488
.
of Shih Tsung and with the dynastic title of Yuan. or Primordial. The Yuan dynasty existed not quite one hundred years, but during that time the unlucky people of China had cause to curse the very rame of Mongol, for the Mongols governed most cruelly and san- guinarily to put it mildly. Hence when they were driven out of the country by the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (the pre- decessor of the present Mauchu) Chu Taitsu. known officially as the Emperor Hung W. & general crusade was made by the exasperated Chinese against the Mongols who remained in the country. These and those who were captured in war by the Chinese troops were banished principally to Ningpo and Canton and there made to suffer all sorts of degradations, in
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND the first instance of such a bestowal of a Manchu military rank, but I have been told by the Foochow officials that a Chinese holding the same has been recently sent to duty at Tsitsihar.
Several superfluous posts have of late been al olished in the provinces; Grain Intendencies for the most part. It is rumoured that the
continued existence of the Hoppo at Canton is threatened; also that there are to be no
more Governors in such provinces as have already a Viceroy. All this seems to signify that the Empress Dowager inclined to in- angurate the very reforms on account of which Kuang-Hsü was deposed in 1898. Indeed she seems wishful to
ge one better."
[December 12, 1904.
CHURCHES FOR KOWLOON.
SIR PAUL CHATER'S GIFT. The foundation stone of a new church at Kowloon will be laid next Tuesday. The inscription is as follows:-
This foundation stone was laid by Rt. Rev. J. C. Hoare, D.D., Bishop of Victoria, December This church erected and presented 15th, 1904.
to the Colony by Sir C. P. Chater, C.M.G.
The Government gave a free grant of 67,500 square feet for the church, the site being in Robinson Road, Kowloon, next to the school presented to the Colony by Mr. Ho Tung. It is to be erected at a cost of $40,000; and named St. Andrew's Church. It will be built of red brick. There will be seating accom.
revenge for the cruelties their fathers had made LOCAL EXPERIMENT WITH LIQUID modation for about three hundred persons,
the Chinese suffer. A Mongol exile, or T'o-ming, colloquially called Do-bee." was treated like a very slave. He was not allowed to go to school nor to b come an official. He could only be a barber, chiropodist, laundryman, or servant of the lowest class, while his women-
folk had to be female hairdressers (for Chinese ladies), waitresses upon brides at weddings, washer-women, and do similar manual work. In Canton these exiled Mongols were treated with the same cruelty; for years there was no law for them, there was neither justice nor redress for such slaves. Only the most degraded, in Chinese estimation, menial work was fir such exiles, while in Canton they were compelled to keep themselves in boats-hence their designa- tion Ting-chia (Canton colloquial, Tang ka) or boat population, none of whom was permitted
to live on land or
2 own
foot of it with the
single exception of six feet of burial ground. In the first years of the Ming dynasty, the conquerors of the Mongols, these boat people were not allowed even to be buried on land; their corpses were either cast into the river or cremated.
While the unfortunate Mongol exiles in Chekiang province have, by the Emperor's benevolent decree, been emancipated, the same is not apparent in the case of their com patriots, the "Tang-ka of Canton, in Kuang- fung province. Doubtless some philanthropic person among the Cantonese gentry, se ing the success attending the efforts of the Chêkiang notables, will follow their example and obtain the franchise and privileges of full citizenship for his townsmen, the Mongolian boating population of Canton.
MANCHU AND CHINESE.
Mr. G. M. H. Playfair of Foochow writes in the N.-C. Daily News:
It is no doubt within the recollection of many that Li Hung Chang was, during his own lifetime, the object of a similar breach of conventionality [to that which recently ap- pointed Li Hung Chang's grandson Grand Chamberlain. On the death of his mother, instead of being required to relinquish office, and retire into mourning for 27 months, as would have been the case
every other
with
Chinese functionary, he was ordered to retain his various offices and to mourn for one month only, as if he were a Manchu. In this case, however, the device was merely intended to meet an emergency, and there was no intention that it should form a precedent.
The appointment of his grandson to be Grand Chamberlain must be consigned to a different category; it is a concrete instance of a reform which was introduced some time ago by the Dowager Empress and of which no great notice seems to have been taken. This was the abolition of the hard. and-fast line of demarcation which had existed between Manchus and Chinese ever since the establishment of this dynasty. For instance, intermarriage was forbidden; it is now allowed. Many official positions which formerly were conferred on Manchus alone, are now open to Chinese also. This was strikingly exemplified when the Customs Taotai at Tientsin, Tang Shao-yi, was named for a special mission to Tibet. In the first place no mission to Tibet in had ever been confided to a Chinese before; the second place, along with hi commission, T'ang received the rank of Fu Tu-t'ang (Deputy Lieutenant-General), a rank peculiar to the Manchu army. I had fancied that T'ang's was
FUEL.
visitors
A demonstration of the practicability of liquid fuel was given on board the s.s. Goldmouth, in Hongkong Harbour on Dec. 5th Invita- tions had been issued from Capt. Starkey through Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg and Co. Included among the
Messrs. were E. Goetz, C. A. H. Westenburger, E. Arndt, F. F. Bovet (Arnhold. Karberg and Co), A. Forbes (Bradley and Co), Kraay (Asiatic Petroleum Co.), Capt. Cocker (Imperial Customs), E. A. Hewett (P. & 0.), Newman Mumford (Lloyd's Surveyor), F. Miller (Bradley and Co.), O. Struckmeyer (Siemssen and Co.), P. E. Hermann (Gaupp and Co), F. Nicolai (Hamburg-America Line),
Hurst. Captain Engineer (Naval Yard), Captain Montague, E.D.E, J. W. Bolles (Standard Oil Co), J.. L. Houston (Naval Yard), W. S. Bailey (Bailey and Co), Souchow, Girstenbraen (Hamburg Amerika Line). (aptain Lieut. Vou Egidy. Engineer Lemke, Engineer Boelke and Staff Paymaster Lehmann (Fuerst Bismarck).
