February 23, 1903:]
months' duration-he arrived bere on the 25th Jaly lest he carries with him the good wishes of both foreigners and natives, as well as of all his subordinates in the Customs, for his uprightness and his génial manners. On his departure, the foreign community, with but a few exceptions, turned out to bid Lim God-sp-ed at the Customs jetty.
THE WEATHER.
We have been experiencing a proper China New Year cold since the 26th ult. Though the thermometer has never been below 39(deg.. the north wind has been blowing a little too sharply to be comfortable, sometimes with the force of a gule.
* MAN-OF-WAR MOVEMENT.
The French guuboat | Surprise put in an appearance on the 2nd inst, und left for Centon on the following day on an important mission. She is expected here again in a few days, when probably she will stay with us for a longer period.
FIRACY.
As usual on the approach of the China New Year, piracy was recently more rampant than on any other period of tho year. On several <ccasious the pirates secu to be equal in power to the war juuks fighting' them. On the 20th ult, several piratical juuks met a solitary man- darin juuk at the entrance of Loongmoon and without much loss of ammunition on either port, the mandarin junk was captured by the pirates. On the news reaching here several war junks went out in search of the pirates and succeeded in capturing two of the piratical craft beside retaking the mandarin jouk All the pirates found on board were decapitated at | once, and their heads taken to Limchow in bamboo cages as trophiesį
CHINA NEW YEAR
|
|
was celebrated by the natives in the usual way. Notwithstanding the general complaint of the depression of trade during the year just passed, owing to the late drought and its consequent bad crop, and of piracy ds reported everywhere, Į there was apparently uo lack of merriment and crackers. The great native settling day was, however, with difficulty arranged, some mer euants experiencing great hardships in making two ends meet but it is gratifying to observe. that there was no fuilu.e to report. Such would inevitably have involved some of the merchants in your port.
FORMOSAN NEWS,
[F.OM A JAPAN CORRESPONDENT.]
THE FAYINEN THE PESCADORES
With the object of relieving the distress in the Pescadores caused by last year's failure of the tea-crop the Office of the Governor-General of Formosa has decile to reclaim a lot of ground close to the this pier at Mekong in order to furnish employment to the distressed people. The area to be recl ined is of considerable extent and will be used as a fish and vegetable market. A sum of 20,000 yen is to be appropriated for the purpose.
PRIMEVAL FOREST DISCOVERED.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
the cry about "the increased cost of living which is heard with such mournful persis tency in Hongkong, Shanghai, New York. London, and ot.er centres of civilisation The Japanese have been going into that matter of late with their usual craze for microscopical accuracy and they find that within the jurisdic tion of the Tainan Prefectural Office 8 or 10 yen is required on an average to keep a family of four persous belonging to the labouring classes (for a month presumably), which is bigber 1 30 per cent. than it was five years ago. In the district of Shokma, 7 yen will be sufficient and in Keelung 8 yen.
We are carefully reminded, however, that these figures only refer to labourers of Cuines extraction, as in Formosa the Japanese, being the conquering ruce. have-like ourselves in India and elsewhere-to keep up style, which they do. in Keelung and its c.cinity, ou at least 17 yen a month.
GOLD MINING ENTERPRISE,
Mr. Fajita Sumi's goli mining enterprise Zuilo mine, Taihoku-ker, will be carried ou in future according to an improved style. Heretofore only 70 per cent. of gold and silver could be got out of every 100 of the ore, but iu future 80 to 90 per cent. will be obtained, It is estimated that 15 kwamme of pure gold will be extracted every month, the ores obtained being 500,000 kwanime. The p oportion of silver therefore must be far greater than that of gold in the ores.
OOLONG TEA.
16.407,720 catties of Oolong tea. worth 6,750,566 yen we e cxported from Formosa last year.
CORRESPONDENCE,
We do not hold ourselves responsible for the
opiuious expressed by our correspondeats.
THE CLOUD ON THE HORIZON.
C
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESSĮ
i
#
Hongkong. 15th Februʼry, SIR.In your roceut able articles ou the threat ned recrudescence of anti-foreigu mili- tary activity in China, I have looked in vain for some reprobation of these foreigners who, directly or indirectly, hare encouraged or hire eucouraging the Chiness in their Chauvinistic ides of universal conquest. After the un successful attempt in 1900 to murder the foreigners in China Sir Robert Hart, to fare; h.s daily bread. not only, by means of the public Press applauded the Boxer volunteers for their bold attempt to murder us, but prophesie!! that next time they would be successfal, food that in fifty years the world would be orefrun by Boxers. This is, in my opinion, equivalent to un incitement to murder, and considering that this famous encouragement of the worst side of the Chinese character may have serious con- 8-quences to other people besides Sir Robert Hart, it is surely high time that steps were taken to let the true character of these wolves in sheeps' clothing bg nerally known. The silly conduct of and mischief done by irresponsible people in high places cannot be left out of account when the time comes to form an estimate of their careers.-- Yours, etc..
