January 27, 1902.]
1st Jan., 1901.
By balance brought forward
31st Dec.
By rente
By interest
By sorip fees.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Cr.
By amount carried forward from 1900
By profit on sales of properties and invest-
monts
Cr.
$
C.
437.47
54,480.38
1,514.94
By rents.......
50.00
By interest
By commission account
$56,482.79 | By transfer fees
HUMPHREYS ESTATE AND
FINANCE CO., LD.
The report of the directors for the year ending the 31st December, 1901, for presenta- tion to the shareholders at the sixteenth ordinary annual general meeting of the Company, to be
UPREME COURT.
Saturday, 18th December.
0.
65
another seven months afterwards, when I wrote 18,275.70 to her sister in London about some certificates I wanted relating to the marriage; the answer 196,971. 79 33,794.45
I got was a visit from my consin herself, who 37,307.11 begged me again to let her com, back on the 2,71.50 same conditions, as housekeeper, on account of
464.00
the batter rspect among her friends. This I did and we both returned to London five or six $233,894.55
months afterwards. Afterwards we stayed with her sister for some two or three months, and again I left her, finally. I have never lived with her or had any dealings with her since, except that two or three days before I left England for Hongkong I met her acciden- tally in London and told her I was proceeding to Hongkong and that as soon as I arrived I should certainly get married and settle down. She
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
held at the Registered Offices of the Company, BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G. WISE (ACTING asked me then to make some provision in
at noon, on the 27th inst., is as follows:-
Gentlemen,—The Directors now beg to submit to you their report and statement of accounts for the year ending 31st December, 1901.
The net profit for that period
amounts to
To which has to be added the balance brought forward from last account
$255,848.32
13,275.70
$269,124 02
$12,752,42
And from this have to be deducted- Remuneration to Directors, 5%
commission ou net profits Remuneraton to General Man-
agers 5% commission on net profits 12,792,42
$25,584 81
Leaving available for appropriation $243,539.18 The Directors recommend that a dividend of $1.00 or ten per cont. on the paid up capital be paid to the Shareholders, that $100,000 be passed to Permanent Reserve Fund, 25,000 to Equali sation of Dividend Fund and the balance of $18,539.18 to new Profit and Loss Account.
DIRECTORS.
Messrs. C. S. Sharp and H. W. Slade were invited to join and accepted seats on the Board. The Board of Directors now consists of Messrs. J. S. Van Buren, C. Ewens, C. S. Sharp, H. W. Slade, and Ho Tung. In accordance with Rule 76 of the Articles of Association all these gentlemen retire, but being eligble offer them- selves for re-election.
AUDITORS.
The Accounts have been audited by Mr. F. Henderson and Mr. W. H. Gaskell, who offer themselves for re-election.
HENRY HUMPHREYS, Chairman.
Hongkong, 18th January, 1992,
The following are the accounts:-
BALANCE-SHEET,
For the year ending 31st December, 1901.
LIABILITIES.
C.
ૐ Capital account, 100,000 shares of $10 each 1,000,000.00 Fund for equalisation of dividends.... 25,000.00 Permanent reserve fund.....
100,000.00 639.50 5,469.07
Unclaimed dividends
Sundry creditors
Profit and loss account-
Amount carried forward from
last year
For the year 1901
ASSETS.
Amount invested in property
Amount invested on.mortgago
Secured loans
Office furniture.....
$13,275.70 255,848.32
Rents due and accounts receivable
Cash in Hongkong and thang-
hai Bank.......
Cash in hand...
$22,855.66
13.85
C.
500.00
CHIEF JUSTICE).
BIGAMY.
Frederick Gilbert Hanson was charged with having on 14th July, 1890, at Holy Trinity Church, Upper Chelsea, in the county of Middlesex, England, married Minnie Weston, spinster, and afterwards, while sp married, bigamously married Helen Emily Lucas the said Minnie Weston being then and there alive.
He pleaded guilty.
The Attorney-General (Hon. W. Meigh Goodman, K.C.)-The prisoner, your Lordship, desires to make a statement. I do not know what that statement may be; I will have very few remarks to make on the case, and I think
I had better reserve them until afterwards.
His Lordship--You plead guilty to a charge of bigamy; what have you got to say?
The Prisoner-I would wish it to ba
thoroughly understood that not the slightest blame can be attributed to Miss Lucas or her friends in this matter at all, and, secondly, I admit the marriage to my cousin at Holy Trinity Church, Chelsea, but during a visit to my friends seven months afterwards or in July, 1891-I ascertained that by marrying my cousin I had practically married my own flesh and blood, and that the outcome of such a marriage was invariably imbeciles cripples.
or
His Lordship-What was she-what sort of a cousin ?
