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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
sanction of a written instrument, it ought, if possible, to adopt such a construction of the instrument ut res magis valeat quam pereat.
shares to which they respectively are entitled, | has grown up under the sanction or alleged distinguishing each share by its number.”
"Article 59 makes provision for the keeping, 'under the Superintendence of the Court,' | of a
Shareholders' Address Book." It is expressly provided that every shareholder is to furnish an address for service either in Hong- kong or at one of the open ports in China or - Japan.
"The provisions of which mention has now been made have reference, no doubt, to matters of administration within the direct cognisance and under the direct control and superintendence of the Court of Directors at the Head Office in Hongkong. They contain no reference to the conduct of business at branch banks or of agencies. To take the case of the Register Shareholders, Article 57 clearly refers to the Register to be established and kept at the Head Office in connection with the general manage- ment of the business of the Corporation.
"But then, after a number of Articles, to which it is not necessary to make special reference, we come to a series of Articles arranged under the sub heading Powers and Functions of the Court. And the answer to the
turns
consideration question under upon the effect which these Articles have apon the above-mentioned Articles of general signification. Of these Articles whose effect I am now about to consider, Article 141 confers upon the Court a very large power of delegating its powers to committees composed of one or more directors. But it does not appear that in the present case there is any question of delega- tion of authority to committees of directors, 80 that the Article is not germane to the present purpose. Articles 144 to 146, however, come nearer to the matter in hand. Article 144 provides for the appointment of local com mmittees at places where the business of the Corporation is authorised to be carried ou; while Article 145 provides for the appointment of officers or servants of the Corporation as inspectors, managers, or agents at such places. Article 146 reads as follows:-The Court by letters of attorney or other deed under the seal, or by writing not under seal, may delegate to such director, local committee, inspectors, managers, agents, and other officers respectively any of the powers of the Court, and may invest them respectively with any other powers which the Court, in their discretion, think expedient for the due conduct, management, and regula- tion of any of the business or affairs of the Company.'
I may also refer to Article 158, which vests very wide discretionary and supple- mentary powers in the Court of Directors. It must, I think, be taken that the delegation to the representative of the Corporation in London and at Shanghai of the power of opening and keeping Registers of Shareholders at those places was made under some one or more of these Articles. Then, was that dele- gation rightly mada? Does it come within the scope of the Articles? I am of opinion that the powers of delegation conferred by these Articles are sufficiently large and general to render it necessary for me to answer these questions in the affirmative. I therefore hold that the Court of Directors were within their rights and powers in authorising the repre- sentatives of the Corporation in London and at Shanghai to open and keep such Registers; that the Registers are good and valid Registers; that the shares now in question which are borne on the Registers are not bona notabilia within the Probate Jurisdiction of this Court; and that the answer to the question submitted by the special case must be in favour of the defendant.
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"From the evidence before me it appears that there is a duplicate Seal of the Corporation kept in London, but there is no Seal at Shang- hai. There may therefore be difficulty about the issue of share certificates at Shanghai, but in any event, if there is such a difficulty, it is one between the Corporation and its shareholders and does not affect the principle of decision in this case.
[July 1, 1901.~
CORRESPONDENCE.
We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.].
THE PLAGUE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE
DAILY PRESS.
Coast Port, June, 19 1. SIE-For the sake of humanity I hope you will kindly allow me a small space in your columns to bring to the information of those "As to the effect of the finding that the local who have to deal directly with plague cases in Registers are good and valid Registers, re- particular and of the public in general a treat- ference may usefully be made to the Englishment of this fell disease which I have found to Acts on the subject of colonial registers. At ❘ be most efficacious. I beg to state most distinctly p.240 of Barron's Death Duties the effect of these that I have no pretention to the slightest idea of Acts in relation to probate duty is thus stated:- | medicine, but whilst I was in Hongkong I heard The 46 and 47 Vict. o. 30, which authorises from a man of experience of the treatment which companies registered under the Companies I am about to make generally known through Act, 1862, to keep colonial Registers of members the medium of your paper. I had then good. provides by Section 7 that upon the death grounds to firmly believe in the good results of any member so registered, the interest shall attained; I could not, however, attempt to bring be deemed part of his estate within the United the facts before the public because of the anger Kingdom for probate or inventory purposes in which I would provoke amongst the local like manner as if he were registered at the practitioners, aud because of the consequent company's registered office. By Section 18 of persecution which would be started by them, the 52 and 53 Vict. c. 42, however, this provifor they will not allow any treatment of diseases sion is confined to persons domiciled in the outside the pale of their sapience, and conse United Kingdom. It would appear, therefore, quently the man who, not belonging to their that shares in such a company, registered in clique, pretends to try his hand at doctoring, the colonial register by a person domiciled in a must necessarily be an ignorant and a fool British possession, will be locally situate where who should at once be ran down. the register is; but that where the person was domiciled in the United Kingdom, such shares will be locally situate in the United Kingdom.'
