the
month
Page
THE HỐNGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
DARING PIRACY CASE:
th. | 432,000, STÔLE the present out nchu troops and Boxers in Tai gentry, literati and wealthy the city as a premeditated revenge Tuan, etc., against those who have denounced him and his party The letters above quoted do not, however, say whether the outrages began after the departure of the Court for Hsian or before,
of
TIENTSIN ITEMS. From the Peking and Tientsin Times of the 6th inst, we take the following items
Mr. C. W. Campbell took over charge for・・ the present of H.B.M's Consulate General on the 1st inst. He is still suffering from the effects of his wound. Mr. Kinder, accompanied by Mr. Cor, left for Shanghaikwan with the troops on the 2nd inst, to inspect and report on the railway from that point, we believe Mr.
FRENCH LAUNCH- LLED
A daring case of piracy was reporte police on Sunday morning, 14th inst., by Mesere Sculfort and Co., of Hongkong, the owners of the Nau Chau, a steam launch flying the French flag and lying between Hongkong and Kwah- chatwan.
toba: 20-1000.
THE REGULATIONS AS TO BACK YARDS.
the reg
last
An interesting ca. land on the 12th inst. tions as to back yar
Chuk-yad, the owner of hou Staunton Street. It appe the houses in question- Health Ordinance, the certified as being in ac yards, etc., having been complied with. September an application · came befo exempted from the condition as to back-yards, and Sanitary Board asking that the houses might
the Secretary to the Board replied that the Beard seeing that they had already been passed had decided to accept the houses be complying with the Ordinance. The application was se- companied by a plan, and Mr. Bowley, on behalf of the prosecntion, contended that this plan did not lead the Board to conclude that any alterations were to be effected. Mr. Wilkinson, hand, that the plan showed that the defendant wished to extend his kitchens over the back- yards and that in view of the reply he received from the Secretary to the Sanitary Board he view of the points raised Mr. Haseland decided was justified in going on with the work. In to adjourn the case until Wednesday noon in order that the whole matter might be thoroughly argued.
It seems that she left, Kwanchanwan at five o'clock on the morning of the 12th inst, with the passengers (six of whom turned out to be pirates) ties and 12 boxes of specie containing $32,000. and a cargo of cotton yarn and other commodi
At 12.30 a.m. on the 13th inst., when at a The crew numbered 18 men and boys. placed called Mong Chan, which is 112.25 east and 20.40 north on the chart, two of the passengers who had come on board with a box containing four carpenters axes, professing to be car penters, attacked the compradore, the assistant compradore, and the cook, as they were sleeping by the British Military Authorities at them with their axes. At the same time three Tientsin.—We believe the rice that was expected of the other passengers rushed on to the bridge from the South is not obtainable, as Sheng and made an onslaught upon the captain (a Taotai declines to negotiate tribute rice. This Chinaman), the pilot, the steersman, and will make the supply up here very limited this sailor. The sailor closed with one of the assai- winter unless some other arrangements are lants, wrested an axe from him, and having made. We hear that Tuan seized the Imperial struck him a blow, threw him overboard. The seal, and none of the Edicts being issued there: sailor was subsequently found shot dead. The fore bear the Imperial signet. Another letter captain and the others who were on the bridge has arrived here from the Green family which were pressed forward, and the steersman was states that in consequence of a communication thrown into the sea. Neither he nor the pirate from Li Hung-chang the Chinese were arrang whom the sailor pitched into the water were ing to take them to Peking, also the party from seen afterwards, and in all probability both were Chengting-fu. We hope this is really the case. drowned. The captain and others having been A correspondent writes to our contempora- secured in the hatch forward, the pirates got ry:The proclamations of Viceroy Li Hung: possession of four loaded Winchesters and a chang are widely posted up in Paotingiu and revolver and turned their attention to the ene neighbourhood. In these proclamations it is gine-room. The firemen, having heard the asserted that peace has been made with the scuffling, were coming on deck when they were foreigners who have promised to all withdraw met with a volley, one of them, named Leung to the ports, that Christians are all to recant Tai Yan, being shot dead. Having overpowered or suffor death and confiscation of property, the engine-room crew, the pirates forced the but that Boxers are to be apprehended and kill-engineer to remove the eccentric rods from Fed!!
