The following is the report for presentation to the shareholders at the second ordinary general meeting, to be held at the office of the Company, at noon, on Tuesday, the 19th inst
Gentlemen,We have now the pleasure to lay before you a statement of the Company's business and balance sheet for the year ending 31st December, 1900.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
!
[March 16, 1001.
THHWATKINS, LIMITED! ZUlivery of the goods, immediately money notes The plaintiff (for whom judgment was given will be delivered in exchange. It is settled for $735 and costs), was a trader residing at clearly that according to foreign hong rules No. 6, Tit Hong Lane, the defendant being it is limited to ten days to issue (the goods) also a trader, residing at No. 8,
West in full." There was some conflict of evi- Street. The plaintiff claimed from the de dence between the parties as to what took fondant payment of the sum of $827.44, place before and after the making of the con-balance of money due on the 21st day of Doom tract. The appellants said they informed the ber virtue of an agreement dated the 1st day of broker they wanted the goods within two February, 1900-and made between the defen- weeks. The broker did not say that he con- dant and the plaintiff. veyed an intimation to this effect to the respoù- dents, and the respondents denied that he did so The broker said that the respondents informed him that "a steamer would arrive in two or three days' time having peas" and further that they
The net profits of the Company for the year, after paying all charges, salaries, commis sion, etc., and providing for bad and doubtful debts, amount to
$18,522.11 To which may be added the un- svojo divided profits of the last
year-
..t.
7,022.48
$25,544 54
We propose to appropriate the above amount as follows:
To pay a dividend of 12 per cent. on the capital, which will absorb... To place to equalisation of dividend
fund..
$12,000.00
13,544.54
$25,544.54
It will be observed that the working expenses in connection with the business have been larger than formerly This is, in a measure, account- ed for by the additional charges for upkeep of the wrated water factory. The accounts have been audited by Mr. W. H. Gaskell.
G. A. WATKINS, CHAN. A FOOK,.
General Managers.
Hongkong, 6th March, 1901.
SUPREME COURT.
Friday, 8th March.
IN APPELLATE JURISDICTION.
1
4
did not say they must telegraph for them." On the other hand the respondents stated that they told the broker that they "would send the poas from Ching Kiang (another name for Chan Kong, mentioned in the contract), near Nanking; "that they expected them to arrive after two weeks;" and that on the same day they wired to Ching Kiang.". Again, the broker said that between the 24th November, when the con- tract was executed, and the 4th December he saw the respondents on four separate occa- sions, and enquired of them when the peas were going to arrive. The respondents, on the other hand, declared that the broker only came to вее them once after the date of the contract, namely, on the 29th No- vember. He must confess that, so far as he could form an opinion with respect to these differing statements from merely reading the notes of evidence, his inclination was to accept the appellant's version of the matter as moro consistent with the terms of the written contract and with the probabilities of the case. At any rate it was clear that the appellants were anxious to get the peas as soon as possible. The question at issue between the parties turned, of course, upon the construction of the contract. On behalf of the respondents, it was contended that they had ten days during which to make delivery of the goods, and that this period of ten days, in the events which had actually happened, commenced
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR JOHN W. CAR-to run on the expiration of the other period of
BINGTON, C.M.G. (CHIEF JUSTICE), AND HIS HONOUR T. SERCOMBE SMITH (ACTING PUisne Judge).
р
SUIT NO. 1,049 of 1900, suMMARY JURISDIC-perform the contract on their part. The Court
TION. F. EBRAHIM AND CO., APPELLANTS, V. CHI YUEN, RESPONDENTS; AND SUIT NO. 20 of 1901, SUMMARY JURISDICTION, F. TBRAHIM AND CÓ, APPELLANTS, Y. CHI YUEN, RESPONDENTS.
2.3.
Their Lordships délivered judgment in these
Cases.
14 days mentioned in the contract, and was to be added to it. The result of this contention would be that the respondents had a period of 14 days altogether during which they could
below adopted this construction, holding that the stipulation as to the time within which the goods were to arrive was immaterial and did not go to the essence of the contract, and, as the goods had been notified as ready for delivery on the 24th day, judgment was given for the respondents in both cases. With much respect and after long consideration, he found himself unable to follow this reasoning. It ap- peared to him that the term as to the arrival of the goods was intended by both parties, and especially by the buyers, to be a material one. In his opinion the appeals in both cases must be allowed. In suit No. 1,049 of 1900 judgment must be entered for the appellants for the difference in price be tween 440 bags of peas at $2.75 a picul and the same quantity at $200 a picul. In suit No. 20 of 1901 judgment must be entered for the appellants. The appellants must have their costs in both suits, both in the Court below and in that Court.
