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Dutch settlements of the Archipelago, and other; places, are constantly supplying the rebels with | money. Still, as their number is enormous and there are many black sheep in the fold, some, not having enough to live on, must turn pirates and banditti. Between this and last year what accounts for so much blackmailing and piracy on the West River, necessitating the British Government sending the gunboats Tweed and Sandpiper to watch and hunt the pirates down? Were they not men of the Triad and other secret societies, who now call themselves Reformers"? Kang Yu-wei is a reformer and a man of high intellectual attainments, but it is not to be supposed that he is in any way connected with the Rebellion. Indeed, he has disclaimed the association.
Here we have eleven gunboats of different nations lying at anchor opposite Shameen ready for action, and if the Triads or Rebels should come to jeopardise foreign life and commerce the Powers must use their big guns against them. If in 1851 the Taiping Rebellion, the greatest rebellion in China, could not succeed in subverting the Manchu Government, it is more than doubtful whether at the present epoch those who call themselves reformers can do so.
I fear that most of them are mere rob- bers and pirates, whose chief object to gain a living and whose custom up to now was to hide themselves in the mountain fastnesses and sally forth to attack unwary travellers.—Yours &c.
V.
WOODMAN, SPARE THOSE TREES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
hope, and I am sure most of the residents will echo the hope, that this crusade against Nature will be summarily stayed. We have not too much vegetation on this rocky island that we can calmly propose to exterminate it.—Yours, | etc..
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[November 3, 1900.
the place will be enough to prove this. Its utter unexpectedness, no doubt, partly accounts for this blemish in his statement." "Still, it is indeed refreshing to see the military authori- ties acting so ouergetically and thoroughly. If your correspondent will carefully read over the reports of recent Sanitary Board meetings, especially Dr. Clark's excerpts of certain ma- Irial reports, he will immediately and clearly see the absolute urgency for the wholesome clearance that is being offected.
SHANGHAI AUTUMN MEETING.
A LOVER OF NATURE. [Another correspondent, however, writes :- "The Military authorities are litorally and figuratively not letting the grass grow beneath their feet at their Magazine Gap Sanatorium, | After being empty for several years, the place - Apologising for my length, and enclosing my is now in use as an encampment for a hundred | card-Faithfully yours.. men of the Hyderabad Contingent, in charge of
RUS. one British and two native officers. Every day. from 6 a.m. till well past noon, these men are | turned out to cut down the brushwood and un- dergrowth that grow so luxuriantly on the fir- clad sides of the knoll on which the main building stands. To the passer-by, the dif- ference is already well marked. There can be no room for doubt that this wholesalo destruc- tion of mosquito harbourage will have a highly beneficial effect on the salubrity of the locality, Any how, the experiment is being given a fair trial, and the cognoscenti have no fears as to the ultimate result." Ed. D.P.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY FRESS,"
Hongkong, 31st October.
SIR-I have read with much interest the let- ter in yesterday morning's paper and would like to point out that this system of spoilation is also going on at another part of the Peak, viz. in the valley below the Peak Church.
A year or two ago this valley was one of the most picturesque spots at the Peak; now it is being wantonly cut up and disfigured by ener getic individuals in the neighbourhood to grow cabbages upon, and presents the appearance of workmen's allotments.
ITA.
Hongkong. 29th October. SIR, What is this Disease that has come upon us?
Yesterday I was walking along the Magazine Gap, when on nearing the Military Sanatorium my eye was arrested by a picture of Is there no law to put a stop to this irrepres- waste and desolation on the hillsides. Where sible desire on the part of people, not endowed erst was a charming mass of tender
greens there
with & senso of the picturesque, to spoil is now nothing but brown sterility showing be- Nature's greatest gifts? The reason quoted tween the trunks of the slender pines. All the in the editorial foot-note does not apply pretty undergrowth, the numerous flowering in this case, since, instead of making the shrubs of a score of varieties, have been ruth-district healthier. it appears to have had the lessly and regardlessly hacked away by some contrary effect, and several people living near evil-disposed vandals. Who has done this have been down with fever. Enclosing my thing. sir? Who is the destroyer of nature's i card. I am, sir, yours, etc.. handiwork, and on what the pretence? This is not a mere weeding out of tangled creepers and decayed vegetation, which is always useful and healthful, but the person who is responsible for this spoliation has done his wild work with neither rhyme nor reason. Evidently some prentice hand, who sadly needs his youthful (and mischievous) ardour restrained. Surely Years ago, yet not many, there used to be a His Excellency the Governor cannot be aware thriving nursery of lusty young pine trees. of this defacement of the hills. Nor can the where the barrack-like blocks, inis-styled Queen's head of the Afforestation Department be aware. Gardens, now lift aloft the architectural abomi- I should imagino, of this invasion of his domain. nation of their unsightly outlines. It was one Speaking of this official, I should like to call of the few restful sights on that part of the his attention to the great necessity for the re-hill-slope. When the place was wanted by the inoval of dead plantains from the plantation all-devouring unsentimental builder. I cannot by Government Villas, for the clearing of the remember a single voice of complaint being dense fringe of weeds along the paths in the raised because the beauty of the future pine Peak district, the trimming of the bamboo wood had to bow before the unrelieved ugliness clumps, the destruction of the creepers that of native blue brick and stucco.
