288
RAT RETURN.
The rat return for the week ended the 29th April showed that 446, including seventeen infected, were caught in the City of Victoria, and 186, including ten infected, in Kowloon
SUPREME COURT.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE MR T SERCOMBE SMITH
(PUISNE JUDOE).
BUI TUEN FIRM . H. BROWN.
The Sui Yuen firm, of No. 74, Watchai Road, contractors, sued II. Brown, trading under the name of H. Brown & Company, the American Bakery, No. 82 and 83. Praya East, for $104.30, balance due for work done and material supplied. Mr. Otto Kong Sing appeared for the plaintiffs.
Mr. M. J. D. Stephens, who had been retained for the defence. said he wished to withdraw. Mr. P. W. Goldring said that he also had been instructed to appear for the defence, and asked for an adjournment to bring i a witness. This was refused and Mr. Goldring asked leave to withdraw from the enşe also.
After hearing the evidence His Houour said: -The claim is for $18.30, less $4 said to have been paid on account. The parties agres except in respect of three items. viz., two bread boxes for which the plaintiff charges $2. He said the wood cost $36, and the balance of $16 is for workmanship. He told the Court that the $34 worth of wood was represented by a hill he showed, but unfortunately for him three of the pices of pine bought, which he says were employed in these boxes, were hight four
the boxes were days alter
delivered. I 1 was, therefore, impossible for him to have put these into the boxes. He, therefore, put into the work five pieces of wood at $150 each. That makes $22.50, and adding another $12.50 for workmanship makes it $35, which the defendant is prepared to pay. Wo come to the question of tressles, and I think the story of the defendant as regards these is the more likely of the two. These were, he said, made out of the very lumber purchased for these particular boxes. I do not allow anything on that account. I do not allow anything for the hard wood, because there is only the plaintiffs word against the defendant's. The claim must. therefore, be reduced to $82.30, with costs.
CANTON NOTES.
[From the Chung Ngoi San Po.\
DEVELOPMENTS.
The place named Fong-Chum, rear Fati opposite Canton. is regarded as a most suitable place for a commercial centre. Some time ago a well known Chinese merchaut named Woug Chui-Ping purchased a large extent of land for the purpose of constructing godowns and wharfs and also some foreign merchants have acquired a large site for building houses, etc. It is reported a foreign civil engineer who has lately arrived from Peking has proposed to construct a large road from Che-mi to Fati occupying about five hundred mau of land, the expense of building the road will be paid by different land owners, who have to pay ten dollars for each man of land in advance to found a road fund. If the land- owners fail to pay the expense, the company will purchase the land from them at the price of one hundred and twenty taels for every man. A meeting of land owners, invited by the civil engineer was held in Shameen recently to draft the regulations, but as the regulations are not written in Chinese Mr. Wong-Chui-ping, who is ignorant of English, wants them to be trans- lated in Chinese first, before the final decision can be arrived at. It was proposed to hold another meeting on the 29th April.
VICEROY SHUM ILL.
It is reported that Viceroy Shum seeing that order has been restored in the province of Kwangsi has sent a memorial to the Throus asking to be allowed to resign his viceroyship under the plea of illness.
BAD SILK OUTLOOK.
On account of the contined rain the silk crop has been reported unfavourably. Mulberry leaves which have been greatly damaged by the
5
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
r. in are sold at a price from two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents a catly; and the price Оп of silk-worm eggs is excedingly high. account of the heavy outlay many pople have not yet commenced to rear silk worms.
AN AFFLUENT EXILE.
Pui-King-fnk, the late Nam-hoi magistrale and well-known squeezer, who has been banished at the request of the viceroy to Chinese Eastern Turkestan, will proceed thither in a few days. Pui has recently received a large sum of money presented by his friends on account of his banishment. His old servants Lui Kam Shan and Li Tsz Ming, who also made a heavy extortion of money during the term of Pui's office have sent him from Shanghai and Ka Ying eight thousand and three thousand d-llars respectively.
SHANGHAI-NANKING
RAILWAY,
FIRST S01 TURNED.
The N.-C. Da ly News of April 26 reports: The official sod-cutting ceremony in connec- tion with the Shanghai-Nanking railway line, which should have taken place 1st June but was poston d because of the illness of H.E. Sheng Kungpao, took place yesterday morning. At 11 am. a company of about seventy to eighty persons assembled at the Shanghai Station where a guard of honour of the newly enrolled members of the railway police, a force which has been formed by Mr. Shen Tun-ho, was drawn up on the platform. The guard presented a very smart appearance. The company proceeded by special train down the railway in the Soochow direction to a spot on the side of the new railway where a matshed had been erected. Those present included His Excellery Sheng Kung-pao, Director-General of the Imperial Chinese Railways, Lord Li. Assistant Director-General, Messrs H. E. R Hunter, Manager Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, H. Keswick. Special Ropresentative of the British and Chinese Corporation. Limited, Weng Chen-suu. Chief Cashier of the hang- hai-Nanking Railway, Hsu Siao-chung, Assist- aut Director of the Land Purchasing Office. and the Paoshan magistrate. The Board of Commissioners of the Shanghai-Nanking Rail- way was represented by Mssrs. David Landalo (Chairman), A H. Collinson, M. Inst. C. E., (Engineer-in-chief) Chen Oi-ting. Shen Tun-ho, and E. Morriss (Secretary.) There were also present Messrs E. J. Dunstan, Locomotive Superintendent W. G. Eves. Executive Engineer, F. C. Moule. Storekeeper, etc.
