394
Now if the benevolent people will please con- sider this, and will give a "chit” instead of cash when they wish to help, they will not only confer a blessing on the poor wretches, who are (many of them) drinking themselves to death, but also on a hard-working manager who has to deal with these cases after they have been turned out of the "pube-Yours, etc.,
MANAGER,'
STAR" COFFEE HOUSE.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
BALANCE SHEET. 31st December, 1900. LIABILITIES.
Capital account.......... Permanent reserve fund ... ..:$150,000.00 Reserve fund to meet contin-
gencies, or for the equalisa tion of dividends
£25,000,00
Local and general liabilities in
the East ........ Local and general liabilities in
London
$68,444.67
64,352.13
A. S. WATSON & CO., LIMITED. Mortgage on section A of In-
The following is the report of the General Managers for the year ending the 31st Decem. ber, 1900, for presentation to the shareholders at the sixteenth annual ordinary general meet- ing of the company (since its registration), to be held at the Hongkong Dispensary, on Wed. nesday, the 22nd May, 1901, at twelve, o'clock,
noon
We beg to day before you a statement of the Company's business, with a balance sheet for the year ending the 31st December, 1900.
The net profits of the Company for the twelve months under review, after paying all charges, including $7,200, the salary of the general managers, and providing for all bad and doubtful debts, amount to
$40,000.00
land Lot No. 17 and the buildings thereon... Mortgage on Marine Lot No. 2
C and the buildings thereon 140,000.00 Bills payable, Hongkong, Manila, and
London...ss Unclaimed dividends Security deposits from staff Profit and loss, for
·ward from 1899 $10,764,46 Do. remaining bal- ance 1900 after writing
off
loss account ...174,503.96
$185,263.42
$17,106.96
for
depreciation Be
-
per profit and
Less interim divi-
dend of 5 per
vember, 1900... $30,000.00
Less
amount un-
·
claimed at 31st
10,764.46
December, 1900 6,103.00
23,892.00
...$191,610.92
To which has to be added the balance brought forward from the previous year
་་་
And from this have to be deducted- Amounts written off for deprecia- tion of furniture, fittings, utensils of trade, machinery, and buildings
་་
› General managers' commission of 5 per cent. on the profits for the year as per Art. 80 of the Company's -Articles of Association
$202,375.38
cent paid in No-
ASSETS.
Total stocks in trade 17,106.96 | Good debts due from customers
Good debts due from sundry debtors in
London and the East Cash in hand Cash at bankers.......
9,580.55
Leaving an available balance of...$175,687.87
We paid an interim dividend of 5 per cent, in November last, absorb- ing
And we now propose to pay a fur- ther dividend of 7 per cent. (making 12 per cent. for the year), which will absorb...
To place to the credit of per- manent reserve fund a sum of
To carry forward to 1901 account
$30,00.00
42,000.00
100,000.00
3,687.87
$12,146.01 88,808 00
Fire insurance premis unexpired Investments in public companies---
North China Insurance Co., Limited Hongkong Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.. La Constancia Cigar Factory, Manila Section A of Inland Lot No. 17
600,000.00
175,000.00
132,798.80
180,000.00
158,123.70 5,503.74 14,200.00
[May 11, 1901.
REVIEWS.
China, her History, Diplomacy and Com
merce. · By E. H. Parker. London: John Murray.
THE literature on China and the Chinese is aconmulating with prodigious rapidity, and seldom a mail passes without some volume arriv ing dealing with China and her people. It is to be hoped for the publishers' sake the books will prove remunerative, though at the present rate of production the market is likely to be glutted, and the student who honestly desires to study the Chinese question will find it an increasingly difficult task to make a useful and judicious selection. The study of the Celestial Empire, the peoples, their history, language, dialects, customs and literature, its social, political and ethical aspects, is a very serious un- dertaking, and one of which the average reader, however great his appetite, can only hope to so quire a brief, and comprehensive knowledge. Of the writing of booksonChina there is no end, which fact does not simplify, but on the contrary, com- plicates the task of the student. The volume now before us, we take it, is intended to render the thorny path of the student easy, and to present in an epitomised, digestible forms general review of China and matters appertaining to it. The author has succeeded in his task admirably. The name of Mr. Parker is well known in con- nection with literature on China. There are few authorities who know the Chinese, their literature and history better; it has not been the privilege of many to see so much of this vast and interesting empire. The author 161,376.42
pleads in justification of his presuming $1,427,005.66 | instruct the public on a few facts connected with the trade and foreign relations of the $ .0. Chinese Empire the circumstance that he 892,326.15 has passed a quarter of a century at a dozen 189,769,75
or so of the ports, besides travelling abat seven 25,718.57 thousand miles in half a dozen provinces, and spending a couple of years in Cores and one in Burms. Fate also ordained that he should reside in Szechuen and Hainan, and visit the various countries of the Far East where the Chinese labour and reside. To China residents 2,549.13 Mr. Parker's explanation is unnecessary; his ability and experience are too well proved and known. Thus it is after a careful perusal of his latest literary production, we can heartily congratulate him on his work. It is not a book that will appeal to sinologues, though many may use it with profit, but it is a volume to put into the hands of the average reader who desires a comprehensive, practical and reliable sketch of a vast subject, written by a man who knows from intimate acquaintance and C.pr.longed study what he iswriting about. This 17,106.26 cannot be said of many writers on things 185,260.42 Chinese, whose imagination often runs amuck with facts, and who expect clerical skill to atone $202,375.88
for ignorance of realities,
and the buildings thereon $52,000.00 | Kowloon Inland Lots Nos. 550,
551... Marine Lot No. 2 C and the
buildings thereon
14,719.20
150,000.00
PROFIT AND LOSS. Dr.
