September 8, 1902.]
typhoon I would feel obliged if you would let me know if the conditions were not abnormal. The extraordinary display of blinding lightning over a bank of heavy clouds to the E. S. E. all night. The absence of swell from the centre. The N. W. wind in the advancing semi-circle.
Was the captain of the Decima wrong in beaving too off Chelung Point P How could he get the centre over him ? Did this typhoon recurve to the W.S.W?
I must own I would think myself safe with the wind from N.W. and that to heave-to or run back was the proper thing to do, but although I ran to the W.N.W. 50min, and then anchored in Fun-lo-Kong, I had the full force of the typhoon. I would feel very much obliged if you would enlighten me and a number of my confrères.-Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours. &o.,
A. C. HODGINS.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
30th August, 1902. SIR-Referring to the enclosures in the Chamber's letter of 23rd iustant on the subject of storm-warnings, I am now directed to forward to you two further meteorological exhibits, which with those already sent, will serve to show, you the complete set of metocrological notices furnished by the Sicawei Observatory, and posted up daily at the Semaphore Station on the Bund at Shanghai for the information of the public. The Committee venture to think that you will be interested in these notices, which, as a series, seemed to them to afford clearer and fuller weather information than the bulletins and notices issued by the Hongkong Observatory. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
Hon. F. H. MAY, C.M.G.,
Colonial Secretary.
A. R. Lowe,
Secretary.
MARRIAGE AT THE CATHEDRAL.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE SERVANT QUESTION.
cook is
THE CERAUNOGRAPH.
185
NEW INSTRUMENT IN MANILA OBSERVATORY
previous service, and copies of testimonials to the Registrar. Employers will be bound to make entries in the books furnished to esch The Philippines seem to be suffering in much the same way as Hongkong does from the servant, showing a succinct record of such servant difficulty. Here as there the Chinese servant's work whilst in bis or her employ, and servant is as much the master of the situation stating clearly the reasons for his leaving, when as Mary Ann the housemaid or Mrs. Betsy the such an event may take place. Then follows s mistress of an English. domestic description--for the present without details of establishment, holding the household in the
the penalties entailed on master and man for hollow of her hand. In considering the situas non-fulfilment of the various provisions. Such, tion in the Philippines, the Manila Time-in bare outline, are the details of the scheme, declares for registration as a plan to put matters which it was agreed to draft and submit to the
Government for consideration. on a more equitable footing and it cites instanc s of other places in the East which have found relief from their discomforts in this fashion. Bat the Times is m staken when it includes Hongkong among those that have so found salvation. Much as Hongkong would like it, and much as the community have expressed their esire for it, registration of servants is still unhappily unknown. The Commission recently appointed to enquire into and report upon the subject recommended registration of servants and cool es as a solution of the problem, but for some reason best known to i self the Government refused to sanction the propo- sal. And so the same unentisfactory state of affairs prevails to-day as that which is found to be so galling by residents in the Philippines.
It is interesting to note that in Rangoon, the servant question having become such a burden, the Municipal Commissioners drafted a Bill on the subject and that it has lately become law. Appended are some of its clauses:---
+
(a) Rendering the registration of domestic servants compulsory, and prohibiting the mployment as a domestic servant of any person who is not so registered. (b) Requiring em ployers and domestic servants to give such things as may be necessary or advisable for carrying out or rendering effective such registration. (c) Appointing and defining the powers and duties of Registrars and other officers for carrying out and rendering effective such registration. (d) Providing for the keep ing, maintaining, inspection aud producti n of registers and books in such manner and with such particulars as may be necessary or advisable for carrying out or rendering effective such registration. (e Providing penalties not ex- ceeding a fine of Rs. 250 and imprisonment either simple or rigorous for the breach of any of such rules, and (f) Generally for rendering such registration effective and complete. In such rules the words domestic servents shall mean and include servants of all descriptions or about the house, usually employed in The
kitchen, stables and garden of an employer.
In Colombo, Ceylon, where compulsory
many
On the 29th ult., at 10 a.m., an interest. ng wedding ceremony was celebrated at S. John's Chathedral, when Lient. Palmer, 5th Hyderabad Contingent, was married to Miss Ida Holmes, younger daughter of the late Mr. H. J. Holmes, solicitor, who practised for years in this Colony. The Rev. J. H. France, M.A., S. Peter's Church, officiated, and the bride, who looked very winsome in a dress of cream-coloured silk, was given away by her brother, Mr. H. K. Holmes, solicitor. bride was also attended by her sister, Miss Eva
[FROM A MANILA CORRESPONDENT.] Since the discovery of the existence of electro-maguetic radiation emanating from disruptive discharges of electricity whose velocity in space has proved to be that of light and whose waves follow the same laws of in- terference, reflection, refraction and other phenomena of light, Lodge and Marconi have developed the "coherer," an instrument devised to detect the passage of electric magnetic waves. The efforts of some master-minds were soon directed to turn this new force and the
coherer to some practical use. The first result was its successful application to telegraphy without wire by Marconi. The fact that dis- raptive discharges like lightning send out these electric ether waves, naturaly led meteorolo- gists to consider this new force and instrument in connection with electric storms. Their efforts have met with success, which leads us to expect that electro-magnetic waves and the co- herer will become in time a very valuable adjunct to every meteorological and Life-saving station, especially in countries which the dread- ful tornado is likely to ravage. attempt made in the Philippines of a practical application of the electro-magnetic waves has been carried out with the most encouraging results and it is now a fact that in the Obser-
The first
vatory lightning is harnessed, just as the wind, temperature, sunshine, and pressure have been baruessed and forced to record their own doings.
