September 5, 1904.]
colonies to cooperate in demonstrating the horticultural bent of the nation. The Government Gazette this week-end publishes a notification that the Royal Horticultural Society is holding an exhibition of colonial fruit (as well as home and foreign preserved fruit) on December 13th and 14th next. Special classes are arranged for all des- criptions of colonial fruits. The preserved fruit classes will embrace jams, as well as bottled and dried fruits. Separate classes being arranged for Home, Clonial, and will be seen side by side. Apples, pears, Foreign exhibits, the comparative values pineapples, bananas, mangos, grape, even yams and sweet potatoes, are mentioned in the schedule, two copies of which have
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. possible, with the cooperation of all resi- dents blessed with a "bit of garden," to make Hongkong wholly a public garden that would pull at the heart-strings of its citizens as strongly as do the remembered scenes of Home?
C
Silently, one by one, in the infinite
meadows of heaven.
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-
me-nots' of the angels."
Silently, one by one, the terraces and corners of Hongkong could be made to couplet of Longfellow's, and that with uo shine below like the stars in that pretty more fuss or trouble than the flourishing of bunting on festival occasions. How is it. that there is no Hongkong Floral or Horticultural Society? The daily spectacle be considered as ample or adequate grati- fication of the aesthetic sense that the Hong- kong dweller assuredly possesses.
The tree-peony and the lotus, the almond blos- som and the topiaried shrubs affected by the natives cannot fill the places of the Home favourites. If the flower sellers can
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to the very lucky few. If there are any SINDBAD'S Valleys left in the world, they are not to be reached as Hongkong is by a comfortable steam liner trip, nor can the voyager expect to fin enrichment so sud- denly as the Arabian sailor did, and yet have his lines cast in such pleasant places as this port may justly be considered to be, Unfortunately, too many of our immigrants their cake and have it," and the cake of imagine that it is practical politica to “eat their eating is frequently of most indiges- certainly far from being a fruitful policy, tible quality. Cocktails and maskee" is and yet it about describes the attitude of a large number of men who, discovering that the nose is not so much slave to the
the grindstone. We recently published a the proverbial ell, and shockingly neglect comment by our engul at Chicago, who very much admires the methods of the American employers, in carefully selecting suitable men, and then spontaneously rewarding them according to their meed. frequent disappointments, the employer has In the Orient, in consequence, no doubt, of
reached us, and are at the disposal of any of the Flower Market in a side-street cannot grindstone of duty us it was at Home, take
reader interested. The Botanical and Affores- tation Department, likewise, is prepared to furnish further particulars to inquirers. The Society's circular says: "The Agents. "General and Crown Agents are most kindly rendering every assistance, and we "trust that both growers and exporters will do their best to send in Exhibits worthy
£6
14
f.
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successfully rear foreign blooms for lucre, may our own folk not manage them for love? A local flower show might do much to foster enthusiasm, and enrich the flora Hong- hongensis, just as the Royal Horticultural Society at Home has done so much to revive the cult and culture of the English and have a gardener and his coolies exercise rose. It is not sufficient to write a cheque
come to look upon his assistant as a person
"of our Colonies, and to show what can be produced for the Home ma.kets. No "entrance fee or charge for space is made, and if desired the produce may be con signed direct to the Society and it will be "stored in the cellar at Vincent Square "and staged by the Society's officials in good time for the special private press view on the evening of December 12, but his taste in the environment of the foreigner. by his shrewd policy of payment by
i
When the foreigner and his lady, and their children also, learn how much it means to make personal friends of the growing things
from whom little is to be expected, and to whom no more is to be paid than seems to keep him from grumbling. There is not that recognition of mutual interests, and thereof, that Mr. whole-hearted cooperation in pursuit CARNEGIE obtained
results. The system of contract agreements, with periodic, automatic from perfect, increments irrespective of merit, seems far Between the right-minded
"the Society cannot undertake to repack "and return such exhibits. In addition to "the publicity to be derived from the Ex.
