September 5, 1904.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Mr. E. C. Georg: Is it not your duty as THE "ARABIA" AT SHANGHAI. | inspector of buildings to call the owner's atten- tion to such ?
This was not
Witness: Not that I am aware of. If it was in a state likely to be dangerous we should inform the owner at once. so far gone.
Mr. Gompertz: How many per cent. do you think as bad as this?
Witness: One half of the old houses have cracks. This would apply to houses of ten years old, up. Small cracks. The cracks I saw were not large.
Mr. E. A. Georg: And yet you do not consider them dangerous?
Witness: If the cracks are small it would not necessarily render a house dangerous. Mr. E. A. Georg: Who is the owner? Mr. Deacon: The owner is not here. His name is Mr. Li.
Mr. Deacon, through Mr. Gompertz: This collapse was immediately due to the typhoon, but for which we have no reason to suppose a collapse would have occurred at that
time.
The jury came to the decision that the woman met her death through the accidental collapse of a house caused by a typhoon and rain.
LIAOYANG.
A correspondent of the Novoe Vremya gives the following description of the rise, size and importance of Liaoyang.
General Kuropatkin's headquarters and the official buildings are not in the town itself, but in a neighbouring settlement, which was founded in 1898, when the town was made the headquarters of the officials charged with building, the southern section of the Manchurian Railway. In 1900, when the Russians retired to Haicheng during the disorders, the Chinese quarter was burned down. After the fight near Aisanlan-tien the Russian troops under General Subbotitch again occupied Liaoyang, and the engineers began to rebuild the town. The position of the town, at the junction of railway and roads leading from Intsu, Moukden, and the Corean frontier, and its importance as s trading centre, soon attracted the attention of railway authorities, who built there a large, first-class station and numerous warehouses, workshops, and the like. In 1901 private initiative began to display activity; many houses and large shops were built, and there was soon a purely Russian settlement next to the Chinese town. Most of the houses are une-storeyed, after the type of American farm-houses. There is a beautiful Orthodox church in the middle of the Russian quarter The pavements are wretched, and lighted by oil lamps; the streets are not made up; thus, in rainy weather they are merely bogs and Europeans wishing to cross such a street have to get themselves carried across by the Chinese. The town has no water supply; a Russian engineer tried to lay down a system, but the attempt came to naught, there was a "fault somewhere. Thus the people have to drink unfiltered water from the clay, and for this reason everybody suffers from stomachic disorders.
21
NEWS FROM VLADIVOSTOCK.
The German' steamer Arabia, chartered by the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Company, which was captured by the Vladivostock Squadron on the 22nd July, arrived at Woosung late on Sunday morning (28th August) and was to leave again for Japan in the early hours of August 30th. She came to Shanghai direct from Vladivostock, and by courtesy of Messrs Carlowitz and Co. (the agents there) and Capt. Rogers, a representative of the N.-C. Daily Neios was able to glean from those who came down on her something of her experiences and of the present condition of affairs in Vladivo-
The Russian quarters lie westwards of the railway and border on the walls of the Chinese town, and are divided into two parts by a broad, large street. In the southern half are the house of General Kuropatkin, the house of ke Chief of the Staff; and the offices of the Field Chancellery. Here also there stands ready with steam up and on a side-track the magnificent train used by Gen. Kuropatkin. Behind his residence are the barracks of the railway battalions and the centre of business life. In this quarter the only hotel is to be found; it is dirty, dark, badly fitted up. and horribly dear; one is glad to get even its worst hole of a room for 68. 6d. a day. In the Russian quarter there are immense store-rooms for ammunition and food, hospitals, and various buildings required in providing for the needs of a gigantic army.-Japan Mail,
The 8.8. Tweeddale left Chinwantso on the 30th ultimo, carrying 1,406 coolies for South Africa. The s.s. Ikbal leaves to-day. The Lothian, Swanley and] Inkum will also leave in due course.
stock.
The Arabia, which is a 2,868-ton steamer. sailed from Portland on the 3rd of July with a cargo consigned to Yokohama and Hongkong. when she fell in with the three Russian cruisers who were just then very active in the vicinity of Tokyo Bay. Ordered to stop. she received a Russian lieutenant on board, and on the nature the Rossia, a prize crew of five officers and forty. of her cargo being signalled to the Admiral on two men was sent on board her to conduct her to Vladivostock, while 14 of her Chinese crew
She had arrived within 140 miles of Yokohama
were taken on board the cruisers. She touched at Korsakoff on Saghalien, and communica- tion with Vladivostock having made it apparent that the coast was clear of Japa-
nese vessels, she was taken across to the Russian port, arriving there on the 28th July. After ihree days the captain, crew and passengers (white) were allowed to go ashore, and they seem to have been well treated and suffered no hardship. The Prize Court sat on the 2nd ult.. and its eventual award confiscated the 20,000 barrels of flour and seventy-one railway car bodies on board as contraband. The rest of the cargo and the vessel itself were released.
