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in several things. Parading the soldiers and sailors at 5 p.m will mean that they will have to be on the ground at 3 p.m.-in mideummer, which will afford ample opportunities for sunstroke. If it is to be held it should be in the early morning or evening. The discussed levee will be inconvenient imagine high hats, frock coats, etc, in the heat of the day. The Cathedral service is reasonable, providing there be no sermon. The fireworks on the Cricket ground will be greatly enjoyed, especially by the Ground Committed! The King's Park will be much appreciated, and it is to be trusted that H.E. the Acting Governor will be able to arrange it. He bas | contributed to the pleasures of the community in not a few instances during his shor term of office, and we hope he will be able to fix this. Yours, etc.,
RESIDENT,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS. Hongkong, 29th April. SIE-Referring to the letter on the above subject which appeared in your valuable issue of Monday last, your correspondent "Resident' does not tell us how long he has been tarrying in this benighted colony. This he ought to have done; and, with a little cogitation, he might not have fo..nd it difficult to discover the many connecting links, in the history of the last quarter of a century, between cause and effect. When you sow thorns you cannot expect to gather roses." It has been my lot to teadily watch the sowers at their crafty scat- terings for many years and I am not at all surprised at the grim harvest, which more than probably promises such over-abundance in the near future. Plague we bare had with us now for nearly a decade, and pestilence in several forms is in our midst. During the later years famine in shelter for the m ddle, and poorer clas- ses, and t-day, famine, in both food and water, is threatening as it our very doors! Is this any more than we deserve after onr husbandry of the last three decades ?
Some of the blackest of the clouds have, however, passed away, but the blackest cloud of all, one which has completely overshadowed our destinies morally, and also in a practically physical s sense for the greater part of that time. is still hovering as a tantalus over us, and until that cloud has either passed away or burst nothing but thorus can be looked for in the future of this onco beautiful Island Home – Yours, etc.,
OLD RESIDENT.
THE WATER FAMINE.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS
Hongkong, 28th April. SIR,-As the water famine is likely to continue for days and weeks one can imagine what the state of the Colony will be like if the clouds only continue to rull by. At present the inhabitants of the lower levels have not a sufficient supply for potable purpose, let alone what is necessary for cleausing purposes and even told that personal ablutious.' I am many have been obliged to use the same basin of water-water not from the Govern- ment mains but from polluted streams and puddles. Coolies are charging sixty cents for two kerosene tins of water! Even at such a high price all the water that is being hawked about in the streets is snatched up by the thirsty inhabitants. Perhaps this water is worse than well water.
Isn't there a remedy for this serious state of affairs? Either the Government must ship more fresh water to the Colony, or the Sanitary Board must allow all those wells, which by their natural position are free from the contamination of sewage, etc., to be re-opened. It is a fact that many of the wells which have been olos d are spring-wells, the water drawn from such welle being cool, pure, and sweet. Such water has b. en proved suitable for potable purposes, the inhabitants having drawn their daily supplies from these wells for many years previous to the int oduction of water services. If these wells are re-opened it will be a great relief to the inhabitants; and what is not potable can be used for cleansing and washing. Besides we cannot forget our bodi s in this weather.-Yours, etc.,
T.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND A SUNDAY NUISANCE,
10 TH EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRES)."
20th April, 1902. Dia, Cannot the public be pro ected from the intolerable nuisance, that exists on Sunday on the ground in front of the Hongkong Hotel on which building operations are proceeding. It is bad enough during the week to have one's business interrupted by an abominable steam pile-driver, but surely on Sunday the neighbour- hood can be protected from the nuisance created by this machine and the chipping of stone and hummering of iron by the workmen of Chinese contractors. If Chinese are not allowed to work cargo on Sunday, they should be prohibited from building houses and causing a anisauce in doing so to other people.-Yours, etc,
AFFLICTED
SIR JAMES MACKAY'S TARIFF PROPOSALS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS."
Shanghai, 26th April. SIR-A few of those twenty-three who votel against Mr. Little's amendment at the late meeting of the Shanghai branch of the China Association are still weeping in anticipation over the dreadful consequences that would have ensued for Chins had only the Chairman given his casting vote in favour of instead of against the amendment. It is unlikely that there was present at that meeting a single member who did not as sincerely as Sir James himself desire to see the curse of the lekin system removed, and who would not have been ready to support him in his crusade against the present method and herein lies the of provincial taxation crux of the whole - were there any hope of It was the meaus proposed being successful. indeed remarkable how frequently the small word "if" came to the front and how in- timately the whole scheme depended upon it The speech of Mr. Scott, the chai, man of the meeting, in proposing the resolution adopted by the Committee (with one remarkable exception), regularly bristled with "ifs"; and ind i care- uu ion fully wrapped up iu the very body of there. proposed was its own stongest condemn tion. The Association holds, it went on to recite, that As the experience of the past has impelled a strong disbelief in Chinese promises and Chi- nese honesty of intention, it is imperative that it is a condition of the scheme becoming opera- tive that China shall first be required to show, not merely by the removal of the lekin and other barriers, but by the institution of a reformed system of fiscal administration in the provinces, that she is both able and willing to carry out the agreement both in spirit and in letter." Here it was plainly acknowledged that this was the final test-that the Government should re- more itself these fatal barriers and herein was the most important point of all, which yet had been slurred over in absolute silence by the self-constituted physician of our woes. I do not propose to quarrel with the latter portion either of the resolution, that under the conditions of the entire freeing of the trade from all inland taxation whatever, a urcharge of even ten per cent, might not be excessive; this, however, is a merely academic question. What concerns us intimately is first, is there a possibility of bringing Sir James Mackay s scheme within the limits of practical politics; and second, if that be found impossible, is it desirable that an attempt should be made to initiate a dangerous experiment in a field already deeply laid with explosives of bigh efficiency?
