tender,
(6) If there is no existing law to put up for sale by public tender then we beg you to urge upon the Government to cancel the allegal
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[December 23, 1899.
Fifteen days of terrible sufforing 1 or thirst, and the heat were experienced, they arrived at Cape St. James, TWO One boat with five Chinese, survivors will be sent to Singapore by opportunity.
THE LEKIN QUESTION AT CANTON,
With reference to the proposal that the lekin tax in Kwangtung should be. farmed by the Seventy-two Guilds jointly, a Canton corres- Silk Mercers' Guild, and Timber Merchants' pondent informs us that the Banker's Guild, Guild have refused to fall in with the arrange-
ment
They say they will pay the amount of lekin adjudged to be due by their own Guilds, bat they decline to accept any responsibility for the other Guilds. It is believed therefore that the proposal will fall through, owing to this lack of quanimity. One feature of the original proposal was that the whole Seventy. two Guilds should be represented by four rea- peotable and wealthy merchants.
PIRACY IN CANTON WATEKS.
A Canton correspondent sends us the follow. ing instances of recent piracies :-
On the 13th inst. a Suntak boat laden with a cargo of rattan and carrying passengers was about to start for Kongmun. Pirates had ascertained that there were several hundred dollars in the boat, and four of them went on board as passengers. The captain having got wind of the character of these passengers asked them to leave. They, however, refused to go, and, producing revolvers and pointing them at the crew compelled them to get ready to start. The alarm was raised, some people on shore sounded gongs, and a big orowd having collected, the pirates were about to be seized. They, however, slipped the ropes by which the boat was moored to the jetty and shoved off. They were pursued by several small boats, and just at this time. steam-launch named the Hung Wing, having a Kong- mun boat in tow, arrived, and the people on shore shouted out to her to pursue the pirates. The crew, being afraid of the ven-ˆ geance of the pirates, at first hesitated, but upon the shore people threatening them and commencing to fire upon them, they took up the chase. Another steam-launch, the Lee Yik, I also arrived at this time, and she too joined in the pursuit. One pirate was killed, another jumped into the water, and the rest escaped.
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On the 12th iust, a boat named the Kul Okan, from Saichew to Canton, was attacked about Wongkwakok, by pirates who had boarded her as passengers, and a large amount of booty was carried away.
About the same time another boat from Sun. tak to Canton was attacked in mid-voyage and between two and three thousand dollars worth of property was stolen.
HONGKONG BENEVOLENT
SOCIETY,
A general meeting of the Hongkong Be- nevolent Society was held in the City Hall on Wednesday at noon. Sir Thomas Jackson sot- ed as Chairman, and there were also present the Rev. G. F. France, Captain G. C. Anderson, and Dr. J. M. Atkinson, and the members of the committee, namely, Mrs. Hawkins (Prosi» dent), Mrs. Macgregor Forbes (Secretary), Mrs. Hoare, Mrs. Siebe. Mrs. Ritchie, Mrs. Douglas Jones, Mrs. May, Mrs. Atkinson, Miss Ander- Mrs. Goodman, Mrs. Sachse, and Mrs. Dickson.
son,
Sir THOMAS JACKSON, in submitting the ac- counts and report, said the balance from last year was $1,649-97, and the following were the receipts for the year:-Donations and subscrip- tions $1,390 ; smoking concert club $50 ; Gran- sille Sharp legacy, $500; amounts refunded, 820-60; interest, $47.53; total (with balanos from For five days they rems ned in the neigh. Inst year), 83,644-25. The items on the expendi- ture side were-Donations and relief of cases bourhood, hoping to be picked up by some vessel, but nothing coming in sight they re- $1276·10; printing and advertising, $30-05, and turned to the wreck, which was gradually but shroff's wages $15, leaving a balance of $2,336-95 slowly sinking. They remained on board eight to carry forward. In 1888 the donations days, when the captain, seeing that the vessel and subscriptions amounted to 31,137:89, and was about to disappear, put all the water and $2,057-88 was expended in donations and the provisions he could collect into the boats and left. | relief of cases. The report ww
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