While the Arabia was at Vladivostock the blue-funnel liner Calchas, captured on the 9th ult.. was brought in. and it is instructive to learn that the flour and timber, which formed part of her cargo, were confiscated at once, without waiting for the decision of the Prize Court; that decision had not been formally rendered when the Arabia left Vladivostock. The Calchas also had 90 bags of mail for Japan. These were captured with her, and brought down to Shanghai by the Arabia, and since taken on to Japan. Altogether during the time the Arabia was in dock five prizes were in Vladivostock harbour- Allanton, the Calchas, a small Japanese schoon- and another small vessel. The captain and crew of the German steamer Thea, which was sunk about the same time as the Knight Commander, were put on board the Arabia and have since been brought on to Shanghai by her.
The Thea, it may be mentioned, was loaded with fish-manure and was sunk by seven shells, without any attempt capture. She had eight days' coal supply on board and might therefore have been navigated to Vladivostock.
er,
-
the
at
At the Russian port the war has not made many changes as yet. Two trains were running daily each way on the railway line: Viceroy Alexeieff was back there again: and the town full of officers and troops. The band concerts were going on as usual. Meat and four were cheap enough, supplies being plentiful (so they should be, in view of these fine hauls), but cigars are scarcely purchasable.,
KOWLOON DOUKS.
178
The Hongkong and Whampoa Dook Cola Kowloon establishment has experienced quite s pressure of work lately. No. 1 dock has not ยท been vacant for a long time.. The new stern, frame of the s.8. Sikh, now in No. 1 dock, may be fitted in a week or so; and then the Shawmut will occupy the berth. The exact damage to the Shawmut, which is at present lying alongside with a list to port, is not at present known. It has been decided not to send down divers to inspect the bottom, as the ship has to go in dock anyway, and the divers could do no good. The German 8.8. Clara Jebsen is in No. 2 dock,
Before the Arabia left, the Rossia and Gro- movoi came in from their last disastrous expe- dition, and although the informants did not get a close inspection of them, they saw enough to wonder that the cruisers ever reached Vladivo stock at all. They were in a pitiably wrecked condition, and it will be some weeks before they can be fit to go raiding again.
The voyage down to Shanghai was smooth and uneventful. No man-of-war was passed the whole way.
undergoing her annual general overhaul and survey. No. 3 dock is taken up by the dock dredger Canton River. With her great beam, twin-screws, and the quantity of machinery above deck level, she looks a peculiar vessel. In spite of her working on the bucket system, and not
Shanghai philatelists will be interested, says Sport & Gossip, to learn that the local Chinese Post Office has run out of half cent stamps. It is proposed to remedy the deficiency by cutting the one cent, issue into two, diagonally. Sport & Gossip does not say by whom this risky method is proposed.
*
the more modern suction
system, she is a very useful craft. The China Navigation 8.8. Sungkiang is on the big slip; her bottom-cleaning finished. She looks like a new pin." The ferry Morning Star, The s.s. Lothian, painted white with buff funnel and other small craft, are also on the slips. and black top, looks particularly well. She is alongside fitting up to take coolies to South Africa. The China Navigation 8.8. Changsha and the German s.a. Kort are moored off Pathfinder, her hull all red priming, is also The little U.S. surveying ship
moored there. She seems none the worse for her recent stranding.
the docks.
NEW SHIPS. The Dock talk of the hour is the new steamer Kinling, which, by the way, was a few days known
as the Shanghai-the largest vessel ever turned out at Hongkong. She is to un- at 9 a.m.; and considerable anxiety is felt as dergo a trial trip this morning, commencing
to the result. It is said that at her last trial, a few days ago, some difficulty was met with in keeping steam up. At present the Kinling. with a yellow coloured hulf and white top-work, is lying off the docks. On the new Philippine Island survey boat work is proceeding apace, the shell of the vessel nearing completion. Capt. Yates, the skipper, is to be found constantly by The Evening Star, a new ferry, is practically her; and he seems satisfied with the work so far.
Her upper-deck fittings are not quite finished. ready for launching, except for the coppering. When launched, no doubt, she will be brought under the sheer-legs to receive her engines. The recently-built hopper has disappeared, so it is to be presumed she is already in use.
ground are finished as far as frame-work is New sheds in the vicinity of the building concerned. They are all ready to receive their corrugated-iron roofs. The new electric light plant is being fitted up by degrees.
MISSION WORK IN THE NEW TERRITORY, HONGKONG.
B
The Committee of the Hongkong Church Missionary Association having accepted suggestion made by the Bishop that the Association should support one or more catechists in the New Territory, Mr. G. A. Bunbury thinks that members will like to have some account of the man whom they are asked to support. He says, in the monthly pamphlet, that the beds of the New Territory have long been present to the minds of the members of the South Chins Mission, but till recently it was found diffealt to provide a man for this new work. Some years ago, Archdeacon Benis- ter bought two tents which were pitched at P'ing Shaan, services being held by catechiste sent out for terms of a fortnight from Hong- kong, with occasional visits from the missionary in charge. This plan was not altogether satis- factory; the workers were constantly changing, only one place was evangelised, and at last the tents were badly damaged by a typhoon. But the dificulty was to find a suitable man who should devote his whole time to the work, and was qualified by his knowledge of both Cantonsee and Hakka to preach to all with whom he might come in contact. At length, at the beginning of this year, the proper man was found. Chung Wai San was for two yours a colporteur work-