November 19, 1904.]
the first contractor could not handle the
whole of the work." From this it is pretty
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
367
AN APPEAL TO THE GOVERNOR. knows very little about the local conditions. | KAISER WILHELM II. ́reminds us that Where did he get his experience? Has he BLUCHER was never an Eton boy. Those (Daily Press, 12th November.) consulted his experienced predecessor, Mr. who see something to admire in Colonel We had hoped that the questions asked in CHARLES FORD, I.S.O., who for more than YOUNGHUSBAND'S soldiers racing and sport the Legislative Council, the protests made thirty years laboured to accomplish whating on the uplands of Tibet, and into in the Press, and the repented expressions Mr. Dexx is lending all his energies to bring things nearer home-the interport of opinion, în public and in private, by destroy? We think not; and we venture sports that are customary all over the members of the community would suffice to predict that Mr. FORD would agree with English-haunted parts of the Orient, trium- to check the destructive onslaught of the us that the pine plantations are not yet at phantly recall to our recollection the old head of the Afforestation Department ou their zenith, that they should not in any saw that sets forth the causes antecedent to the carefully nursed plantations committed case be felled eu bloc, and that when the | Jack's becoming a dull boy. It is not so to his care. But it would seem that this is time comes for felling, it should be done easy as some rash folk have thought it to far from being the case. At the meeting only in the way of thinning, young trees index the truth of this matter. It is hard of the Legislative Council held on the 3rd being planted at the same time to replace to adjust rightly the "wavering balance," instant, the Colonial Secretary, replying to the matured or decaying ones condemned. however impartially it be held, for there is questions asked by the Hon. G. STEWART, in Mr. DUNN's apparently overweening anxiety so much to be said on both sides. When the absence of Mr. R. SHEWAN, said that to place his little Department in the Messrs. VERNON & SMYTH have to observe, the contract for. felling trees and carrying ranks of the revenue-producing departments as they did a week ago in their market away the wood had been let in two ways: seems to be, in no small degree, responsible report, that the " 'Shanghai Races bave in the first, payments are made in an in- for this tree-felling craze. But Mr. DUNN practically stopped business," and when we definite number of small instalments as the should not be in a hurry. He has yet much find so many Hongkong offices closing these trees are selected and marked for felling by to do and to learn, during which period his present afternoons, all on account of thirty- the Forest Officers, about two-thirds of the will necessarily remain a spending depart three men hitting pieces of leather about- estimated anual output having been sold ment. There are large areas on the island with pieces of wood, there seems to be a in that way. In the second, a total pre. of Hongkong still uaplanted, and miles of prima facie case for the more commercially arranged sum is paid for all the mature slopes on the hills in the New Territory minded subject who grumbles. Lord KELVIN trees in one block, about one-third of the which need his attention. There is also has stated that through dissipation of fellings having been disposed of thus. Mr. much scope for effort in endeavouring to energy the physical universe is tending MAY added that "two contracts were sub-find out suitable plants for production in towards a state of absolute inactivity in sequently let without calling for tender, as the Hinterland; and the Botanic Gardens which all energy will be transformed into are not even yet beyond possibility of im- uniformly diffused heat. He provides au provement. In the meantime the planta- opening for a pretty analogy to be made tions can safely be left, the trees will con- by those who would bewail our modern tinue to grow and improve, more especially "athletomania." They may suggest that if they are judiciously thinned, and the pro- the dissipation of energy over mere games ceeds of the annual thinuings ought to go will tend to inactivity at the desk, far to reduce the Afforestation vote. With and to a consequent diffusion of heat regard to the $33,000 set down in the in the sanctum of the taipan. They Estimates as the probable amount to be could even follow this fascinating line of realised from the sale of our young planta- argument further, and remind us that tions, we beg to assure His Excellency the although energy is indestructible, it may be GOVERNOR that the community would regard wasted; that while it is indissolubly as- this paltry sum as a most wretched offset sociated with matter (by students of natural for the destruction of the beauty of the science) it seems nowadays to be too much island, to say nothing of the detriment to the associated with matters that don't matter. rainfall, the elimination from the breezes of But that would be to trifle; and Professor the delightful and health-giving pine Tarr's remark that kinetic energy refers odours, and the removal of the cover now essentially to the movement of masses has afforded to the feathered songsters and the little or no interest for the masses who