"and other prizes for competition, and other about their door, there will be no necessity employer and the properly purposeful em-
hibition, the Society offer numerous medals
"awards are given for meritorious exhibits.” We have drawn special attention to this forthcoming event, having faith in the real- ly valuable work of the Society, and because it is such a special year in the life of the institution. There is money in this fruit business, as several of our colonies have found. A comparison of the prices we used to par in Town and what we pay here for certain fruits as familiar to us as goose- berries once were, ought to convince us of that. The every day pumelo, for instance, the “shaddook" of the West Indies, ought to go well at Covent Garden. A similar but much less sweet fruit from Japan has, to our knowledge, stood the voyage and
lauded in flavoursome condition. Local interest in the doings of the Horticultural Society might benefit us in other than financial ways. It is surely not so certain yet that a decent apple is impossible of attainment in this colony. As for grapes, they ought, with more perseverance, to flourish here. Only those pe: severed
to tempt them with the mild excitements of neighbourly rivalry. A new and absorbing interest will have come to vanquish bore dom, and relieve the tedium of daily work. In the meantime, a local horticultural society seems a means to an end. there none sufficiently interested to make a move? Our columns are open to comment: we should be glad to encourage any move- ment in such a direction,
BEACHCOMBERS AND BEER.
Level
Are
(Daily Press, 31st August.) brought to bear upon us in a busy moment eyes, and a plausible tongue, recently, had almost misled us into think labour market were needing immediate and ing that at Hongkong the conditions of the radical alteration. The special article based on a "beachcomber's" contribution, which appears in another column, will be found sufficiently suggestive of the source of the representations which turned our attention who have to the possibility of unifying and con- after frequent failures influencing the charitable organisations of horticulture are able to realize what Hongkong, as well as to the supposed need surprising results are possible. Dropping of a sort of labour bureau that should facili- at this point, however, the material argu- tate the finding of employment for de- ments of the moneymaker, and the no serving applicants. Such a movement, and less material allurements of the gourmet, auch an institution, may quite possibly be may we suggest that our people in Hong-desirable, notwithstanding that we have, ou kong have other reasons to sympathise with reflection, been tempted to revert to the the objects of such Societies as the one to long held conviction that in the average
willing to work need suffer want. British community no one who is able and ly in the case of Hongkong, while we have gold, or to exaggerate its possibilities of no wish to paint the lily, to gild refined prosperity, there appear to be ample op- portunities for the young man of ability willing to work and anxious to succeed. It has been suggested that many have been tempted to come here by too glowing disappo.ntment have been great. Such a accounts, and that their disillusionment and risk is always run by those who expect too much. Quick returns and big dividends go
which we reier ?
A recent writer has, in a new novel, uttered the conceit that vegetables are the boy children of the gardener's nur ery, and flowers the girls. Our parental hopes are often fixed upon the boys, but how much dare we limit our estimate of the joie de vivre attributable to the maids blooming in life's garden? In the case of flowers, can we claim that this now British corner of the Flowery Kingdom is
as flores- cently blooming as it might be, even after the years of excellent work by the Botanical Department? Would it not be
Certain
ployee there is no need of such an arrange- ment, which in ΠΟ case guarantees füll satisfaction to either.
On the question of alcoholism, to which no consideration of the relations out here of master and min is complete without refer- ence, so prominent a factor is it, we have ho sympathy with our weekly contemporary
in Shanghai, the journal with "Water is king" for motto. Unfortunately, in the Orient we have been obliged to regard that King with undilute suspicion. The Union has for a very long time been filling its editorial philosophy of the kind that consistently columns almost exclusively with teetotal refers to wine as a mocker and alcoholic pathetic to find such a loyal echo of the drinks as a suare of the devil. It is quite blue ribbon tracts of Home continually lifting up its voice to such a tune in a community where, if water be king, it is (as a beverage) a King deposed from his high estate, and left with but few adherents. There cannot be any wisdom in these vain repetitions of an oft-told tale that no one much iteration has lost its force, like the believes; or if believed, a tale that by too alarm of "Wolf' taken in ordinate quantities, is no mocker, in the fable. Wine,
save that it sometimes enables the drinker
ing to the editor of our northern contem- to mock at melancholy. In any case, grant- porary strong reasons for 20 everlastingly emphasising his convictions in the matter that the objections of reason are of no avail of drink, it is about time he should discover
feelings of pleasure he craves for to brighten against anything that procures for man the life. It were an amusing thought, but for its element of gravity alluded to, that these lucubrations should be, a are, read only by th: people who agree with they probably their sentiments, and who do not need the warnings they couvey. Unhappily, how- painfully apparent in its local results that ever, over-indulgence in stimulants is so there is every excuse for the over or
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