August 17, 1901.}
THE FATAL HOUSE-COLLAPSE IN COCHRANE STREET.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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(Daily Press, 16th August.) The terrible collapse of houses in Cochrane Street late on Wednesday night, one of the most heart-rending occurrences in the re-collapse. But worse still remains to follow. cent history of Hongkong, cannot be tassed There are at the present moment being over in silence. The Government has before erected in this Colony houses which in their it the duty of making the strictest possible method of building are almost exactly enquiry into the circumstances of the cata-identical with those in Cochrane Street. strophe, and, if any negligence can be proved, Some indeed are worse. The walls are in of bringing home to the responsible parties many cases inere shams, the poorest descrip- the guilt thereof. It will be remembered tion of rubble with casings of bricks. Que that on the 29th July the Hon. T. H. or two buildings have been pointed out to WHITEHEAD at a meeting of the Legislative us by competent judges as examples of the Council gave notice of this question, among i very worst type of “jerry-buddings to be others:
:-"Will the Honourable the Direc-seen anywhere in the world.
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that professional architects appealed to on apparatus, floating on the water, would the question endorse the deductions from | accurately fix the relative positions of every this observation-the insufficient construc-¦ object within a limited radíus : but in lumpy, tion of the fallen houses." Flimay seems choppy seas, its circle of sight would con. none too strong an epithet to apply to the tinually vary, and be constantly cut off and structure as laid bare by Wednesday's | interfered with. Like the while, the sub- marine must come to the top occasionally, thus revealing its whereabouts. Once its presence is detected, or even divined, the periscope, which is a delicate piece of optical mechanism, would run great danger of being smashed or put out of gear, not merely from being actually struck by hurtling missiles, but by the stunning aerial concussions caused by flying shot and bursting shell. Immediately this happens, the submarine, below water, would be hopelessly crippled, as harmless as POLYPHEMUs blinded, and must perforco "tor of Public Works lay upon the Council pondent, whose letter appears elsewhere ise to the surface to take new bearings. "table a statement showing the number of to-day. says, the buildings in this Colony The actual danger of three or four sub- buildings in the Colony which have fallen of Victoria are a sorry monument to the marines in real. as opposed to mimic, war. down from 1st January, 1900, to 30th | memory of her whose name it bears fare is, in the opinion of not a few naval 'June, 1901, the names of the owners of and whose reign saw its establishment experts, highly problematical, because the "said buildings, and the number of deaths and development to its present pitch of risks they themselves run are very many.
caused by the tumbling down of said pre-progress.
The local Government cannot The moral effect of such engines of destruc- mises, and will the honourable member let such a state of affairs continue. It is tion would be undoubtedly great. "state the causes, so far as known, which true that it is saddled largely with the sins harbour or other confined space, their have contributed to each accident, and, if ad follies of its predecessors. But how offensive value would be largely enhanced. they have resulted from defective construc. can it escape the reproach of sin and folly Admiral Dewey has stated that a couple of tion, what precautions, if any, have been itself, when it is permitting a repetition of submarines on the Spanish side, in the taken to prevent the erection of such exactly the same kind of offences against fateful fight of Manila Bay, would have 'buildings in the future?" Hongkong
the lives and persons of its subjects and is hampered him considerably. In the report, has won for itself an unenviable notoriety overlooking daily the rising into existence published by our Admiralty in August, recently from the frequency of its building-of what must ultimately prove to be death. 1899, giving the composition of the fects the seven great naval powers, collapses. In the default of such statistics traps to those unfortunate people who have of as the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD usked for, no alternative but to crowd into the latest | France alone was indicated as constructing we think we are right in saying that the jerry-buildings thrown open for human this type of boat, and she then had nine of large majority of accidents of this kind have habitation ? It is too late to save the lives them either finished or on the stocks, In a occurred with newly-built or partially of those who, but for private cupidity and similar report, dated December, 1900, France constructed dwellings, etc. The Cochrane Governinent negligence, might still be living ¦ appears with vighteen, and the United Street houses are not in this category. with us. But it is not too late to insist on States with seven. We now know that Russia They are old houses and have stood for many owners, contractors, and above all inspectors, is going to construct vessels of this type. years. Yet their construction, as disclosed doing their duty. It is not too late for the It will not be uninteresting to look at the by Wednesday night's fall, is of a kind present Government to earn for itself an subsequent progress of the submarine in which should never be tolerated in Hong- honourable name by casting aside the vicious the French navy, as revealed in the columns kong or anywhere else. We may make and inhuman practices of its predecessors | of Ligne Maritime Françaire-the every allowance for the soddening effect of, in office, which hitherto with fatal blindness analogue of our pwn Navy League Journal our climate on building-material and the it has allowed to continue until the scandal | —for March-April-May of this year. Three ordinary wear and tear of age. Neverthe has grown too great even for an usually less it is evident that in the first instance apathetic community. the houses were not of a sufficiently strong build to have satisfied the requirements of a keen-eyed inspector of buildings, The twelve-inch outside walls were not of the} solid character which their superficial appearance suggested: the inner walls were still worse.