To depreciation account $175,687.87 To balance...
CONTRA. Cr.
By balance forward from 1899
and London for 1900
100,954.01 4,969.85
216,719.20
$1,427,005 66
Permanent reserve fund, with the addition of $100,000 as above, will stand at $250,000; reserve fund to meet contingencies or for the equlisation of dividends remains at $25,000 as heretofore.
The net profits for the year as compared with By net profits in Hongkong, China, Manila 1899 were increased by an amount of $82,173.00, accrning from sales of Inland Lot No. 16. and the remaining portion of Kowloon Inland Lot No: 549.
The Boxer troubles in North China last year caused losses to our branch business at Tientsin and Peking, the latter being totally destroyed, and indirectly affected our trade in the country generally. Claims for losses sustained at Tien- tain and Peking have been duly lodged in the proper quarter.
The business of the Company generally con- tinues to be of a satisfactory character.
CONSULTING COMMITTEE.
c.
10,764.46
191,610.92
$202,875.38
The book is divided into fifteen chapters, with appendix and an excellent series of small maps. The subjects of the chapters are geography, his- tory, early trade notions, trade routes, arriyal of Europeans, Siberia, etc., modern, trade, government, population, revenue, the salt gabelle, lekin, the army, personal character. istics, religion and rebellion, and the calendar.
་
The author opens with a comprehensive A Japanese native paper publishes what pur- ports to be parts of an interview with M, chapter on the geography of the empire, and Pavloff some days ago at Moji. The Russian gives a concise account of the history of the Minister is made to observe:"My present Chinese, for the brevity of which, the average visit to Japan is purely on private business reader will be devoutly thankful. The chapter on early trade notions is of much interest, and has no official significance whatever. I had one of my fingers bitten by a mad dog and and the description of the peoples who I have come to have the wound treated by Dr. traded with China will surprise many. Canton Kitasato.-Yes, the Corean loan is an actual was a prominent trading port before the time fact, but it is utterly false that I exerted my of Christ, being the chief port of call for the self in the interest of France in bringing the Arab and Indian merchants, who boldly es doing all I can to oppose the scheme, like the of years later. Tea first appeared as an article rest of my diplomatic colleagues at Seoul, of commerce in the fifth century, being sold to Don't you see? Small and impoverished though the Turks who worked in iron at Liangehou. Cores is, what can she gain by borrowing a
In the 13th century, Chinese navigators had paltry sum of five or six millions P-If Cores acquired acknowledge of the African coast down is earnest in her attempt to create and foster to Zanzibar, the. Red Sea, Egypt and Sicily, thinks new enterprises, she will want a big loan: five Concerning trade routes, the writer or six millions will be soon wasted in bribery-- that “the fact that hundreds of Nestoria I mean they will only go into the purses of the doo, and Chinese priests and bonses officials who are addicted to the habit of approp to move freely, by land and by sos riating public moneys, and the outcome will be | Asia proves, though it may not only to cause in the Corean finances a confusion 1 light upon commeros, tha worse confounded-beyond that no beneficial frequented then (643-713) along result will follow.
same lines as they had been before,
In accordance with Article 87 of the Com Corean Court to terms. Why, I have been tablished and pursued their trade for hundreds pany's Articles of Association, we have this year sppointed the following gentlemen to the con- sulting committee Hon. C. P. Chater, Messrs. C. Ewens, E. Osborne, and HP. White. These appointments require to the confirmed by you at the meeting.
AUDITOES.
The Company's accounts in London have been andited by Mears. Hopps, Banhart and Warmington, Chartered Accountants, and those at the Head Office by Mr. Francis Maitland.
JOHN D. HUMPHERYS & Son, [Chat General Managers.
Hongkong, 6th May, 1901.
It
Hin