Captain Blake
Anchor was weighed and the vessel proceeded on a trip with Mr. J. McIlroy, pilot, on the bridge. The run was to near Kellet Bank, east of Lamma Island. Cape D'Aguilar, south of "Bokhara Rocks, and home by way of the Lyemoon Pass.
n10
The fuel was smokeless; no stokers the furnaces were easy to feed by means of taps (it is sprayed into the furnace by means of a steam pipe); the fuel is easy to take on board;
dirt;
pumps act as an equivalent of trimmers; six fire- men instead of about nineteen, which unmber would be required in a coal steamer of the same size; 35 tons of liquid fuel per day is used by the Goldmouth as against 45 tons of coal.
The Goldmouth, which is operated by the Shell Transport Co., has a cargo carrying capacity of 7,446 tons.
JAPANESE IN COREA..
more
At either corner of the western elevation there will be an entrance, the Baptistry being on one side, and a tower on the other. The columns are of marble.
DR. A. 8 GOMES' GIFT. C On the 9th inst. the laying and the bless- ing of the foundation stone of a new Roman Kowloon took place.
at Catholic Church
The ceremony was performed by the "Rev. P. de Maria, the pro-Vicar Apostolic, in the The building will absence of Bishop Piazzoli. occupy a superficial area of about 4,500 square feet, and will have seating accommodation for 600 persons. The length from the porch to the main altar will be 106 feet, while the width of the nave will be 35 feet. The nave is 68 feet long and the main altar and chancel will be 21 feet. There will be three altars; the inain, one will be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of
Pompeii, and the two smaller ones to St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony respectively. The vestry will be on the left of the chancel and the organ will be placed on the right. The ontward appearance of the church will be as beautiful when completed as red brick can be. There will be a tower for the bells. The height of the spire will be about 50 feet. The plan and the design were prepared by Messrs Palmer and Turner, and the total cost of building, which is at present estimated at $23,000, will be defrayed by Dr. A. S. Gomes. It is expected that the church will be ready by April or May next year. The Roman Catho- lics at Kowloon are very grateful to Dr. Gomes for this generous gift.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR AT ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE.
On the 9th instant His Excellency Sir Matthew Nathan, accompanied by his A.D C. and the Rev. Father Maria, visited St. Joseph's College. On arrival the students sang a hymn of welcome and presented him with the follow- ing amusing address:-To 8 r Matthew Nathan, K.C.M.G., Governor of Hongkong. Your Excel- lency. We the students of St. Joseph's College heartily unite in a chorus of welcome and con- gratulation to Your Excellency, on your first appearance in this establishment. It is hardly We regret to notice of late, says a contem- necessary to remind Your Excellency that we porary, in a letter from Corea, more and
are utterly incapable of getting up an address lawlessness on the part of the Japanese. The
equal to your merit and dignity, but we indulge morning paper of to-day tells of two cases in the hope that you will be so good as to take We recognise in where Corean laboureis were set upon and killed the will for the deed.
Your Excellency, not merely the head of by Japanese savages. One in Ko-yang country near Seoul, and one to the west of Pyong-an. His Majesty's Government entitled to our A week or two ago a Mr. Engel, an Australian loyalty; not merely the benevolent Governor of well deserving of our affection. missionary of Fusan, was seriously injured, and Hongkong yesterday a foreign physician in Seoul was We see especially in Your Excellency a true- ~ | attacked on his own ground by Japanese tres-hearted Educationist, solicitons not only for the
One does not mind for foreigners so passers. much, they can take care of themselves, but the helpless Coreaus, wo are exposed to the fury of every bad-tempered navvy or railway coolie, are greatly to be pitied. If the Japanese authorities would publicly shoot or hang overy Japanese who beats a Corean to death, there would soon be an end to the lawlessness, but there seems to be a weakness on the part of the Government, in dealing with their own people, that looks ominous for the future. It is too early yet to judge; we shall wait to see, trusting most earnestly that Japan may prove herself worthy of the great task that has been thrust upon her by the events of the last few months. Already there are murmurings heard on all sides agaiust her injustice, and some of us who are sincere 'friends of Japan regret to see it.
wealthy few, but for the great mass of the rising generation. On the advantage of Your Excellency's correspondence We rest the strongest hopes of our future success, and trust we shall ever prove worthy of your support and confidence. As regards our scholastic acquire- ments we have but little to
While Bay. believe that some progress has been made in our studies, so far as immediate practical utility is concerned, we cannot conceal from ourselves and Your Excellency the fact that further knowledge
ке
and practice are not only possible, but would be advantageous. This splendid building On a
very desirable site and so wel adapted for its purpose as an educational establishment, represents rather our aspirations and the expectations of our friends than the extent of our knowledge.