Accordingly, Boxers are being seized in the reversing gear of the engine, to run numbers and put to death.
the water out of the boiler, and to sever the steering chain. There is also a cut in the con- engine-room, this having apparently been done necting rod of the steering chain opposite the with a chisel with the object of disabling the steering gear. The part of the machinery thus removed was thrown overboard, this being done When the Imperial cortège was proceeding on following the pirates on their leaving the launch. with the object of preventing the crew from its way to our new capital, Hsian, and while passing through, this morning, the village of crowded with men came alongside, the men At about this time a junk which was Yian, district of Kiashiu, Shanai province, a speaking Cantonese and the Sanui dialect certain madman, named Kuo Têng-yuan, who Shots were fired from the junk at the two styled himself a Boxer Chief, suddenly rushed boats hanging on the davits, and being riddled upon the Imperial cortège with strange lang-with bullets the boats were rendered useless. nage and in strange attire (meaning thereby "with cries of vengeance and weapons on per-
Preis das, we hear, been engaged as an inter- in the cabin, inflicting serious injuries upon for the defendant, contended, on the
IMPERIAL DECREE. The following decree issued on the 4th inst., when the Imperial party was en route to Hsian fu, relates the attempt on the Empress Dowag- er's life of which we have already been informed by telegraph
son
Translator), thereby disturbing our line of progress (that is to say, there was an attemptat assassination-Translator). The said Kuo Tang yuan was therefore summarily executed on the spot without trial. As for Chên, magistrate of the said district of Kinshin, who has been guilty of instigating and encouraging the Box- ers, he is hereby forthwith cashiered and dismîs- sed for ever from the public service,
evidently gone away in the junk by then, the At 5 a.m. on the 13th inst. the pirates, having engine-room crew came on deck. They released the men who had been secured in the hatch forward, removing some long spikes with which the hatch had been fastened down, and the anchor, and then turned their attention to the engine. The latter was not disabled totally, and the launch was able to proceed slowly on her way to Hongkong.
It was found that the pirates had made a fine The translator of the above in the N.-O. Daily haul, having gone away with all the specie, four News, to which we are indebted for the trans- Winchester rifles and a revolver, a cask of lation, says:--In other words, since the above liqueur brandy, an aneroid, a binocular, and named magistrate of Kinshiu, in Shansi, has clothing, jewelry, and money taken from the been cashiered and dismissed for ever, for insti- crew valued at $1,200. The compradore was gating and encouraging Boxers, question may relieved of $560, four watches, and some cloth well be asked what must therefore be the punishing the assistant compradore $200 and some ment due those who are so much higher in rank clothing; the pilot $47 and clothing; and other than he and who were more guilty of instigating members of the crew were also stripped of their and encouraging the Boxers at Peking and in belongings. Chihli ? Furthermore, the summary decapita- tion of the would-be assassin of the Empress Dowager is very strange, as the Chinese law demands that the person guilty of “disturbing the line of progress of the Imperial cortège
uld be handed over to the Minister presiding. ver the Board of Punishments for trial, and and guilty of the misdemeanour he is booed 100 blows and exiled 3,000 li The summary decapitation of trial of any must itself
when
which later new
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dead bodies were removed. The wounded men On the launch arriving in Hongkong the two declined to go to Hospital, preferring to go to the houses of their friends.
|
It is nitude as this took place in this locality. Every some time since a piracy of such a mag- precaution seems to have been Kwangchanwan to prevent any bad char
inken from taking passage. The men who the carpenter a box on board were appa harmless individuals, there being nothing shot them to lead anyone to conclude that not what they represented themselves to
other
uestion
Mr. Wilkinson admitted that the back-yards On the resumption of the case on the 17th inst., in question had been blocked up, but stated that it had been lawfully done in virtue of a writter permission to do so received by the defendant' contractor from the Secretary of the Sanitary Board. He said that the houses in Street and Graham Street, and the other on were two corner houses, one abutting on Staunton Staunton Street and Peel Street. - The building of the houses was commenced last year, the original plans showing no back-yards to these two houses. They were completed according to such plans in April last, but on the usual certificate being applied for to the Sanitary Board, the Defendant was refused such cer-
yards in accordance with the provisions of Or- the back part of the premises and made back- tificate unless he pulled down a portion of
dinance No. 34 of 1899, which was about to come into force. The Defendant accordingly did what was required. A few months afterwards, having permission to owners of other corner houses heard that the Sanitary Board had been giving to dispense with back-yards, the Defendant's wrote the following letter to Dr. Clark and sent Contractor, at the request of the Defendant, with its plan showing the whole of the space at the back of these two houses covered by kitchens:
72, Hollywood Road, Hongkong, September 16th, 1900.
To Dr. F. W. Clark.
write
for
Dear Sir, I beg most respectfully to ask for a permission of exempti opening a back yard in houses Nos. 29 and tioned houses, being one side on the border of 41, Staunton Street, owing to the above men-
the cross street about 24 feet wide, and having windows opened facing to the street to com municate with the fresh air. Herewith find the plan of the above mentioned houses by which kind enough if your Honour wil permission for the exemption from opening you will get the idea more plainly. It will be
grant me back-yard in houses No. 29 and 49, Staunton Street, at your earliest convenience honour to be Sir, your most obedient ser -(ed.), Tx CHI Three days later the following reply was sent and with it the plan was by the Acting Secretary of the Sanitary Board
"Sanitary Board Offce, 10t! tember 1900,
XOS. 29 AND 41.-
tember, applying for
Bir,In reply to you
yards for the abov ou that the
(((1.) G. A