380
THE HONGKONG-WEEKLY PRESS AND
ouly sea-water to the quenching of fires and Chinese poet who sometimes covers the back of certain flushing duties. We should there.
a note with hieroglyphics which the translator fore be cutting down the expenses of thewill explain is a poem, but we are inclined to fresh water supply works and giving then, rise up in our wrath and smite the man who in fact, permanent relief.
desecrates a banknote with so sordid a thing as a trade advertisement. The ingenious trader often this week a ten-dollar note came into my hands uses a neat rubber stamp for the purpose, but
which was adorned by an advertisement of a
Kowloon residents will hardly be pleased to note that the Government is "not entirely satisfied" with the present means of extin- guishing fires in the peninsula during the dry Chinese firm laboriously written out in English season; but that it is still thought right to and covering quite one half the back of the go on as at present for another eighteeu note. The caligraphy was not a work of art, months, when it is hoped that the new but the Chinaman might have consoled himself Kowloon waterworks will be in working with the thought that it was all the more order. Those who suffer from fire in Kow.attractive for that very reason. This method loon during the next eighteen months will be of advertising may be ingenious, but the practice able therefore to reflect on the folly of being
is one that the public fails to appreciate and prays for its discontinuance. Chinese magazines premature. But, seriously speaking, we are more suitable circulating media for poetry, must confess to being som what astonished
and the proper place for trade announcements that the Government should offer such an is in the advertising columns of the Daily answer as that to the third of Mr. POLLOCK's | Press. Terms on application. questions. It is practically an admission that immediate steps are required, but that they will not be taken on account expense.
HONGKONG JOTTINGS.
(Daily Press, 16th May.)
of
It is scarcely necessary to say-especially so soon after the correspondence which recently appeared in the Daily Press-that the public welcomes the recommencement of the weekly performances of the military bands on the New Parade Ground instituted for the special benefit of the European civilian population by Major- General Gascoigne, and now happily continued by his successor. Like the majority of residents who have put in an appearance on Monday evenings, I was surprised to find it no longer possible to enter the ground from the pathway at the end of the Beaconsfield Arcade. When, in commenting last season on the need for a little improvement at this entrance, I described it as an unauthorised one I did not contemplate that the military authorities would block it up. but rather, seeing that it was used by fully 90 per cent. of those who attended the Band per- formances, the thought suggested itself that the little bank at that point might be properly graded or a couple of steps inserted. But the authorities have decreed otherwise, and it has been amusing to watch the number of people who have gone up what is now a cul de sac and have had to come back again and walk a couple of hundred yards to the proper entrance oppos
ite to the barracks.
We must continue to enjoy the danger of being hit in the face or elsewhere with bamboo poles! It cannot be denied that our local magistrates are careful men-care ful rather of not straining the law, however, than of the public convenience. This was illustra ed last Monday, when the senior magistrate refused to consider a coolie carrying a bamboo pole on a footpath under a verandah as liable to the penalty prescribed by Ordinance 14 of 1845. Now the part of this Ordinance which bears on the point has already been quoted in the Press, but some of my readers may not have seen it, sa I give it once more. It runs:-
:-Every person shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds
who upon any public footway, shall roll or carry any barrel, cask, butt, or other thing calculated to annoy or iucommode the passengers thereon, except for the purpose of housing them or loading any cart or carriage on the other ide of the footway." Bamboo- poles, however, in the opinion of the magistrate, do not come under the heading "other thing." It will be interesting to hear whether paper is another thing; a case came up at the Police Court on Friday on this point and was adjourned till the 20th inst. I presume that it is held that, with reference to the in erpretation of Ordinance 14 of 1845, bamboo poles are not other things because not ejusdem generis But & shovel apparently is ejusdem generis Truly the magisterial mind is a wonderful thing, and the law should be the admiration of the coolie class!
"
I notice a growing practice on the part of Chinese firms, and some others, of advertising themselves and their wares on the backs of bank-notes. We pity and forgive the obscure
Each has a notion
A visit to an auction where Chinese gather together and compete for charred rubbish, débris from one of Hongkong's numerous fires, is well worth the trouble, The sodden charred straw, intermingled with damaged var- nish, barral-boops at.. at No. 9 Kowloon Godown, fetched some $450. One Chinamac, you see, bids against another, neither having any knowledge of the stuff. that the other is playing for a big thing, and, consequently, up go the prices. It is surprising to see what burnt-out tin-cans fetch; and about $500 was paid for the remains of matches at the other godown. The only thing the crowd really turned their noses up at was a fow bales of worthless charred hay- -eve the cuts China. man could not make capital out of that! quantity of candles came out of the thick of No. 9 Godown fire as good as ever: were stained oats de, but inside was as "right as rain." Waler, of course, must have chanced to fall on them pretty liberally, but even so the occurrence is extraordinary. Several barrels of oil, too, were note the worse for their heating. Merchandise was so strewn about in the vicinity of No. 9 Godown that it took an Indian watch. man all his time to look after it.
