"
December 12, 1904.]
following telegram from the Parsee community of Canton:-
"H. N. Mody, President Parsee community Hongkong. Please inform to-day's meeting we one and all heartily join in presentation to our esteemed secretary Arjanee, wishing him bon- voyage. CANTON ANJUMUN (community)."
Mr. H. RUTTONJEE, while requesting the Pre- sident to make the presentation in the name of the subscribe s, gave a short history of the movement. He said that in deference to the generally expressed wishes of the members of the community, and their urgent request, he in conjunction with some friends started and circulated a subscription list amongst the members of the Parsee community of Hong- kong and Canton, and out of 110 members, 101 readily subscribed various sums making up a total of 600 dollars in fire days. It would thus seem that virtually the whole community had joined in doing honour to Mr. Arjanee, who is rightly held in high esteem by his co-religionists for his righteousness, independence, and other virtues. He eulogised the valuable services rendered by Mr. Arjanee to the poor members of the community by quietly getting subscrip- tions for them from the more fortunate mem- bers of the community, and he paid a tribute to Mr. Arjanee's zeal and disinterested efforts in increasing the charity funds to a figure very nearly verging on one lac of dollars. He conclud ed by expressing his hearty good wishes for Mr. Arjance's health and future happiness.
Mr. N. K. ANTIA, of Messrs Tata & Co., fol. lowed with a short speech, heartily endorsing what had fallen from Mr. H. Ruttonjes He pointed out that though the presents were not of great value. they were the very embodimen's of the hearty good wishes and deep gratitude the community felt for ur Arjanee's valuable work a trustee and the secretary of the Charity
88
Funds.
Mr. H. N. MODY, who was heartily cheered, then made the presentation in the name of the subscribers. In a short and touching speech he spoke in eulogistic terms of the unabating zeal with which Mr. Arjanee bad served the com- munity as the secretary of their Charity Funds, and he assured his hearers as their President that his work of administering the funds of the community was a great deal facilitated by the zeal, fidelity, and conscientious work which Mr. Arjanee as his colleague lad brought to bear upon it.
He expressed his personal regret at the idea of separation from such esteemed colleague and co-religionist. as he had been accustomed by long association, and by his virtues, to look upon Mr. Arjanee not only as a sympathetic friend, but also as an affection ate brother. He hoped that Mr. Arjanee would live a long and useful life in his native land, full of honour and happiness.
4 ал
Mr. ARJANEE, who seemed deeply touched, made a short reply. He expressed his heartfelt and sincere thanks to all those who had assembled there, and also to all the members of the community who had evinced so much sympathy, and extended to him the right hand of fellowship and brotherly regard.
Ha protested, however, that he had done nothing more than his duty, and that he did not merit the honour done him, and he assured his hearers that he highly appreciated the good wishes they expressed for him. He accepted the present as a souvenir of their kindness, and said that he would preserve it in his family as a reminder of the happy days he had spent in China, and he assured them that this tangible proof of the extreme kindness and sympathy which they, as his co-religionists and countrymen, had extended to him during his stay in this colony, would always remain enshrined in his memory. After the presentation ceremony was over, the company adjourned to the dining room, where light refreshments were served, and where Mr. Mody proposed the bealth of Mr. Arjanee, wishing him a pleasant and a safe passage home, to which a suitable reply was given. After a vote of thanks to Mr Mody for having presided over the meeting had been accorded as usual, the company dispersed after giving cheers for Mr. Arjánse and their ever- popular leader.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
CORRESPONDENCE.
-0%-
OUT OF WORK,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.
December 7th.
:
SIR, I beg your kind perusal of the follow ing facts and would thank you to give them publicity. Seven weeks ago I was paid off the ss. Wynford in Shanghai. I stayed at the Sailors' Home, Broadway. I tried all ways and means to re-ship or to get a job ashore bricklaying, as I am a bricklayer by trade, but I soon discovered that a white man has no chance with a Chinaman. Chinese sailors: Chinese bricklayers. Hearing that Hongkong was a good shipping port I managed to get here, only to find myself "out of the frying pan into the fire." I have been a fortnight in Hongkong and a tougher fortnight I never spent. I have tried all the works about here -namely, the Naval Yard Extension Quarry Bay Dry D ck; New Water Works, Kowloon; City Customs; Macao Customs. "No vacancy" was my dismissal, I have spoken to the Shipping Master at the Sailors' Home several time and the reply has always been "No shipping whatever." I cannot obtain work. I cannot get out of Hongkong. What cau a man do? Beg or starve, of course, and I have been doing both since I landed here with but sorry success. I have slept ou the bare ground the many nights I could not beg twenty five cents to pay for a bed. I have had to depend on non-Britishers for a meal now and then. The priests of the French Mission House, Caine Road, and the Sisters of the Italian Convent have been very good in this respec. The Rev. Frauce has charge of a mission for seamen, but when I applied for assistance he would not help me because I did not belong to the Home. I applied to Mr. N. S. Brown, Hon. Sec. St. Andrew's Society (I am a young Scotchman), and he very kindly put me four days in the Home, Arsenal Street. My four days were up last Sunday, and since then I have been existing on one meal a day and sleeping out. I have seen the manager of the Y.M.CA.. but he really couldn't do anything, no funds available." Now what does all this amount to? Simply this- that I am at the end of my tether. I cannot steal, I don't like to beg, and I may add I don't like to starve. If I'm a beachcomber I'm a very poor hand at the game. My sincere desire is to get out of Hongkong to a white man's country where I could earn an honest dollar. Thanking you in anticipation.-I am yours truly,
WILLIAM CARLYLE.