The instrument has been used in the meteoro- logical service since August 24th last. The instrument has been constructed in Kalcosa (Austro-Hungary) under the supervision of Rev. Fr. Fenyi, S.J., Director of the Kalocsa Observatory, and belongs to the type of a similar instrument devised by Rev. P. J. Schreiber, S.J., of the Kalocsa Observatory. The various parts of the instrument, all told,
Holmes, and her brother, Mr. H. S. Holmes, registration has been in successful operation for are: a coherer, an alarm bell, a coil with one
whilst the bridegroom was accompanied by a number of his brother officers. Several other guests, ladies and gentlemen residing in the Colony, were also present by invitation. Dur- ing the time that the bride and bridegroom were in the vestry, Mr. A. G. Ward, organist of S. John's Cathedral, played a spirited march, and on the conclusion of the ceremony, the "Wedding March."
A reception was afterwards held in the private dining-room of the Hongkong Hotel, where the health of the newly-married couple was toasted in champagne. Mr. J. W. Norton Kyshe, Registrar of the Supreme Court, pro- posed the toast in a happy speech, and it was enthusiastically honoured.
Amid a show r of rice, Lieut. dad Mrs. Palmer took their departure soon after eleven o'clock, and proceeded on a short trip to Macao, whence they return this morning and sail by the Nippon Maru, en route for England via America. Lieut. Palmer, who is very popular in his circle, has been granted a year's leave, and at the end of that time will travel to India, accompanied by his young wife, to rejoin his regiment.
With regard to the arrival of the 1st Man- chesters in Singapore, the Straits Times under stands that it is doubtful if the battalion will go there for some considerable time-that is to say till arrangements can be made for housing a battalion of Native Infantry. There is a scheme on foot to use for that purpose a number of the huts which the Boer prisoners occupied in Ceylon, but considerable time must necessarily elapse before those huts could be shipped to Singapore and erected.
trations last
some time, the cost in connection with it amounts to about only $6 gold per month. The number of servants registered in Colombo from January 1872 to the end of December 1901 was 33.760. The number of new regis. There is no year was 1,203. difference made whether the employer of a domestic servant is an European or a native. The establishment, which is immediately under the control of the Superintendent of Police, consists of 1 registrar at $385 gold per annum, 1 female clerk at $8 gold per annum. 2 male office orderly at 880 per annum. clerks at 860 each, I male clerk at $55 and 1 Here is an object lesson for the Hongkong
Government!
A general meeting of residents of Kuala Lumpur and district took place on 21st August at the Selangor Club, Mr. Veaning, Acting British Resident, Selangor, presiding. Mr. Venning, in his pening remarks, recalled the fact that last year a meeting had been held to consider the matter in hand and that it had then been decided to draw up an Enactment fo regulate the labour market. A Committee had then been appointed. Mr. Joaquim had drafted in Enactment on similar lines to that which had been at work in Ceylon for the past 25 years with so much success. The outline of the scheme is as follows:-All servants will be required to be registered wi hiu a certain time of the coming into force of the Enactment; but, în considera- tion of the interests of natives who employ servants at a low wage, it is provided that all those who are working for less than $8 per month shall be exempt. The servant will be required to furnish his photograph, record of
magnetic needle, two batteries, and a recording diss. The copper collector consists of a copper horizontal insulated wire uniting the towers of the Observatory. The coherer consists simply form of a cross. The coherer and the coil with of two steel wires adhering to each other in the its magnetic needle are worked by a battery of Meidinger type (one element) with propor
The coherer is also tionate resistance. connected with the collector and with the earth through a lightning wire. Four Lechanché elements work the alarm bell whenever the electro-magnetic waves are received on the wollector and the coherer becomes a gord electric conductor and then the magnetic needle is worked by the coil and closes the Lechanchè current moving the electro-magnet which regis- ters on the disc. The vibration of the coherer through the movements of the alarm bell restores the coberer to its first condition of non-coudu tor, ready to be acted ngon by a new electro-magnetic wave. On the disc more than 300 flashes of lightning have b en registered in 1.he distance from which the flash through its Manila from 10a.m. to 9 p.m. on the 24th. electro-magnetic waves may effect the coberer has not yet been c lculated, but it is supposed to be no less than some .0 mil s. Expe iments to increase the sensitiveness of the coh-rer are being made, and it is expected that very soon we will be able to register a flash of lightning same 150 or 200 miles distant.
13
64
'the name adopted for the new instrument cerannograph", from the Grek name for lightning, after the name given by R. F. L. benbach, B.J., Lirector of the Observatory at Cleveland, Ohio, the only place in the United States where similar experiments are condu.ted.
}
1