The amateur photographer will doubtless recall the tempting motto adopted by certain vendors of one of the later cameras, You press the button, we do the rest." It would, however, be a rather dangerous experiment for an unskilled passer-by to try in a hostile country known to be thoroughly mined to press the button of the first innocent looking box be found in his road. Such an innocent-looking box Sir James Mackay has undoubtedly found lying in his path; and his nuarcustomed fingers are sadly itching to press the button, wit out halting to enquire whether the box contains a harmless lens or a contact-fuse connecting with the charged magazine below, and arranged tɔ, in' a short moment, result in a dire explosion which
May 5, 1902.
may consign, not only Sir James, but the entire empire to chaos.
the
There is a difference which neitber Sir James Mackay nor his inspirers seem able to compre- bond between reform and revolut on. China is an old country and the machinery of g vern- ment has become, it may be, hopelessly corrupt; but there are certain fundamental lines along which the administration has been accustomed to work Is it a wise thing before we have made ourselves master of these to clear away the whole substratum on which
And are we prepared without edifice rests? remoting the superincumbent weight to lay a brand-new foundation, leaving the edifice in mid air? If the task before us were to found a new Empire the system of provincial ad- ministration at present ex sting would be the last that I, or indeed any reasonable man, would propose; but we are not called upon to found a bew Empire but on the contrary are doing our best to underpin an old building already unfortunately in a totterin‹ condition. The methods to be used are essentially different. Built up by degrees, the foundations have little homogeneousness, and the defects in the founda- tion are repeated in the super-tracture which has as little cohesive power. Of this there was abundant evidence in the recent troubles, where indeed the toppling administration only con- trived to survive the shock by the support given to it by these extraneous buildings. It is yet on this rotten basis that Sir James Mackay's ill-planned and erroneously designed scheme wond lay the onus of maintaining the stability of the entire edifice.
It is not too much to say that all previous attempts in this direction have proved utter all our endeavours to failutes, und that strengthen the shaken edifice by increasing its dependence on Peking have end d in disaster. The very first of these showed the essential weakness of the system. Our trade with China practically commenced at Canton, and from the first we were brought in contact with the dual administration. While we paid duties to the officer appointed from Peking Hoppo, an and representing the Imperial authority, we bad in the shape of what were then call d mast dnes," which were supposed to go to the maintenance of the provincial administration, In our to pay further the provincial dues. deesir to consolidate, we converted these "mast
daes. The result, as we soon into tonnagė found to our cost, was that they were quietly appropriated, while the burden of keeping up the local administration, supposed to include the maintenance of the harbour and its approaches, was tacitly shelved. We probably did not lose much in this particuler instance, but we established a precedent against ourselves. My realers will probably remember the once Sherrard Osborne Fleet," we celebrated honestly having invaded the hitherto sacred precincts of Peking, and shaken the old edifice to its foundations, sought as we are doing now,
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strengthen it, aud sent out a fleet which was to bring about the regeneration of China. The fleet was to be placed under the supreme control of Peking, while the provinces were to pay the piper; but here again we reckoned without our hosts; the provinces had as little respect for and as little confidence in Peking in 1861 as they have showa they have in these modern times. They would have pone of these Danai bearing gifts, und after a series of by no means dignified go home negotiations. Captain Osborne had to
Then came a sadder if not a wiser mau. the Treaty of Tientsin, a final achievement which was to remove once and for all the hin drances that had grown up around our trade; it was agreed in solemn fashion that at the open ports "the authority appointed to superintend the collection of duties shall be obliged on ap. plication of the Consul to declare the amount of duties leviable on produce between the place of pr. duction and the port of shipment," and conversely on goods imported and proceeding to the interior, and these were to be published for general informa ion. Possibly this would have worked, but unfortunately it was never tried. nor was a single demand ever made to have the statemen' given; the stipulation was in fact from the very first under the old hallucination per- mitted to become a dead letter. But Peking bad its eye open, and was ready with its promises and blandishments-only shut our eyes, and open
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