72
31st Dec. 1902.
Cashi
ASSETS.
Amount advanced on mortgage
Amount invested in property
Furniture account
Accounts receivable
31st Dec. 19.2.
Dr.
$ C. 4,575.74
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
1st Jan. to 31st Dec. 1902. Cr. By balance brought forward
3,290,199:05 | By rent
4,343,697.55
1. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT.
To interim dividend of 6 per cent. for the
half-year
By interest
3,763.29 By scrip fees.
44,408.32
$7,686,643.93
$ C.
300,000.00
To charges account
27.884.40
To repairs to house property
17,010.37
To advertising
567.85
To fire insurance
10,798.82
To balance to be appropriated as follows:-
Directors' fees.
$7,500,00
Managing directors' fees......
72,433.5 |
Auditors' fees
1,000.00
Final dividend of 6 per cent.
for the half-year
300,000,00
Balance to be carried to new
account
51,707 26
Ist Jan. to 31st Desi, 19 ?. C.
By undivided profits, 1901
By interest on mortgages
$238,498.12
By rents
Less-Interest on loans payable 31,890.19
By commission
By scrip fees.
By profit on sales of property.
432,610.76
$788.902.2) $
C
8,305.04
SUPREME COURT.
Monday, 19th January.
[January 26, 1903. .. $ Üs because she had a bad temper and sometimes- 1,309.87 got drunk; she frequently brought bottles of 56,036.90
whisky into the house.
1,625.29 27.00
A Japanese girl who came from Formosa to Hongkong with the deceased woman stated $58,999.06 that she had seen the deceased along.
with the prisoner in Ship Street about a year ago, on which occasion he gave her $50- and told her to pay certain debts Deceased had told witness that she had run away from her husband and would not return to him.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR WILLIAM M. GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE).
THE CALENDAR.
The calendar of cases was five in number, implicating the same number of persons, and included one charge of murder (the Ship Street case) and two charges of arson.
HOUSE COLLAP: ES.
The Attorney-General (Hon. Sir Henry S. Berkeley), who appeared for the Crown instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor, stated to his Lordship that certain enquiries had been made into collapses of buildings or part of them and the Coroner had commi ted certain persons for trial; but he (the At orney-General) had found that there was no ground for any criminal charge against them, $788,902.20 and exercising the powers he had as Attorney. General he had decided not to proceed further in the case.
156,607.93 217,103.86 13,973.58 268 00 392,643.79
The Attorney-General-If your Lordship pleases.
WEST POINT BUILDING CO., LD.
His Lordship sa`d that iu a case of that kind the Attorney-General had the same powers as The following is the report of the general a grand jury in England and he had practically agents to the ordinary meeting of shareholders, thrown out the bill. Therefore it only remain to be held at the ( ompany's offices, Victoria Build.ed to deal with the recognisances. He thought ngs, at 11.4 a.m., on the 26th January:- they had better be discharged and that would
The net profits for the year, including the be an end of the matter. amount brought forward from the previous year, amount to $40,224.14. From this amount an interim dividend of $1.50 per share has already been paid, and after writing off directors' and auditors' fees. it is now proposed to pay a final dividend of $1.60 per share making a total dividend for the twelve months of $3.10 per share, and to carry forward the balance of $924.14 to credit of new profit and loss account,
DILECTOR 3.
Hon. J. J. Bell Irving having retired, Hon. C. W. Dickson has been appointed in his stead, and this appointment now requires confirmation. Hon. C. W. Dickson and Mr. A. J. Raymond retire by rotation, but offer themselves for re- election.
AUDIT.
In the absence of Mr. F. Henderson, the accounts have been audited by Mr. J. C. Peter, who now retires but offers himself for re-election.
A. SHELTON HOOPER, Secretary to the Hongkong Land Invest-
ment & Agency Co., Ld, General Agents for the West Point Building Co., Ld. Hongkong, 12th Jatuary.
The accounts are as follows:-
BALANCE-SHEET,
31st Dec. 1982. LIABILITIES. Capital
Accounts payable
Balance of profit and logs account $10,224.14 Less interim dividend paid 18,750.00
31st Dec. 19 2.
Cost of property
Cash
Accounts receivable
ASSETS.
His Lordship-Direct that they be discharged.
THE SHIP STREET TEAGEDY.
Chirutaso Matsumoto, a Japanese, was charged with having, on 26th December, in Ship Street murdered a Japanese woman.
He pleaded not guilty, and was defended by Mr. H. N. Ferrers, barrister-at-law.