The Chief Justice said that in these cases the appellants brought a suit-No. 1,049 of 1900-against the respondents, claiming $134-97 damages, for breach of contract for the sale by the respondents to the appellants of 650 bags of green peas, while the respondents brought a cross-suit-No. 20 of 1901-against the appellans, claiming $15461. di mages for breach of contract for the purchase by the appellants from the respondents of 650 bags of green peas, of which the appellants failed to take delivery. The two suits were heard to gether, and on the 16th January, 1901, the Court below gave judgment in favour of the respondents in both cases. From that decision The present appeals were brought. The facts
The Acting Paisne Judge, after dealing with out of which the suits had grown Were the points raised, said that in his opinion the few and simple The appellants and respon- judgment of the Court below was sound and the dents were both firms of merchants carry-appeal should be dismissed with costs. ing on business Victoria. On the 24th November, 1900, the parties entered, through the agency of a broker, into a con- tract in writing for the sal by the respondents and the purchase by the appellants of 650 bags of green peas. It was understood on both sides that the peas were not ready for delivery but were to be imported from a place called Chan Kong, on the River Yang's Bought and sold notes were executed and exchanged which were identical in their ternis, mutatis mutandis, but the translations of these which had boon put in evidence differed materially in their sense. How
it was agreed at the hearing of the insistion-which-had been pre- brother might be taken as 10. this translation the It is settled clearly that the goods arrive. On de-
appeal
thin two we
|
Saturday, 9th March.
IN APPELLATE JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR Sir John CarrING
TON, C.M.G. (Chief Justice), AND HIS HONOUR T. ŠERCOMBE SMITH (ACTING PUISNE JUDGI).
་་
Monday 11th March,
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR JOHN CARRING- TON, C.M:G. (CHIEF JUSTICE),
LI SHEUNG V. THE WIG FUNG TAT FIRM.
In this case the plaintiff sued the defendant for the recovery of possession of tenement No. 19, Jervois Street; $500 for mesnes profits; and he also claimed costs. On the 9th February. His Lordship give judgment for the defendants.
Mr. Slade (instructed by Messrs, Wilkinson and Grist) appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. Robinson (instructed by Mr. H. K. Holmes) for the defendants.
Mr. Slade said he regretted to say he must ask for an adjournment. The other side wore served with notice of motion as to the re-hea: ing about ten days ago. They were served with an affidavit at the same time, but their affidavit and answer were not served upon his client until two minutes before the sitting of the Court.
Under these circumstances the hearing of the motion for a re-hearing was adjourned.
REVIEW.
The Englishman in China during the Victorian Era as illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., D.C.L. By ALEXANDER MICHIE. Edinburgh and Lon- don, William Blackwood & Sons.. FROM the time of old Peter Auber, who in 1834 published his sketch of the British and Foreign Embassies to China, and intercourse with that Empire," down to the end of the con- tury, we have had many detailed accounts of different acts in the drama; but comparatively few, if any, giving a readable historical account of the entire subject, and the strong and weak points of the various actors; and Mr. Michie's handsome volumes, published appropriately in the very first month of the new century, comes just in time to supply the want. Mr. Michie commences with the Duke of Wellington's reply. to Lord Napier reporting an outrage from Canton, that it is not by force and violence that His Majesty intends to establish a commercial intercourse between his subjects and China, but by the other conciliatory measures so strongly inculcated in all the instructions which you have received." Lord Napier's comment was to the point. “What advantage or what point did We ever gain by negotiating or humbling ourselves before these people or rather before their Government? The records show nothing but subsequent humiliation and disgrace. What advantage or what point, again, have we ever lost that was just and reasonable, by acting with promptitude and vigour? The records again assure us that such measures have been attended with complete success.
In these two sentences penned in the year 1835 is contained an epitome of our failures and disgraces, as well as of our short intervals of his intimate know.
success in China'; Ab
opportunities from his long connection with one of the earliest and most capable mercantile houses in Chins, no man is better fitted for the task he has laid out for himself in the work un- der review than Mr. Alexander Michie. **
01
to death by Chinese official þar- by the discouragement of his own
MIS Lord
Napier vas succeeded first
CHING KAM MAN, APPEL ART V. CHI σ by one, then by another, of the East India Com-
⠀· Chin › Po, Respondeat.
pany's old staff, who could only maintain them- Mr. Francis, K. C., applied ex-purte for leave selves by sinking their character of British to appeal from the judgment delivered in the Summary Jurisdiction of the Court in the case of Ching Ching Po, plaintiff, against Ching Kam Many defendant. whi
Leare to appeal was granted.
national envoys and submitting to the indignities which the Chinese more than ever delighted in imposing on t
them, increasing in virulence
ryer | proportion
reaker.!
the resistance to them