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The Court is not asked to decide the ques- tion of the liability to probate duty in this colony of dividends on the shares in question, but it was admitted by Mr. Franci› that divi- dends stand in a somewhat different position from the shares, and I have no doubt the parties can come to an agreement about them.
In accordance with the terms of the agree ment between the parties there will be no order as to costs."
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G. WISE (PUISNE JUDGE).
HUMPHREYS ESTATE COMPANY V. CHAN YEW TING.
His Honour on the 20th inst. reserved judg- ment in this case, in which the Humphreys Estate and Finance Company, Limited, plain- tiffs, claimed $1,000, money paid by them by mistake into Court, and, in consequence of thir, mistake, handed over to the defendant, Chan Yew Ting, interpreter to Messrs. Johnson, Stokes, and Master.
Now. that I am in a coast port beyond, the, reach of the Hongkong professionals, I have tried the treatment without fear of persecution: or prosecution for doing so.; for I have tried it on "Chines", and have had the satisfaction of saving many lives.
Now, to come to my purpose. As soon as any symptom of plague is apparent, give the patient a hot bath, as hot as he can staud; then give him a tablespoonful of pure real olive oil- every three hours, in the meantime giving him. a friation of heated olive oil on the bubo every hour or 80.
This simple treatment has proved efficacious in many cases, and a fair trial will not make twenty-five deaths in twenty-four cases surely.
Yours, eto,
X.X.X
23rd June.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRE§8,” SIR,-You must little have thought, when publishing on the 21st inst, my first letter on this subject, what a happy response your jour- nalistic hospitality in the cause of the public weal was going to meet with on the arrival of the English Mail on the same day, which brought Bombay papers, including the Bombay Gazette of the 3rd inst., which coutains a very interesting and instructive letter from the pen of Professor Gajjar, M.A., B.Sc, the Hindu scientist referred to in my first letter in your paper. It is earnestly to be hoped that this important letter by a scientist who is devoting his time, attention, energy, and money to the investigation and discovery of a panaces against this scourge of scourges, the plague, will not be allowed to go unheeded by the local authorities and the medical profession of the colony, but that full advantage will be taken of the figures and deductions of the author of the letter in question. Dr. Bahadurji, I may state, is the Parsee Tondon M.D., B.8o., referred to in my first
His Lordship's decision was to the effect that some time ago the dates were not material in regard to the judgment he was about to deliver the defendant sued one Pang Yan for money lent, and recovered judgment. The defendant then issued a prohibitory order to restrain the plaintiffs from parting with money alleged to be due by them to Pang Yan, and the plaintiffs, with a full knowledge of the facts-namely, that a claim had been made on that money by one Soo Sum, a co-contractor with Pang Yan- paid the money into Court, relying on section 76 of the Code. The Court, not having had any notice of the claim by Soo Sam, ordered payment of the money to the de-letter. Yours, etc., fendant. 8oo Sun then sued the plaintiffs, and recovered judgment. The plaintiffs in turn brought the present action against the defendant, claiming that the money had been paid over by mistake. Mistake was divided into two classes
mistake of fact and mistake of law. No mistake as regards fact had been made in this case, and his Lordship, after going care- fully into the evidence, could not find that there had been any mistake in law such as would He therefore entitle the plaintiffs to recover. gave judgment for the defendant, with oɔsta.
"A few more observations may be added. The course of practice of the Corporation which it is now sought to invalidate as being ultra vires has existed for many years, in part at last before the incorporation of the Corporation. It may therefore fairly be assumed that the Ordinance and the Deed of Settlement were framed with a view to such a state of things, and that the legislature in making the Ordinance and the Governor in approving the Deed of Settlement, were aware of its existence and impliedly gave their sano tion to its continuance. But, however this may be, it is at any rate a sound and well settled rule of construction that where the Court finds itself in presence of a long established and | convenient course of practice or conduct which the dignity of the law.
The 4sahi states that there are 200 for eigners in Yokohama who, under one pretext or another, will not pay their taxes. The author ities will now proceed with the matter more vigorously, in place of leniency and soft con- siderations, as the paper puts it, and will uphold
A BOMBAYITE.
(Enclosure.).
"IODINE TERCHLORIDE AND PLAQUE.
“TO THE EDITOR OF THE ? BOMBAY GAZETTE.
* Bombay, 31st May. “S12,—I anbjoin the statement for the month of April last of the Bubonic and other, Fever cases treated with Liq. Iodine Terchloride at the undermentioned free stations opened by Sheth Naranji Dwarkadas."
[The statement shows that in the month of April, 81 cases with bubous and 493 cases without buboes (in all; 574 cases) were treated with the above mentioned medicine, out of which 60 patients with bubom and 400 patients without baboos (în all, 5 0 patients) recovered, and 21 patients with buboes and 3 without buboes died, which gives a proportion of 74.07
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