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September 8, 1902.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
177
SHANGHAJ CONSERVANCY
QUESTION.
(Daily Press, 3rd September.) We learn that notwithstanding that all the preliminaries as to the scope and com. position of the Conservancy Board for Shanghai were discussed prior to the signing of the Protocol of 1901, and that it was presumed that everything was definitely arranged, there have been con- siderable difficulties in bringing about the conclusion of the whole. More than one cause is, we believe, responsible for the delay, which, although mainly, is not entirely due to the obstruction of the Chinese Government. As usually happens in such cases the chief objectors are not to be found in the ranks of the greater Powers, nominally at least, but are supposed to be found amongst one or two of the uations
follows? We quote the New York Health | the early days when in August, 1846, THE Commissioner again:-"It is an accepted fact that an increased death-rate is an almost inevitable concomitant of increased density of population. The Registrar- General of England, some years ago, showed that, whereas the mean death-rate per 100 in a district with only 166 persons r per square mile was 16.75 per 1,000 it was 38.62 per 1,000 in a district where there were 65,000 persons per square mile. "For the former section, the mortality of children under five years was 37 per '1,000, while for the latter it was 139 per 1,000 itiful evidence, indeed, as to the expectation of life for the children of "the tenements in our cities." It is of course impossible, from the shifting character of our native population, to get a reliable record of the death-rate, but in his report for 1901 Dr. CLARK estimates the general death-rate among the Chinese as not less than 35 to 36 per 1,000. We have no figures for the mortality of children under five years of age, but in the report for 1900 Dr. CLARK showed that out of every thousand Chinese infants born in this Colony only seventy two survive for a period of twelve months. It will be seen that the balance of credit is certainly not on the side of Hongkong in this comparison even if we make due allowance for the less healthy conditions of life in the Far East.
To sum up shortly-Hongkong is not in a satisfactory sanitary condition; over crowding is one of the most potent causes of this; and therefore to improve the public health we must attack the overcrowding evil with the utmost possible vigour. We are not going to compare the property. owners of Hongkong with those of New York, so lacking in public spirit, as described above. Eut we do trust that no attempts will be made to emasculate the Bill, as was attempted in the New York case. A weak Bill would be worse than useless, and the penalty for its deficiencies would ultimately recoil on the heads of there who caused thein. What is required is a strong Bill, which provides fair com- pensation for the property-owners while alleviating the conditions under which the tenants live.
11
THE TREATMENT OF UNDESIRA-
BLES IN HONGKONG.
It
whose commercial interests in the trade of the port are by comparison small. cannot be said that this is by any means satisfactory, but under the present system of international intercourse, where each individual, whatever its ability or position, claims an equal voice, it is difficult to see how these recurring deadlocks are to be avoided or parried. All these things are the more regrettable inasmuch as they give the Chinese Government, always on the look-out to take advantage of any apparent rift in the harmony of the other Powers, just the opportunity it desires to give effect to its favourite reactionary policy.