The following jury was empinelled:-Messrs. J. Wacker, E. M. Hazeland, W. Farmer, Fung Ku Shau, F. J. V. Jorge, Li Wai Ching and A. Neilson,
7
The Attorney-General in his opening state- ment said that the accused was a Japanese subject charged with murdering a person who was either his wife or his woman. The facts were very short and simple aud left no doubt as to the gait of the prisoner. It appeared that no Sunday, 21st December, about 10 o'clock in the morning the deceased woman was in the brothel in which she was living and had been living for some con. siderable time previously. On that morning the prisoner visited her. The other inmates of the house (who would be called) heard a noise in one of the cubicles into which the place was divided. They were attracted by this noise and on going to the cubicle they sw deceased lying on $ the floor and the prisoner-some said stamp- 625,000.00 ing on her; others, striking her; and others 2,585.83 jumping on her. When the other girls appeared, they said, the accused ceased the 21,474.14 assault upoa the woman and then went into the kitchen on the ground floor of the next bouse $649,059.97 and lay down on a bouch there pretending to $ C. be drunk. The girls found the deceased woman 611,830.80
bleeding at the mouth. They tried to revive 2,144. 7 35,085.00
her, and seat for a Japanese doctor who found that she was dead. Then the police were called $649,059 97 in and the prisoner was arrested.
PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT,
31st Dec. 19.2.
To fire insurance
'Io charges
To Crown rent and rates
Dr.
To repairs to buildings, &c..
To commission to agents
To interim dividend of $1.50 for half-year To balance to be appropriated as follows --- Directors' fees
$200.00 50.00 20,000.00
Auditor's feos....
Dividend of $1.60 per share
Palance to be carried to new so-
count...
924.14
C.
Several of the Jap nese girls who live in the house were examined and told in effect $
how they were attracted by a ucise from one 3,217.75
290,15 of the cubicles and ou going there found the 8,854 90 prisoner jumping on and striking the deceased 4,394.00 who was lying on the floor. When they appear- 2,048.12 ed he desisted and went away. They attempted 18,750.00 to revive the woman but when the doctor arrived
he said she was dead. One of the witnesses stat d that when they all went into the room and told the prisoner to stop assaulting her, the the woman said, “Leave him alone; don't mind
me.
21,474.14
In cross-examination by Mr. Ferrers, the $58,1936 fact was elicited that the deceased woman was not liked by the other inmates of the house
Dr, Hunter deposed that he made a post- mortem examination of the body of the decensed · woman. The cause of death was intracerebral. hemorrhage, due to very severe injuries to the head from a blow or blows; there was considerable- bruising on the head and a large bruise over the lumbar region.
Evidence of a formal character was after- wards called.
For the defence it was stated that tle deceased woman was the wife of the prisoner. She ran away from him in Formosa and came to Hongkong. He threw up his employment and shipped here. after her as carpenter on a steamer. When he found her in this brothel in Ship Street he gave her $50 to pay her debts- and get her out of the place to go back and live with him. Then he had to go away with bis ship. On his return he went to get her out of the brothel but found that she had spent the mney which he had given to her to pay her debts. She refused to go with him, and in the result the assault was committed.
Mr. Ferrers in addressing the jury on behalf of the prisoner said that the latter had admitted all along that he caused the injuries which caused the woman's death, but contended that he did not go to the brothel with any intention of killing this woman, who was his wife, but that he was angered at the time by the refusal of his wife to leave the brothel. The jury had to take into consideration the question of provocation, especially in view of the certain amount of authority that was allowed the bus- band among Eastern p:oples.
His Lordship, intervening, reminded the learned counsel that while in some Eastern nations the husband did exercise a great authority, this case must be judged accord- ing to English law which laid it down that although a wife might provoke her husband he must not strike fier. It was quite true that under the English law it had at one time been permitted a husband to beat his wife with a stick of a certain thickness-no thicker than his thumb-but that was in semi-barbarous times.
Mr. Ferrers went on to argue that at any rate a certain amountofallow ance had to be made for the excitability of the Oriental temperament, which was especially likely to be brought nto play ina case of this kind where a wife had deserted her husband to go and live in a brothel and had squandered the money he gave her to buy herself out,
The Attorney-General in his address "argued that the charge as made had beeen proved and asked for a verdict accordingly.
The Court adjourned at half-past one for luncheon.
On the Court resuming, his Lordship summed np at length, and the jury retired at 3.20 o'clock to consider their verdict.
They returned at 8.50 and the Foreman de- clared they had unanimously found the prisoner guilty of manslaughter.
Mr.. Ferrers asked his Lordship f
o forza miti.: galed sentence on the ground that the accused was not a British subject.
His Lordship passed sentence of ten years” hard labour.
The Court adjourned.
Tuesday, 20th January:
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR W. M. GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE).
EXPOSING À. CHILD, Kwok Múi, a Yaumati woman, was charged with exposing s.two-year-old-
hereby its life was endangered and its health likely to be permanently injured.
She pleaded not guilty! ~~~) Mr. E. H. Sharp, K.C. (instructed by Mr. F.