OUT OF WORK.
T
did not
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."]
Hongkong, 9th December. SIR,--Your correspondent W. Carlyle is in error-I will not use a stronger term-when he states that I refus-d to help him because he was not in the Sailors' Home. refuse to help him, and if I had done so, it would not have been for such a reason. The fact of the matter is that the need is so far in excess of my means to help that I am often compelled not to refuse help," but to explain that I haven't the means.
During the past eleven months I have been enabled by grants from the Ladies' Benevolent Society, by donations from friends, and by drawing upon the Church Funds to help men, in various ways, to the extent of four hundred and fifty dollars, and with one or two trifling exceptions these have all been men not in the Sailors' Home.
Your correspondent, together with several others who have come to Hongkong, was paid off in Shanghai, but as the crew had signed three years' articles it must have been with his own consent, if not at his own request. Why did he consent? But this suggests another question, and a more serious one, why did the British Consul in Shanghai, knowing as he must have done the very poor prospects of re- shipping in Shanghai, allow him to be paid off? Surely this is a matter that calls for investi.
The secret of the Japanese superiority to the Corean is explained. The Corean can shut one eye if he has a gun; the Japanese can do itgation.-I am yours faithfully, without a gun.
J. H. FRANCE.
435
NOTABLE CEREMONY AT MACAO.
Everybody who has time goes to Macao. Gamblers, honeymooners, tourists-all arise at an unearthly hour, and go to be impressed by the ups and downs of life there, its charming environments and its urban dirt. The mind picture that survives is probably that of the lacade of St. Paul's Cathedral. This big front wall, with its sculptured angels, and its glassless windows, is now to have the cathedral that be- longs to it restored. The Bishop of Macao laid the foundation stone on the 4th inst, in the presence of thousands of the Faithful.
The ancient collegiate church of St. Paul was builded some time between 1594 and 1602– a wonderful age where foreign enterprise in China is concerned. A. Macao correspondent of the Mangalore Magazine says: "The church of St Paul's was begun in 1602, as was to be seen by the inscription on the corner-stone, but it was not completed until about 1623. The story of its building shows how intimately the interests of religion were affected by the vicis- situdes of the colony, and to what extent the mission felt the ups and downs of commerce and war. In 1602, one of Macao's richly- laden vessels from Japan, bearing the fortunes of many of the wealthiest colonists, was lost on her voyage home. The following year another vessel of the colony was cap- tured in the Straits of Singapore by the Dutch, and on the same day that the dishearten. ing news reached Macao, three ships of the same inveterate enemies and rivals of the Portuguese sailed boldly into the Macao roads and took possession of a vessel all laden for Japan, while the crew happened to be ashore. Such losses weighed heavily upon the little colony, and many a work of zeal projected by the mission- aries had to be delayed or given up altogether, for want of the aims which in the time of prosperity flowed in so generously. Among the delays was that of the building of St. Paul's church. The edifice had been planned on a grand scale; and as money was wanting to execute, the plans, work was discontinued.
In an excellent eld book, compiled by N. B Dennys of the Consular Service, in 1867, we read:
1
Subsequently to the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese dominions (A.D. 1759) their collegiate establishment was converted into barracks, but was consumed by fire on the night of January 27, 1835. The granite facade of the old church, which was preserved intact
said to have been built by Japanese stone- masons, brought to Macao for this purpose. The following description of its architecture is given by Ljungstedt":
The ingenious artist has contrived to enliven Grecian. architecture by devotional objects. In the middle of the ten pillars of Ionic order are three doors, leading to the temple: then above range ten pillars of“. Corinthian order, which constitute five separate niches. In the middle one, above the principal door, we perceive a female figure, trampling on the glo e. the emblem of human patriotism, and
underneath we read Mater Dei. On each side of the Queen of Heaven, in distinct places, are four statues of Jesuit Saints. In the superior division, St. Paul is represented, and also a dove, the emblem of the Holy Ghost.'
"In 1838 the side-walls of the church, which, though of great thickness, were considered unsafe, were out down to a height of about 25 feet, and were cut away on the inside to form shelves which were used as a place of interment for Roman Catholics. The Rev. J. A. Gonsalves, well known to students of Chinese by his works on that language, was buried here. The build- ing has been finally closed for some years past.'
When Macao was being attacked, one Fr. Rho did yeoman service with a big gun, and
W. L. H." says
44
"
"So grateful were the colonists for Fr. Rho's
services at the critical moment, that they resolv. ed that St. Paul's should be completed without further delay. It was really a beautiful church, as is amply testified by the monumental facade still standing almost intact. Fr. Jarric, the historian of the Indian missions, says that St. Paul's of Macao was similar to St. Paul's of Goa. The facade is all of granite, richly sculp tured with allegorical and mystical devices, the only fault perhaps to be found with it being that