The proceedings were opened by the Engineer-in-Chief, who addressed the company as follows:
Your Excellencies and Gentlemen. - You have been kind enough to come here to-day in very bad weather (at rather short notic; I am afraid) to witness in the Est au old Western world ceremony, the formal turning of the first sod of a railway which his Excellency Sheng Kung-pao. Director General of the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration kindly con- sented to perform on the 17th day of the 5th moon of last Chinese Year (corresponding to the 30th June, 104, of the Western calendar). but which, owing to the very regrettable and lengthy illness of his Exllucy has had to be postponed until to-day which, I believe, is the first occasion his Excellency has left his house sine his illness, and I am sure you will all unite with me in congratulating him on his recovery and return to active office.
Although construction work has been in active progress for some mouths, the ceremony which his Excellency is about to perform may be regarded as the official commencement of the construction for the Imperial Chinese Railway
Administration of a system of railways by the British and Chinese Corporation, Limited, a British Compang whose interests are so ably represented locally by their joint agents, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, aad in particular of the railway forming part of their system from Shanghai to Nanking, which, firmly believe, will become one of the, most important and profitable railways in China,
if not in the world.
Everything must bare
a beginning, and
which trifling though the actual ceremony
you
I
ļ
| May 6, 1905.......
are about to witness may appear, I can assure you we engineers regard its performance with very great respect and reverence because, no matter how many delays and postponements have prefaced its accomplishments, once done it remains to us as a ma ter of honour, of "face" in fact, that the work must continuously proceed to fulfilment, to completion, and there must be no further delays or postponements.
You are all of you familiar with the history of the Shanghai Nanking Railway, the concep tion of which was, I believe, due to the pioneer railway engineer of China, the late Gabriel Jam-s Morrison, M. Inst. C. E., whose recent death we all greatly deplore, and no one more so than myself, the construction of this railway had been, I know, his life's ambition.
I have not been long enough resident in China to venture opinions on its past history, but this I will say; to-day will mark an epoch in the future history of China, of Shanghai, Nanking, Soechow, the capital of the province of Kiangsu, and of the whole Valley of the Yangtze.
Gentlemen, I will not detain you longer, but will now ask Mr. Henry Keswick, the Special t'epresentative of the British and Chinese Corporation, Limited, to initiate his Excellency into the mysteries of the ceremony, and to present him with the spade necessary for its accomplishment.
Mr. Keswick in a few well-chosen words then handed a pade to bis Excellency, who dug the sod and tipped it into the new bank.
His Excellency returned his thanks to Mr. Keswick for the kind words he had used, in a brief speech. He hoped that Mr. Keswick would cable to the Corporation in London to the effect that he had performed the formal ceremony, that he wished the railway every good wish, and hoped that it would work mutually for the benefit of both Chinese and foreigners.
The company then returned to the station, where refreshments were served and a few congratulatory speeches delivered. Mr. Henry Keswick proposed the health of the railway and his Excellency Sheng also made a few remarks. Mr. Hunter, Manager of the Hong- kong and Shanghai Bank, proposed the health of his Excellency the Director-General which was heartily drunk by the assembled company.
FOOCHOW NATIVE CUSTOMS.
Customs Commissioner E. B. Drew at Foo- chow reported to his Chief as follows, on 31st May 1904
On the 13th April. 1903, I handed to you the Native Customs statistics of trade for the 28th year of Kuang Han. I have now the honour to furnish similar statistics for the 29th year of Kuang Hsu-corresponding pre ty nearly to 1903.-These statistics are given in nine sections, or chapters, as follows:-Importa and exports at the Chief Custom House, at Shui t'ing, at Chou-t'on, at Hein-chiang, at Min an, at Kuan-t'ou, at Wu-lung-chiang and at Tung-t'ai. Section IX.-Total Value of Goods import d and exported at all Stations.
In each section the Imports and Exports are shown separately; and the quantity and value of each article are given.
The situation, etc., at the different collect- ing stations are as follows:-
Chief Office.-On island, near the Hsin Kuan. Most of its collection is derived from the coats and inter-provincial trade-not the minor local riverine trade.
Shui-ting.-A department of the Chief
Office.
Chou-t'ou.-On the north side of River Min, opposite the Chi-f Office. Collects on the local trade between the Chinese city and the sur- rounding country reached by river.
Hsin-chiang. Similar in situation, etc., to Chou-t'on.
Min-an (or Min-ngan).-In the narrow pasS trough which the Min flows, a few miles below Pagoda Anchorage. All trade between the Min Valley and the outside world, far or near, passes Min-au. But few goods are land- ed there.
Kuan-t'ou.-A busy little town on the north, or left, bank of the Min, some 10 miles below the Min-an Pass and station of that name. It is situated just within the Kimpai Pass, and