Nor can it choke the trees, and the weeding of gutters which are being broken up by insidions growths.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE " DAILY PRESS. SIR-I am an old resident and can recall instances very similar to that so feelingly de- tailed by A Lover of Nature, in your Tues- day's issue,
be supposed that complaint would have been heeded, even if it had been raised, though never so pleadingly.
A certain kitchen-garden, located between Macdonnell and Bowen Roads, erstwhile contri- buted bountifully of its esculent produce to the tables of certain august functionaries, When it was abruptly proposed to abolish it, and erec- European honses thereon, not a little heart- burning, considerable consternation, and a deal of witty, though wasted, writing went on-for a man need not be dubbed either gourmet or Philistine because, forsooth, he professes to admire the humble edible growths of a rege- tahle plot. All objections, however, were alike unavailing, and residential buildings now rear their over-ornamented fronts, on the site where. of old. gubernatorial marrow-fats, cauliflowers, lettuces and pot-herbs, were wont to flourish in rich but regulated riot.
The Shanghai Autumn Race Meeting opened on Thursay. The following are the results of the first day's races,
1.-THE JOCKEY CUP.-Once round Value Tls. 100. Second pony, Tls. 25. For China ponies that have never won a race. To be ridden by Jockeys who have not had more than two winning mounts. Jockeys: Non- Winners allowed 5 lbs. ; winners of one Race, weight for inchos as per scale; winners of two races. 7 lbs. oxtra. Entrance, Tis. 5. Mr. Maxston's Pirate Mr. Tom Cannon's Shifter Mr. Ganwal's Scorer (late Doppelganger) 3 Time 2.59 2/5
$
ETI
2.-THE CRITERION STAKES.-Ono mile. A Sweepstake of Tls. 10 each, with Ths. 150 added, Second pony. Tls. 50.
If five or
T.
As I have said. I cannot believe the Afforesta- tion Department are responsible for the wanton destruction at Magazine Gap. Nor do I think General Gascoigne would inaugurate it. for such indiscriminate clearing is not at all likely to improve the health of the troops. The shrubs are not malarious. If there are marshy patches, why drain, if it is worth while, and above all, if there is any idea of fever from such undergrowth, then before rendering the country side a desert why not get some sound opinion on the subject? If the energy dis- played here in creating an eye-soro had been directed to the draining of Little Hongkong Valley, some good might have been effected. But in the locality mentioned it is the slopes that have been desolated, the living beauties of the island and not the decaying vegetation that In the first case, mere ornament had to give | have been removed. When brown autumn way to utility: in the second, an object of utility lays its hand upon the hills and converts the was replaced by one of greater utility. Like vivid green to purple melting into grey, the reasons are at the root of the matter in the bright tints of shrubs and bushes, and the gray instance so graphically described by your cor- flowers that adorn them break the monotony respondent. But his picture of waste and and give the winter one of its chief charms. I'desolation" is greatly overdrawn; a walk past
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more starters, third pony Tls. 25. For China ponies. Weight for inches as per scale. Mr. G. H. Potts's Desert King
Mr. Detring's Set
Mr. Waverley's Tornado
Time 2.8 3/5
THE MAIDEN STAKES.-Three-quarters of a mile. Value, Tls, 300. Second pony. Tls. 75.
Third pony, Tls. 50. For China ponies that have never run at any meeting. Weight for inches as per scale. Entrance, Tls. 5. Mr. Ganwal's Referee
Mr. J. M. D.'s Shell-me-not Mr. Henry Morriss's Blueberry
Time 1.36 3/5
3
4.—THE MALO ) PLATE. – Half-a-milo. Value, Tls. 150. Second pony, Tls. 50. For China ponies. Weight for inches as per scale. Entrance, Tis. 5.
Mr. Hart Buck's Esperance Mr. Oswald's Royston Mr. Hampton's Áriel
Time 1,3 2/5
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5.--THE CẦUB CUP.-Two miles, Value, Tls. -200. Second pony, Tls. 50. If five or more starters, third pony Tls. 25. For China ponies. Weight for inches as per scale. Griffins at date of entry allowed 7 lbs. En- trance, Tls. 5.
Messrs. Middy & Falk's Igel Mr. Rodoet's Chessy... Mr. Buxey's Rose de France Time 4.3 1/5
3
6.- The LTTERY STAKES.-One mile and
half. For all China ponies. Value, Tls. 200 added to a Sweepstake of Tls. 15 each. For- feit Tls. 5, if declared on or before the data of closing the entries for the Autumn meet- ing, when the balance Tls. 10 is to be paid, and the name and colour of the pony declared. The Stakes will be divided as follows-First pony 70 per cent.. second pony 20 per cent.. and third pony 10 per cent. Weight for inches as per scale. Winners of a race of one mile or over to carry 5 lbs. extra. Griffins which have arrived in Shanghai on or after 1st Angust, 1900, allowed 7 lbs. Non-win- ners and Griffins purchased prior to above date, allowed 4 lbs. No ponies qualified to run unless entered at Autumn meeting, in an official race. Nominations, which are trans- ferable, close on 30th June. Mr. J. M. D.'s Touch-me-not Mr. Marshall's Hopeless Mr. Duplex's The Doctor
Time 3.30 4/5 7.-The_Autumn Cur.-One mile and a quar- ter. Value, Tls. 150. Second pony, Tls. 50. If five or more starters, third pony Tls. 25. For China pouies. Weight for inches as per scale. Winner of the Criterion Stakes 5 lbs. extra. Non-winning Jockeys allowed 5 lbs. Entrance, Tis, 5.