80 unanimously to the deer who frequent the forests. If it be move
rails necessary, the residents will be ready to put of the race course and the grand stands their protest in a more concrete form and of the sports fields. Recently we saw it present a petition on the subject for trans-postulated that "the luxury of the present mission to the Right Honourable the day is having the same effect on the British Secretary of State for the Colonies. But Empire as it had on that of Rome, and we have faith in the good feeling and com- though possibly far removed, in future its mon-sense of Sir MATTHEW NATHAN, and disastrous results will be the same. Then, feel sure that His Excellency will order a as now, athletic pursuits held a prominent suspension of the tree felling on the present place, but when they ceased to be treated lines before further mischief is effected. as recreations and, became the absorbing topic of the day they hastened the cutas- trophe." This seems to us to be going The genius of our race must triumph, if not because of, certainly in spite of, our devotion' to athletics. This plausible outcry at enormous "gates," which would be out of place out here, by the way, is not seen to be wholly justified when enquired into. It is clearly impossible that the con gested thousands at Home could all play if they wished to, and who is to say that the mere observing of physical prowess, by focussing the ideal, does not ultimately help to conserve the real thing for succeeding generations? With this in mind, we could almost defend professionalism in sport, but that would not be profitable. In the East, those obsessed by cricket and football are mostly the men who take part; and we have never heard it seriously alleged that "foot- ball specials" and "cricket extras found smuggled between ledger covers, or that business suffers any real hurt by oue young men occasionally turning from tho calculation of dollars to the calculation of
évident that arrangements for a very exten- sive massacre of the innocents have been made, and that large areas which have for years delighted the eye, conserved the water supply, and lessened malaria, will soon. like the hill slopes at Aberdeen, return to their ancient aridity. The general hope and feeling of residents was that His Excellency the GOVERNOR would see his way to modify the zeal of his subordinates even in so good a cause as the replenish- ment of the Treasury. Mr. MAY appears to have clung tenaciously to the project as one that would be a novel source of revenue, but Sir MATTHEW Nathan, it was con- jectured, would see it in the larger light, and not allow such sordid considerations to outweigh those more important factors of health, beauty, and sentiment which in the past prompted the rulers of the Colony to cover the brown slopes of this once barren rock with masses of foliage. It was natural, perhaps, that His Excellency should not like to in any way reverse the policy of his locum tenens, but it is necessary sometimes to revise even one's own opinions and reverse one's own acts. But the GOVERNOR So far has not seen fit to intervene and stay the deforestation which is so ruthlessly proceed- ing; we have not even an assurance that the green slopes above the City of Victoria, which so gloriously frame it, will not even- tually be reduced to their virgin nakedness. Will not His Excellency give us some com- fort on this head? Perhaps Mr. SHEWAN would not object to address a polite ques- tion calculated to elicit an expression of opinion from the Head of the Executive. The Colonial Secretary's replies, we regret to say, afford no satisfaction.
At any rate, with the prospect of a pro- longed denudation of the hill sides before us, and a return to the pristine barrenness of the landscape, we would venture to ask Sir MATTHEW NATHAN to command a halt in this most unsightly and ignoble work, while inquiry is made into the question, from a forestry point of view, whether it is either necessary or desirable to destroy the forests after such a brief existence. We have no confidence in Mr. DUNN's dicta that the Pinus Chinensis should be felled on reaching maturity, and that such maturity is reached in twenty-five years. We believe that Mr. DUNN is merely theorising, and that he
race.
INTERPORT WEEK.
(Daily Press, 14th November.)
Now, when so many minds are occupied with the interport cricket that was com- menced last week, and that is being con- tinued to-day, it is perhaps an opportune time to review the opinions that are beginning to gain ground with regard to the sporting proclivities of the Anglo-Saxou While the number of those who regard them as one of our better attributes is still enormous, the ranks of those crying in the wilderness are being augmented. From this quarter and from that, we hear it said that "sport is demanding too large a share of the attention of our young men. When Mr. CHAMBERLAIN assures us that as a nation of shop-keepers we are being rapidly overtaken by rival firms, Mr. KIPLING, who has poetically expressed his esteem for the Man, tells us that there are too many flannelled fools at the wicket, and muddied oats at the goal." Lord WELLINGTON assured us that Waterloo was won on the playing fields at Eton, but
"
¡
much too far.
runs,
are
We are not unwilling to believe, even, that these pessimistic prophecies at