July 16, 1904.]
Mr. Lau Ping-koon was very agreeable in manner. In spite of his nails being rather long-long nails are in fashion at Corea-he shook hands in European style.
RAISING A WHARF.
For some time past that end of the Hong- kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Co.'s wharf next the Praya has been gradually subsiding, due doubtless to the heavy buildings erected in- side the gate. When the wharf sank no less than five inches it was thought advisable to take measures to stop the subsidence, especially as the iron piers and stanchions were beginning to show signs of giving way under the strain put upon them. Yesterday was the day fixed for carry. ing out the raising operations. A staging was erected underneath from which to proceed with the work and everything was got ready for a start as soon as the bustle attendant on the departure of the Heungshan at noon should have passed off. The gates were then shut and casual visitors to the pier had to make use of a temporary bamboo bridge leading from the Praya at the side of the entrance. The power employed for hoisting the end of the wharf was Hydraulic. When the apparatus once set to work the huge bulk, weighing something like 80 tons, was forced slowly up and back into its original position. Owing to the heavy super. structure, the operation was rendered more difficult as there was a danger of the gate-wall collapsing when the Lae was being pushed upwards. Fortunately there was no mishap. and the work was carried out quite successfully. A large crowd of Chinese assembled to witness the unusual spectacle. As is usual with them under such circumstances, they would persist in getting close up to the job to have a "look-see" heedless of the possible fall of the wall and it was only with difficulty that they could be kept outside the zone of danger. Mr. D. Macdonald, consulting engineer, super- vised the operation.
THE BISHOP OF MACAO.
PASTORAL VISIT TO SINGAPORE.
i
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
A BUNCH OF BOOKS.
51
be a success, for young Fessenden Abbott pro- spers all right and ends up by marrying the daughter of an Emperor. The book is fanciful, The Watchers. By A. E. W. Mason. London:light and amusing, though somewhat tang as
T. Fisher Unwin.
regards its plot. Messrs. Kelly & Waisa hare the work on sale.
**
"
It is so seldom (and here the reviewer speaks with becoming deference to the great army of fiction producers) that any really good thing comes with the modern batch of novels, that the temptation to exaggeration of praise in the case of the merely mediocre is ever present. The .. 80-80 kind are as kindly dealt with as is The consistent with truth-review truth.
rather better" have to be praised. What remains but superlatives, then, for so peculiarly good a story as "The Watchers"? Of course Mr. Mason is far from being an unknown writer. Much previons good work had prepared us for "The Watchers," which is a very stirring story of Cornwall a hundred and fifty years ago. with pirates as real as poor Stevenson's, and diction well-nigh (for it were heresy to omit some qualification) as musical and clear-cut as any Stevensonian specimen. No reader, how. ever fully fared on novel diet, will be able to lose interest in the thread of Stephen Berkeley's tale, although many will guess. before the final chapter is turned, how it was that the beautiful Helen came to commit suicide, and to laugh unconscious of it the next day. To all but that enlightened and elect few who 'can't stand Dickens." &c.. this novel is recommended with confidence.
**
As We Forgive Them. By William Le Queux,
London: George Bell & Sons. ANOTHER "Queuxotic“ novel, of the absorbing interest and suspense of mystery which novel readers have learned to look for from this prolific writer. Such as do not mind a few improbabilities, who have no eye for occasional inartistic turns of expression, and to whom the incidental banality causes no feeling of distaste, will revel in this as in past stories from the same pen. A mysterious pilgrimage for a mysterious purpose, which turns out to be the discovery of a Monte Cristo treasure hidden in a mysterious cave, the secret guarded by a mysterious pack of cards, and the searchers in constant peril of unscrupulous people who "smile mysteriously" and turn out honest at the last who could resist such a combination, especially when there is a healthy and charming love interest"
and
a
to inspire sympathy. feeling of satisfaction when the concluding pages show the happy finis? Not the reader who wants a thrilling story straightly told, and that is what As We Forgive Them" really
The Gage of Red and White. BY GRAHAM HOPE. London and Bombay: George Bell & Sons.
THIS is an entertaining historical novel dealing
with the Court life of France in the days when Calais was yet an English fortress. The central figure is Duc d'Aumale, the great soldier and chivalrous knight and unsuccessful Statesman. Romantic, and written in a manner wholly fas cinating. The Gage of Red and White book as readable as it is historically valuable.
Recently His Lordship D. João Paulino d'Azevedo e Castro, the Bishop of Macao, journeyed down to Hongkong by the Hong kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company's 8.8. Heungshan en route for Singapore and Malacca on a month's pastoral visit. His Lordship was accompanied to the Macao wharf by all the leading officials. including His Excellency the Governor, Sr. de Queiroz Montenegro; Sr. Alfredo Lello, Colonial is. Secretary; Sr. Alves Branco, Harbour Master; Sr. Guedes, Captain Superintendent of Police; the Captain and Officers of the gunboat Diu : Major Santa Anna, Inspector of the Military Forces: Inspector da Fazenda, and the Attorney-General. The students of St. Joseph's College to the number of about eighty also went aboard the Heungshan and paid their obeisances to the party and kissed the Bishop's hand before the steamer left. Those who accompany his Lordship to Singapore are Father A. Gomes, Father Nunes, Father Arkwright, and Sr. João Lima; while there accompanied him as far as Hongkong O. Sr. Deão Illydeo de Gouveia, Father Manuel M. Alves, and Sr. Braganca. His Lordship will leave for Singa- pore by the German mail steamer the Seydlits to-day. The ceremony of bidding au revoir to the reverend prelate at the Macao wharf was most impressive, and all the gubernatorial party were dressed in full-dress uniforms and medals. At Hongkong the Bishop and his suite were met by several reverend Fathers on the pier and escorted to the house of His Lordship Bishop Piazzoli. On the voyage down the com- fort of the party was well looked after by the captain and chief officer of the Heung-han, Last night the members of the Catholic Union met at their Club-house in Glenealy to welcome his Lordship and bid him God-speed on his
voyage.