residents were advised to carry arms and not proceed to any distance from the town alone. In those times the local papers were full of accounts of outrages, and extraordinary measures were necessary, as any history of Hongkong will show. Now matters are very different. The other day an American missionary declared that the streets of Hongkong were as safe as those of any big town in his native land. And so for the most part they are. We cannot, however, shut out eyes to the fact that the criminal class has recently Leen giving notable evidence of its presence. Three instances of snatching of property in broad daylight on the; public road have been chronicled in these columns of late, two within the last week. We have also had to call attention to the practice of throwing missiles from houses at passing Europeans. Petty thefts from 'respectable natives as well as from European firms have been certainly very common this year and, we should fancy, above the average of Inte years in number. Such offences as these are not to be compared with the violent outrages of earlier Hongkong history, but nevertheless they cannot be passed over in silence without injury to the good name of the Colony. The increase in the number of these breaches of the peace may well be due to extraneous circumstances, as has been suggested above, but this does not render it any the less advisable that special steps should be taken. Mr. HAZELAND has shown, in some of his recent sentences at The main objection put forward by the the Police Court, that he thinks that the Government at Peking, and, we are sorry infliction of corporal punishment will have to say, acquiesced in or even actually sup a beneficially deterrent effect. There are ported by the whole force of the Imperial people who dispute this in the case of Maritime Customs, if not indeed actually European offenders, but we do not know instigated by the Inspector General, is that that any, speaking from knowledge, would the entire control of a work essentially argue in like manner in the case of Chinese local should be carried out with local criminals, even if it were to be granted that funds by a body locally elected. We need they are right about Europeans. It is hardly point out that the result of 8 :ch a certain, at any rate, that the flogged native system of centralisation as has hitherto thief is unlikely in most cases to emerge prevailed, in China as elsewhere, has been from gaol auy the less thievish in propensities total and absolute failure. Neither China, from his flogging. Is there then any as an Empire, nor the Maritime Customs, addition to the ordinary sentence of im- as a strongly centralised body, is perhaps prisonment for theft and such offences, individually or collectively to blame; but which will benefit the Colony? We think the fact remains, and only confirms what that there is, in the more frequent deporta- has been remarked everywhere else. It is tion of such offenders from Hongkong. instructive to turn to England and notice The power of banishing these "undesirables" the different methods which have there rests in the Governor, and it might well be hitherto prevailed of meeting the difficulties inore freely used. We get much of the scum connected with keeping open or improving of China (as Chinese residents will be among the numerous harbours along the coast. the first, to admit) coming to the Colony, The rule prevailing is that the authority and having a means to haud of turning immediately, or most immediately con- back the stream, we should not be so chary cerned, has full powers in everything of using it. Une other point we would urge touching the harbour and approaches; on the Government, and that is the station- that is to say that where the chief use is ing of European policenien, or in default of for Imperial purposes the Government them Indian policemen with a knowledge takes control, and wh re for ordinary of English, in districts where outrages trading purposes local bards of varying against Europeans occur. We do not mean, composition and powers are entrusted with of course, that wherever an European has a the entire management. Of course harbours watch or handbag snatched away or some whose use is for war purposes, as Ports- such outrage occurs a white constable should mouth and the Medway, are entirely cared at once be placed at that point. But for by the Government, but there are thers certainly if more than one offence of the whose main use is for the despatch of mails kind occurs in a certain neighbourhood and had passengers, as for instance Holyhead it is found that no intelligent constable was and Dover, where the Government takes at hand, there is a call for more efficient also absolute control. On the other hand police protection. We trust that we can strictly mercantile ports as, for instance say this without being taken to cast a slur Liverpool, Glasgow, or the Tyne, have of the police administration, which is far private bodies locally elected who takı from being our desire. Efficient municipal supreme control. The most marked instance government, however, even in a Crown of this the Liverpool Dock and Harbour colony, is not probable without an under-Trast, a practically self-elected corporation standing between public and police, and in Hongkong the public does not yet feel that the police force is thoroughly able to give it that full measure of protection against lawbreakers for which it has a right to look.
(Daily Press, 1st September.) The behaviour of the lower class Chinese in this Colony, of the status loosely defined as "coolie," has always been of a fluctuat ing character, not becau-e the evil characters have at times become repentant and suddenly attempted to reform their ways, but chiefly, we imagine, because certain seasons occasion the coming over from the mainland of China of an extra supply of native labourers, in whose ranks are many undesirable as well as many desirable residents for this Colony, while, on the other hand, the temporary cessation of active employment in some branches of industry causes numbers of the less valuable workmen to return to their own homes. No doubt, too, an outburst of zeal on the part of the police has an excellent effect in the clearing away from our midst of many natives with whose presence we
can well dispense. But, whatever be the reasons, there is most certainly a periodicity in the displays of the criminal propensities of the more turbulent of the Chinese in the Island. At the present moment we seem to be enjoying (ns the phrase goes) one of these periods, though of course it is nothing like some of the outbreaks which used to render Hongkong notorious in the past, from
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which takes command almost without appeal of everything connected with the entrance to the Mersey. The good effect of the enormous powers exercised by the board is that from being little more than
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