The Prisoner -My first cousin, my Lord. His Lordship-Well, there have been mar- riages of that class before.
The Prisoner-That was what I was given to understand. Being disgusted at the way I had been treated and induced into such a marriage, I sought legal advice and ascertained that that marriage having taken place while I was a minor and against the wish of my people, it was avoidable and could be set aside.
His Lordship-You got legal advice. The Prisoner - Yes.
His Lordship-I am glad to hear it.
The Prisoner-This I.at once communicated to my cousin, and told her that I was determin. ed to take legal steps to hare this marriage set aside. But for three days she begged me not to take this action, for two reasons. The first was the terrible disgrace it would be to the whole of her friends, and the second was the age and siate of health of her mother, whom she was afraid such a shock would kill. We both ar- 269,124.02
ranged then that I would not take any legal $1,400,232.59 action. We were to thoroughly understand
that we had no legal claim whatever on one an other and that we should discontinue all inter- 741,045.54
course with one another and treat one another 621,749.13 10,159.45
as servant and employer. This we continued 3,949.96 to do and I might stale that we both took a solemn oath and swore on the Bible that that was how we should go on, and that is how we lived for some years. I brought her here, always occupying different apartments, and I took her home again. While in Cork w bad bother over my cousin opening a private letter of mine, and I threw up the whole of my service. I was in the Engineers and had $ 0. 14 years' service, and during the last six of
these I was a company sergeant-major. had every prospect of rapid advancement and a thorough good pension at the end of seven years. I throw up the whole of that service, with the intention of taking action to have that mar- riaged cancelled then, but I was prevailed upon at the last moment to let the matter drop, still on account of her mother, but I sent her away and did not see her or hear about her for
22,869.51 $1,400,232.59
PROFIT AND LOSS A' COUNT.
Dr.
To general charges
To Urown rent
To fire insurance
To repairs
To allowance to General Managers to cover
office rent and salaries of secretary and
clerks
To Balance................................
2,612.47 2,100.29 4,184.37
1,863.40
4,000,00 269,124.02
$283,884.55
I
order to set up in some business, and I promised to do so as soon as I got settled In December I sent her a sum of money with in Hongkong. I arrived here in November.
the intimation that that was the last she would hear from me, In January I got an answer lo that letter, acknowledging the money, and re- questing that I would inform her how she should account for my silence. I wrote to her and informed her I would send a telegram stating I would resign my berth here and was leaving the Colony. That telegram I sent towards the end of February. My Lord, knowing of course that that woman had been out here for three or four years and had plenty of friends and was in the habit of communicating with these friends regularly, doesn't it stand to reason that I should have more commonsense than to go and get married again here secretly or try to do so? I thoroughly understood and believed that I had a perfect legal right to contract this second marriage, and so had she; and I have not the s'ightest doubt but what she has all the way through believed that I had, for two or three reasons. She quite agreed with me living in Cork, when I met her in London she raised no objection, and when I wrote in December, 1900, and told her I was married-I told her then I was married-it was quite clear she evidently expected it and agreed to it, seeing that she did not take any action at all until the end of this last year. It is through nothing but a piece of jealousy and hatred on the part of two or three people here and her brother-in-law in London that this affair has come out.
His Lordship-Have you anything more to say ?
The Prisoner-I think, my Lord, for all Í have suffered from the beginning to the end- being deprived of all the privileges and pleasures of a married life, throwing up the whole of my service and prospects, coming out here and settling down, and now this case being brought against me upsetting the whole of my life
and affairs here-it has been a pretty heavy punishment. I have suffered seven weeks' imprisonment in Victoria also. I quito assure you I had no intention or thought of committing such a* serious crime.
I thoroughly believed and understood that I had a perfect right to get married here without any fear. Moreover, I can tell you this, that until this añair 24 mentioned three or four weeks before I was married, so sure I was of my case-that I had a right to get married--that I never attempted to start a defence or leave the Colony.
even
His Lordship-As far as I recollect from the depositions there is a witness swears that when you came here you stated to him that your wife was dead. That is rather against your argument.
The Prisoner-That is what we agreed to in the first place.
His Lordsbip-That is what you said, and it is all against your argument.
The Prisoner-That is what we agreed to in the first place, that we should take no action against each other in the event of either marry- ing. We quite agreed upon that,
Of course, your
The Attorney-General Lordship, I am quite unable to say how far the statement made by the prisoner is correct and true or not. The first wife is not here, and if she were she might of con 83 have a vory different tale to teli; but I cannot say. The facts in the case are simply these. Defendant was formerly in the Royal Engineers and was stationed at Hongkong. He joined in 1885