The clock in the office of the Japan Daily Mail has been stolen for the third time. Our contemporary seems much distressed about it, and devotes more than half a column to the virtues of this old servant, which has been going since 1872. We hope it hasn't gone for good.
|
I
11
is a
Rulers of Kings, By GERTRUDE ATHERTON.
London: Macmillan & Co., Ld. THIS authoress always does take as a basis for her fictional writings the assumption that "United Statesians (so she calls them) are a distinctly superior kind of being as compared with any other of the older nations, and more especially that the American women no less than their countrymen are also imbued with all the high qualities that go to make up this trans- cendental superiority. It must be admitted. however, that apart from this not altogether desirable idiosyncracy, she writes fascinatingly. draws her characters well, and
effectively.
groups
them
So much caff certainly be said with respect to Rulers of Kings. The story concerns a young fellow who is brought up in the country in indifferent living circum- stances and has concealed from him the fact that his father is a multi-millionaire financier of New York, who has adopted this method of up-bring in so that his son may learn to know what adversity means before being called upon to take up the business of which he is destined to be the head. The method employed appears to
Nature's Comedian. By W. E. NORRIS. London and Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co.
HAROLD DUNVILLE is the son of a country cleric who is outcast from his family because he commits the heinous offence of going upon the stage, and it is only after his parents' death that he is permitted as a prodigal son to re- enter the fold. His brother, also a clergyman, is also secretly enamoured of the stage, and he writes a play and gets Harold to produce it as Meanwhile his own. with immense success. the brilliant young actor is disappointed in
and in
of frenzy of love, disappointment becomes engaged to of the ladies of his company. But the marriage never takes place, for Harold, realis- ing in time that he has made a mistake and mortgaged his happiness and career in a spirit of chagrin, sacrifices his life in an attempt to save a chorus girl from a burning theatre.
|
sort 11
one
MR. NICOLLE'S APPOINTMENT.
The despatch from the Secretary of State which we (Times of (isylon) published recently is an interesting document, conveying as it does definire confirms ion of the statement made by ns some time ago that Mr. Nicolle was about 10 be appointed Treasurer of the Colony and giving explanations how the rights of the Čeylon Civil Service were to be conserved in spite of that appointment. Hitherto the Treasury has been the one "plam" of the Service, carrying with it a seat in the Executive Council, and the Auditor-G neralship has usually been given to some nominee of the Secretary of State. Mr. F. R. Ellis, however, now holds the latior appointment, so Mr. Lyttelton thinks he is entitled to put his own nominee in the other. It was just as well, however, that the Secretary of State should be made acquainted with th feeling prevalent in Ceylon when this appoint. meut was first announced by us. The result is that an equitable arrangement his been arrived at, for it on air. F. R. Ellis's retirement Mr. Nicolle is transferred to the Auditor-General- ship, it is apparently intended that the senior Civil Servaut sh become Treasurer, and that that post shall be made superior to that of Auditor-General, so that Government may in all questions of expenditure have the benefit of the advice and assistano› of the most experienc- ed and able officer of the local Service. seems an excellent arrangement, involving as it does the necessary reduction in importance of the post of Auditor-General, which will in the
This
future be confined to financial expects entrusted with all metters of detail. This arrangement seems satisfactory in all respects and will me 't with general approval. It is sincerely to ba trusted, however, that future Colonial Secre- taries will pay more regard to the financial experience and fitness of the nominees they appoint to fill the post of Auditor-General than to considerations based on patronage and Mr. Nicolle, our. new expediency. In Treasurer, we seem to have one who has had experience of Government considerable accounts, and we have no doubt he will prove a
valuable and efficient officer of Government.
Major Sir Matthew Nathan, R.E., K.C.M.G..... the new Governor of Hongkong, entertained a number of persons connected with the Far East at the Army and Navy Club on 6th ult. Amongst those present were Mr. Lucas, C.B., of the Colonial Office, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, Sir Alfred Dent, Mr. W. Keswick, M.P., General Sir William Gascoigne, Sir Thomas Jackson, and Mr. T. H. Whitehead. It will perhaps be of interest to note, says the L. & C. Express that came yesterday, that Mr. W. Arbuthnot Leslie, who goes out as A.D.C. to His Excellency, is the grandson of a former partner in Dent and Co., who retired during the flourishing days before 1866. Both His Excellency and his A.D.C. are, we hear, polo players and keen sportsmen generally-facts which we aro sure will be appreciated in Hongkong.