Signs of decay have shown themselves for some time on the outer walls of houses not only in Cochrane Street but in other streets in the same neighbourhood, The members of the general public have no training to guide them in detecting when a building becomes actually dangerous; but it may be asked, Does not the Government include experts in this line of civic work? The layman, no doubt, will incur the charge, of being wise after the event only. It must be remembered, however, that he cannot be expected to anticipate dangers as the special- ist should be able to do, that the specialist has this duty laid on him in place of the layman's individual business duties. When a great frequency of building collapses is observable the non-specialist has every right to ask why it is that the lives of his fellow-residents. possibly even of himself, are endangered when there is a department part of whose duties it is to prevent such danger. The Cochrane Street tragedy has involved, as far as our present knowledge goes, the lives of 22 people, the serious injury of 10, and the minor hurt of 13 others. Such an event calls for the most serious consideration of the
authorities.
We have alluded to what appears to the untrained observer-though we must state
SUBMARINE WARSHIPS.
(Daily Press, 12th August.)
The British Naval Manœuvres, which have just ended, are possibly the last in which the submarine will have no allotted share. As is well known, four of these boats, improved Hollands, are to be finished this autumn, and at once experimented with The striking success achieved by submersible boats in the recent French Naval Evolu- tious is at once a serious warning and a valuable object lesson.
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submarines, of different types, were being constructed, all three destined for experi. ment only. They were not to figure in the schedule of new constructions. Twenty others, of an approved and satisfactorily texted model, were to be undertaken almost immediately. This large addition would more than double the French list of this class of boat. At the time, they had fourteen, either in actual commission or in their yards, to wit, four that had completed their trials, the Gymnote, Morse, Gustave-Zédé and Narval; two, the Français aud Algérien, almost completed; and eight put on the stocks by M. DE LANESSAN, of which REUTER's words | four- Farfadet, Gnome, Korrigan, and Lutin building at Rochefort, are improved were: "They approached the squadron un- suspected, passed the entire line, torpedoed | Morses; while four others – Sirène, Triton, the ironclads, and escaped unobserved and | Silure nud Espadon -laid down at Cher- unscathed." No doubt the very best condi.bourg, are Narvals. The construction of It is this tiny vessel is rapid; so that, in a few tions prevailed for the submarine. well-nigh inconceivable, had the conditions mouths at most, the French will be the of actual combat been observed, that any proud and enviabič possessors of a formid- thing resembling such complete annihilation|able flotilla of no less than thirty-seven would have occurred: the deed, however, is submarines. It is instructive to note that exactly paralleled by the success of the in the second competition instituted by the destroyer in the manœuvres not long ago Ligue Maritime Française, the first of the concluded in the Mediterranean by the two subjects proposed was: sections of Admiral Sir John Fisher's | flotillas of torpedo-bxits and subinarines for command. Unsuspected and unobserved" | the defence of the colonies. Competitors cannot mean other than total submersion | had to assume, as the basis of their theses, at an appreciable depth, and for a distance a war with a great naval power-presum. of some iniles: and when this takes place, ably Great Britain-and to examine the the speed, at no time great, is materially | military requirements of the colonies which lessened. It also implies that all offensive would be unable to resist the onset of an movements were entirely dependent on the active enterprising foe. They had also to revelations of the periscope, that crab-like | discuss such indispensible accessories as eye projecting from the sunken boat to the floating docks, workshops for repairs, An anonymously sea-surface. In a glass-like sen, this visual munition-stores, etc.
of
The utilisation of
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