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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
has gained the southern growers the Can anyone give me, or through me the victory. With regard to advertising, the public. information as to what has been done Chinese traders do not yet realise its towards securing the counterfeit presentment of Sir Thomas Jackson in bronze? Has the necessity. "In this," says Mr. MORSE," they order for the statue been given, to what sculptor, must accept the experience of others." The and when is it likely to reach Hongkong difficulty is to make them do so, but the Also, where is it intended to erect this me nearly complete ruin of the Chiua tea- morial of our leading citizen and famous trade with abroad ought to appeal to their banker? intelligences. It would be well if they could be induced to take as their text the remarks with which Mr. MORSE closes this section of his Report. He says:- Foreign tea-buyers can buy in India or in China, as they may find the most 'advantage; but the Chinese must trade in China, and, if they wish to preserve "the remains of their dwindling trade, they must tax themselves as the Indian planters have done. On the one hand, they must "teach the grower how, with little or no expenditure of money, but merely by greater care and improved methods, he may produce a better tea at the same cost, or the same tea at a less cost; ou the other hand, they must consult and work "in co-operation with the foreign buyers, "and advertise. The Chinese tea-traders "can save the Chinese tea-trade, and no
one else cau.'
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信息
HONGKONG JOTTING ·,
(Daily Press 18th April.) Speculations about the date of the arrival of our new Governor. Sir Matthew Nathan. in Hongkong have been set at rest during the past week by the announcement from the Colonial Secretary's Office that, acccording to present arrangements, he will start for Hong- kong from England in July. He should therefore be here in August, missing the two worst months of our year-June and July. His arrival, I believe, will make little difference in the number of acting appointments in the Colony, though H.E. Mr. F. H. May will once more become the Hon. F. H. May. Colonial Secre- tary. There will still be enough deputies at the head of Government Departments to make Mr. Alleyne Ireland weep.
One or two paragraphs have appeared in the Daily Press during the past week on the subject of the scale of payment for the hire of street coolies in Hongkong. The legal scale as given in the Directory is as follows:-One day, 33 cents: half day, 20 cents; three hours, 12 cents; one This scale hour, 5 cents; half hour. 3 cents. was fixed as far back as 1871, under an ordinance passed in 1858. Friday's Daily Press contained the statement that the section in the ordinance relating to this question was repealed by Ordin- ance 13 of 1888. That is perfectly true, but it does not follow that this scale of hire for street Section coolies ceased to have any legal force.
same
V. of the Ordinance of 1888 states " All Regu- lations published under any Ordinance repealed by this Ordinance are hereby continued in force until the same shall be revoked." I am unable to discover that the regulation now in question has been revoked, and in that case the legal payment for the hire of street-coolies remains the
as it was in 1871. It is superfluous to add that no employer of coolie labour will get men for the money. The average pay, I believe, is above 60 cents a day. and any attempt to enforce the Government's obsolete regulation would be certain to prove abortive. I notice by the way that since 1871 the legal scale for cargo-boats has been more than trebly increased. It would interest many to know precisely what considerations weigh with the Government in determining the rate of increase. If the exchange value of the dollar were taken as the determining factor, the pre- sent scale for cargo-boats shows an increase disproportionate to the fall of the dollar, while if the rate of payment for street-coolies had been increased in proportion to the fall of the dollar, the present rate of pay would be over a dollar a day! It cannot be argued, however, that the cost of living to the coolie in Hongkong has trebled, or even doubled, since 1871, and 40 to 50 cents a day may be regarded as a fair average rate of pay.
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I should also like to know for how long the Duke of Connaught is to be condemned to remain in his present unsavoury surroundings. The gallant Inspector-General of the Forces would hardly feel complimented were he to see his effigy's present position. There was surely uo necessity to crowd him up in the manner the The con- Law Courts contractor has done. tractor has been suffered to luxuriate in a most nnwonted abundance of space, and I think he should have been compelled to preserve a seemly and neat surrounding to the statue, the enclosure of which is now full of rank weeds and accumulated dirt. The want of respect shown by Chinese to distinguished personages is notorious, but I wonder that the Government should permit the statue of His Majesty's brother to be so needlessly relegated to the obscurity of a builder's rubbish yard.
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The footpaths in Victoria are for the most part distinctly good, but, curiously enough, the exceptions are in the most ornamental part of | the city. I refer to the concrete paths in the oblong space-it would be a Plaza or Place in some cities-in which the Queen's Statue éccupies the central position. These paths are made of granito chips, from which the lime concrete has worn away, leaving a hard and uneven surface, destructive to shoe-leather and
It is infinitely more agonising to corns. comfortable to walk on than the "petrified kidneys" common in some English cities thirty or forty years ago, and is really trying to ladies who wear thin-soled shoes or boots. It would not cost much to give these paths a coment surface, and it would certainly be a hoou to pedestrians. Will the Commissioner of Roads and Bridges-or the official who represents that department-please take careful note?
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The enquiry which is at present being held into the industries of the New Territory should provide some good reading. I believe those industries consist chiefly of sugar-mills, brick- kilns. lime-burning factories, and rice-mills. on the ordinary routes in the Territory the European does not see much evidence of industrial activity, but there is really a great deal of it to be witnessed by the man who goes off the beaten tracks, these mills and factories being situated in most unlikely places.