A
The cases
That untiring snake-hunter Solomon, of the Water Department, effected a clever capture of a large hooded cobra on Friday evening near Plantation Road. He secured it alive, and it was on exhibition at the Peak on Saturday morning. The spectacles were very clearly marked in white at the back of the head. The cobra was fully four feet in length, and was evidently a fully grown reptile. I understand the captor intends to present it to the City Hall Museum, and as it is a fine and very perfect specimen it will no doubt prove a welcome addition to the collection of snakes in that institution.
It is generally agreed that the numbering of houses in the Peak district has proved a great success, enabling visitors to save much time when trying to get by chair to houses pre- viously unvisited by them. It is now only to be wondered at that the idea was not thought of before. But this is always the case with useful reforms.
There has been a rumour of another evening paper for Hongkong. This is not quite a new idea. Possibly, however, the would-be promoters will think twice about it. The European population is not growing at an abnormal pace now, and innovations in the journalistic line are attended with some risks. At any rate, we do not see any development of the Society" side so far. Yet we were threatened not long ago with a real Society weekly. Hongkong has survived many threats.
[May 21, 1904.
THE
WAR.
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.]
KOBE, 16th May. The Japanese Miyako touched a mine near Talienwan on Saturday and sunk in twenty minutes. Casualties number eight,
LONDON, 18th May.
that a Japanese force has reached a point There is a Russian report to the effect
30 miles north-east of Moukden on the rail- way line, and is advancing in three columns. It is also reported that General Kuropat kin is about to retire to Harbin and await reinforcements. Giving the Japanese 225,000 men now in the field, he calculates that they will take six weeks to reach Harbin.
LONDON, 18th May.
General Kuropatkin reports that 20,000 Japanese troops have landed at Siungyu. cheng, south of Kaiping.
General Kuropatkin and Admiral Alexieff are in total disagreement, both as to the question of the defence of Port Arthur and in other matters.
LONDON, 19th May. General Sassulitch, who was in command on the Yalu, has been superseded by General Keller.
JAPANESE OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.
kindly sent to us for publication a copy of the The Japanese Consul at Hongkong has
following official telegrams received by him:-
Tokyo, 16th May.
General Kuroki reports that the exact num- Yalu were 218 killed, including 5 officers, 783 bors of Japanese c-sualties at the battle of the
wounded, including 3 officers. Russian corpses buried by us numb red 1,363, and 613 prisoners were taken. The booty consisted of three-inch quick-firing field guns, 21 quick-firing machine guns & rifies, 1,021 horses and 63 cases of ammunition, besids clothing, teats, &o. At Fenghuang some ammunition, clothing and provisions were taken.
*
Tokyo, 16th May.
Admiral Kataota reports that on the 16th inst. our torpedo-boat flotilla continued sen sweeping operations under cover of the fleet. The enemy constructed a temporary battery on a promontory between Kerr Bay and Talienwan and laid six field guns, besides a hastily con- structed fort, and sent one company which Our flotilla defying stubbornly resisted. enemy's fire carried the operation and destroyed five mines; unfortunately one mine exploded and the Miyako was sunk; six wounded besides two killed during fight."
"Tokyo, 18th May.
2
"The commander of the landing forces at Liaotung reports that, between the 5th and 16th instant, daily skirmishes have taken place, the Japanese detachments successfully driving the enemy and destroying the telegraph communica tion and railw-ys at Palantion and its vicinity.' On the 16th instant, after serious fighting, our forces occupied the heights distant three and a half miles from Kinchow. Our casualties were 146, including nine offic-rs wounded."
Pulantion is marked in most English maps "Port Adums." It is about 10 miles north of Kinchow.
TELEGRAMS TO SHANGHAI, We take the following telegrams from the N.-C. Daily News:—
Peking, 10th May-The Russians evacuated Newchwang and Tashihchiso on Saturday and Sunday last. There are no Russian troops at Newchwang city at the present moment.
"Tokyo, 10th May.-The Imperial Ordinance regarding the loan has been gazetted. The I see that the correspondent up north of a leading Japanese journals welcome it as a London paper revives the question of a Ming financial coup, while re retting the hypotheca- candidate for the Dragon Throne, and mentions tion of the Customs as security. Parr's Bank, living in London, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York, each that a descendant of the old house Canton without any thoughts of taking advan- take half the loan." tage of his illustrious descent. This may be so; but I would not like to wager much on it. We have been told for many years that the Mings ars as dead as a door-nail. It is safest to say
Perhaps."
BANYAN.
*
Tokyo, 10th May. The Coreans who fled from Pingyang and Anju at the commencement of the war have returned to their homes. Coreans in Russian pay in North Hamyong province have cut off the Japanese military wires."
:
Y