ANTI-HUMBUG.
A CORRECTION.
¦
187
held, and, with your leave, I propose to^ forward a suggestion for the consideration the meeting which, if adopted, will; «In my humble opinion, redress a hitherto crying : wrong operating against a number of share- holders.
:
It will be recollected that at the Inst - half-yearly meeting there was little of that barmony which we had become accustomedt look · forward to and which had always been a pleasant feature at meetings of public companies in Hongko g. It will also be remembered that this lack of harmony was still further aggravated by what was considered the high-handed action of the chairm.n, in, first of all, using language very much skin to threats, in order to impose his will on the meeting, and then, when that attempt failed, in making full use of bis powers as chairman aud depriving shareholders of their qualy divid nd for the non cessarily long period of three months.
This recapitulation may appear ancient history, but it is necessary for my purpose. It will further be recollected that to all appear-
ances the main issue between the chuirman' and the shareholders was the disbursement of au extra dollar per share. Lut was this the real cause of the friction? I firmly believe it was not; that the real cause lay much deeper, as we shall presently see.
There is little doubt that the position of affairs disclosed by the publication of the Company's report und accounts Was EO entely nuexpected that it caused absolute cismay in the ranks of the general bedy of shareholders. Shch a reversal of steady prosperity, within the space of only six months, the enormous shrinkage in the earnings and the consequent attenuation of the divideid, almost unheard of in the bistory of any other sound Company, was a thing these good people were unprepared for, and when it begaù to dawn apon them that there was but tʊo god rensou for the persistent sale of shares which had been going on for four months previous to the issue of the report, and that those who und so dis- POSE
d of their shares must have known what they were about, they felt (and who cɑn blame them P} that they had been taken at a disadvantage.
Whether the talk, current at the time, that some of the directors themselves were the first to push the sale of their shares is true or not, is altogether immaterial; nor cau any oce question the right of directors to dispose of their property whenever they choose. Bat it has been maintained that while some share- holders, acting on information received as to how matters stood with the Co., were fortunate enough to dispose of their shares before the decline set in, others, for lack of that informa- tion, if I may use the expression, “got luft.”
It will perhaps be contended that any sort of information is strictly withheld from all share- holders alike. This is simply an idle argument, for it is a well-known fact that by some means or other information does leak out. That being so, it seems but fair to all concerned that some remedy should be applied to put a stop to such injustice.
T
Now, my suggestion is that the monthly figures or returns, which are laid before the Board, should be sent to the Press for general information. The adoption of such a course by the Board would have the double effect of putting all shareholders on an equal footing)- and also effectually confute the cuarge, doubt- less unfounded, but more or less opouly made, against some directors, that their official posi+ tion is pat to an unfair use.
An interesting and annsual discovery is that of a primeval forest which has been found in Southern Formosa. The forest is of vast extent, covers, it is said, 50,000 aares, and contains 120,000 camphor trees. each measuring from 7 to 1s feet in girth, These are roughly estimated to yield ten million catties of camphor, which, purchased by the monopoly office at 18 yeu per 100 cafties, will be worth 1,721, 00 yen approximately. Besides, the forest abounds in "red-grained" oak, ex- cellently suited for making Japanese cars, and also in tenge, valuable for cabinet work and other purposes. On the whole, therefore, the trees in this newly discovered but ancient forest may be valued at some tens of millious of yen. There is one big obstacle, however, in the way of their being utilised, and that is the excessive cost of transportation. Mr. Ishibashi, chief of the Aborigines distriot office, is the lucky dis-statement may stand.—Yours, etc., coverer of this forest He has also discovered in the same remote district a peak standing 12,081 feet above sea-level, the next highest HONGKONG & WHAMPOA DOCK CO. is a well-established, custom at home, where peak therefore in the island, the highest being Mount Niitaka.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.
Swatow, 16th February. SIR,-My attention has been drawn to the notice of the opening of the new Mission Hospital at Swatow in your issue of 12th inst. It is there stated that I had munificently contributed" to the cost of erection. Such is not the case; but by substituting the name of my late partner, W. J. D. Mouro, for mine the
T. W. RICHARDSON.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PREBB," COST OF LIVING IN FORMOSA.
Hongkong, 20th Feburary. It is a curious fact that even among the
STR-On Monday next the half-yearly meet- primitive aborigines of Formosa we hearing of shareholders of the above Co. will be
But even putting aside the question of the injustice referred to, it is a most anomalous.”“ state of affairs that, for a whole six months on end, a shareholder should be kept absolutely in the dark as to how his interests are being looked. after. And when, moreover, as weɛDATE SɛOD, both the earning power of this Company and its dividends have of late become, so oriatic and irregular, surely a shareholder has a right to demand a better insight into the working of his property.
The publication of figures in the public Press :
railway companies gire weekly returns, and - why should it not be followed here? - The con tention that such publication might injure the Company by attracting competition in utterly absuid. In the- first place a dock is not built