BANYAN.
WAR NOTES.
FROM SHANGHAI.
We take the following telegrams from the N.-C. Daily News:-
Tokyo. 16th April. The opinion prevails in enlightened circles in Tokyo that the war may not continue as long as was originally expect. ed. The Japanese amply appreciate the signi- ficance of the Anglo-French Agreement."
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Tokyo. 16th April. It is officially announced that the Japanese commenced the action on the 11th instant, opening the eighth attack. At the 12th the Japanese des- midnight on
sank one Russian troyers
destroyer, but missed another. The Petrop inlorsk was blown up by striking a mechanical mine laid by the Japanese prior to the attack. The Japanese reopened the attack on the afternoou of the 14th and continued it until 1.30 in the afternoon of the 15th. The new cruisers Nisshin and Kasuya made an indirect bombardment for two hours of Electric Hill, and found their guns satisfac- tory. The only Japanese loss was two men slightly wounded. Though the fleet during the successive engagements was manoeuvring amidst the enemy's mines, they suffered no damage.“
"Tokyo, 17th April.-The vessels that took part in the engagement at Port Arthur on the 13th and 14th instant were the ironclads Mikasa, Hatsuse, Asahi, Shikishima, Fuji, and Yashima; the armoured cruisers Nis-hin and Kasuga; the protected
cruisers
Tukasago
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[April 23, 1904.
Kasagi, Chitose, and Yoshino; twelve destroyers and four torpedo-boats. Dismayed at the disastrous sinking of the Petropavlovsk, the other Russian vessels were extremely confused and fired indiscriminately into the water for the purpose of avoiding a torpedo-attack. The Japanese believe that the Port Arthur squadron cafi now be no longer considered a fleet in being. The people in Japan are marvellously calm."
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Peking. 15th April.-Russia has established
a military telephone between Port Arthur and S. Petersburg. with six exchanging stations. Smallpox is prevalent in the Russian camp at Liaoyang; there are a hundred or more cases daily among the Russian troops."
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FROM JAPAN,
According to a Tokyo correspondent there are now 200,000 Russian troops in Manchuria. The centre of concentration is Liaoyang, but there are about 10.000 Russians on the right (or north) bank of the Yalu,
Possiet Bay has acquired special importance in Russian eyes as a point of concentration for forces destined to oppose any advance by a Japanese army across
arms,
the Tumen towards Vladivostock. The troops said to be assembled there at present total 6.450 of all namely:-Two regiments of the East Siberia Rifles, 4,000; two batteries of field artillery, 600; one battery of garrison artillery, 300
one
battery of garrison artillery, 300; one detachment of torpedo troops, 200; Total, 6400.
'The total cost of the vessels which were destroyed in the attempts to block the entrance to Port Arthur amounted to 1,241,800 yen. This amount is made up the following figures:-
Vessels sunk in the first attempt :-
Bushiu-maru
Buyo-maru Hokoku-maru Jinsen-maru Tenshin-maru
Total
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yen 75,000
90,000
91,800
100,000
267,000
yen 623,800
yen 124,000
I
130,000 201,000
Vessels sunk in the second attempt :- Fukui-maṛu
Yoneyama-maru
Yahiko-mar
Chiyo-maru
Total
163,000
yen 618,000
FROM VLADIVOSTOCK TO SHANGHAI, Three foreigners have arrived at Shanghai from Vladivostock, says the N.-C. Daily News, travelling by way of Harbin, Moukden, and Newchwang. under special passes from the Russian military authorities. They were at Vladivostock during the bombardment, and they confirm the statement that has already appeared in our columns that the civilians in Vladivostock knew nothing of Admiral Kamimura's attack. They heard some gun-firing a long way off, but paid no attention to it. The three foreigners came, of course, by train to Newchwang, the train going so slowly that they could walk alongside it when they wanted exercise; and they had constantly to stop to allow trains full of soldiers to pass them. There were no broken bridges on the line, which is most carefully. At Vladivostock itself, the cost of guarded. living has only gone up twenty-five per cent. but there is no abundance of provisions there, or At Moukden, Viceroy along the railway. Alexieff was living in his railway car, not, as has been suggested, that he might escape readi- ly if flight became necessary, but because there are no houses there available fit to live in, and the whole city is at least a foot deep in mud. One train was passed on the way which was con- reying wounded to the rear, but otherwise there were not many signs of active warfare which the three foreigners were allowed to see, though treated everywhere, when they they were showed their passes, with great courtesy. The journey was naturally a protracted one. and the three travellers were not sorry to reach the Bund at Shanghai at last.
THE YALU SKIRMISH.
The Tokyo correspondent of the N--C. Daily News gires, under date the 13th April, the following details of the fighting at the Yalu on the 10th inst. :-Rear-Admiral month Hosoya reports that Commander Kaomin was dispatched with one lieutenant and five sailors on board a Corean fishing-boat to reconnoitre the mouth of the Yalu. On the afternoon of the