من عملية
394
maintaining restrictions on the export of arms and ammunition from the Colony.
The construction of a railway from Canton to the frontier of the territory under British jurisdiction, for which the British and China Corporation bad made a preliminary agreement
with the Chinese Government on the 28th March, 1899, formed the subject of discussion in London with the Directors of the Corpora tion with a view to an arrangement being made for working this railway with one to be constructed from the frontier of the New Territories tothe sea at British Kowloon. The strong feeling of the Government and of the entire commercial community of the Colony as to the importance of the complete undertaking to the prosperity of Hongkong was expressed in the Report on the Blue Book for 1903.
During the year the work of the New Territoris Land Court, established in 1910, and subsequently reconstituted, was completed. 254,277 separate lots had been demarcated and their ownership determined at a cost of $'43,615. | Appropriate titles to these lots have since been issued.
The rice cropcs in the New Territories were good, and an in rease in the number of houses in nearly all theeasvillages evidenced increased prosperity. Theit py tants appeared to appreciate the greater secur andhey derived from adequate police protection road showed willingness to assist in improvingty incommunications.
old Kowloon and Building activi that Yaumati gives hopethetoin time the consider- able available area
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND offer to proselytism, these reverend gentlemen are confronted with the incontrovertible answer that there is nothing in the religion of Jesus the Christ, that is not to be found in the religion of their birth. It is, therefore, but natural that the Parsees have set their faces dead against
such intraders in their midst as so many traitors to their family, community, and God.”
It is also a Ihe Parsee com-
In other words, Zoroastrians fear that those who relinquish oue faith with ease are unlikely to greatly ornament a second. question of purity of race. munity at last census "hardly numbered a hundred thousand," and if intermarriage were freely countenanced, the race qua race would inevitably perish, which would be a pity. The introduction of recruits would tend to the adulteration also of the pure creed. trianism as it is is good enough for the Parsees. To keep it as it is, they must be conservative. We admire thm for it; and could wish that other cults would exercise a like tolerant restraint.
Zoroas-
THE INDUSTRIES OF HONGKONG.
COTTON,
For the first ten months of 1904 the Cotton
Spinning industry suffered severely from the abnormally high price of raw cotton, and during the whole of that period short-time was resorted to. From November onwards a good demand was experienced for yarı and full-time
(June 28, 1905.
BELILIOS TRUST FUND.
His Excellenoy the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, at Government House on Saturday morning presented the prizes won by successful candidates in connection with the Belilios Trust Fand. Among those present were Mrs. and Miss Bateman, (head and assistant teachers of Belilios School), the Rev. Mother and Sis-
ters of the Italian Convent, the Rev. T. E Pearce, (trustee of the Belilios Fund) Mr. G Piercy, (headmaster of the Diocesan Boys School), and Mr. Dyer Ball.
Mr. DER BALL stated that Mr. Belilios
started this fund some twenty years ago for the purpose of bestowing medals and sums of money проп those who saved life at the risk of their own, and for promoting education in the Colony. The trustees, believing that it was Mr. Belilios' desire that the study of mercan- tile subjects should be encouraged, arranged
to
Bub-
hold annual examinations and award prizes out of the fund. The usual jects were to be compulsory, but foreign languages, history and shorthand, optional. The result of опе of these examina- tions had brought them together on 24th June, and he was ple sed to state that all the candi- dates had done remarkably well in their subjects, both compulsory and optional. He had much pleasure in calling upon His Excellency to present the successful candidates with bank books, wherein the amount won by each was
on mainland south of the again adopted, but it was not until the middle placed to his credit.
hills will furnish e relief the congested districts of Victoria. This relief will probably be accelerated when the proposed railway in in hand.
On the Island satisfactory progress was made on the two large docks under construction by the Admiralty and by Messrs. Butterfield & Swire. The 3ft. 6in. electric Tramway from Kennedy Town through Victoria to Shaukiwan village (91 miles of route),was rpen to traffic and in spite of fares that are high for China is largely used by Chinese of all classes.
Generally the year was a healthy one marked by steady development but not characterized by any event of great importance.
PARSEES AND PROSELYTISM.
Mr. D. S. Dady Burjor was interested by our extract bearing the above heading, which toľā how the Parsee authorities had decided to dis courage the promiscuous admission of aliens, who for one reason or another sought to enter the Zoroastrian fold. He writes a long letter much too long in relation to its general interest, to prevent a wrong impression which we do not think need seriously be feared by our Parsee friends. He says:
+
This question has agitated not only the Parsee community of Bombay for these last two years but it has also been keenly watched by the Parsees scattered over all parts of India and China, and it would be no exaggeration to say that the decision so unanimously arrived at at the mass meeting of the community held at Bombay after an exhaustive survey of the question from r ligious, moral, and social standpoints by the community for the purpose is upheld and applauded by an overwhelming majority of the Parsees."
"
He proceeds to show that the Parsees are most tolerant in their regard of other religions; and (unnecessarily, we think) denies that they claim to have the only Truth, or a monopoly of (-s he phrases it) high seats in Heaven.' The others have their equivalent versions of the Zoroastrian teaching in favour of "purity of thought, parity of words, purity of deeds," and he thinks they should be content.
Mr. Dady Burjor continues: “It is this senti- ment of universal respect for all the known religions of the world, prevailing amongst the educated and intelligent classes in India, that has been standing in the way of the Christian Missionaries there, for though the admirable educational institutions in the shape of high- schools, and colleges, affiliated to different universities, founded by these good people are fully taken advantage of by the natives; and even bible classes are attended for the sake of mental culture, and the tempting prizes offered, whenever these men are approached with an
of December that, as a result of large crops of cotton in the chief producing countries, the cost of the raw material declined to a figure that permitted of spinning being carried on at a profit. At the end of 1904 the outlook for the industry was encouraging, and, provided the price of cotton keeps at a reasonable level, the result of the working for 1905 is expected to be highly satisfactory.
SUGAR.
The Sugar industry in the Colony during 1901 resulted in large profits to the two local refineries. Owing to the scarcity of supplies in consequence of the large deficiency in the European Beet Crop, prices gradually advanced throughout the year, without checking demand; the quantity of refined sugar consumed in China largely exceeding that of any previous year, while there was also a good demand from other markets.
SHIP BUILDING, &c.
41 steam-launches and other vessels with an
aggregate tonnage of 7,290 were built during the year.The other large industries in the Colony connected with repairing and docking ships and the manufacture of cement and rope, are in a prosperous condition.
HIS EXCELLENCY, after distributing the prizes, congratulated the boys and girls on their success, and pointed out the great honour that had been done by their teachers in selecting them compete in this examination 88 representatives of their several schools, a selection which in every case had, be was pleased to see, been justified by the results, and he hoped that they would thus be incited to go on and progress in their studies. To those who had not won prizes he would say, "work hard, and win them next time." His Excellency took this opportunity to announce that there would
be another examination in December, which would include a new subject. that of hygiene, and he hoped that one or other of those scholar there present would carry off the prize of 8100 for that subject, which he himself was offering.
The Rev. T. E. PEARCE thanked His Excellency for presenting the prizes, and an adjournment was then made to the dining room where light refreshments, were provided.
The prize list was as follows:-- Girls-Maggie Brewster (Italian Convent), first prize, $30, silver medal, and certificate; Eva Hoyndman (Belilios Girls' School), second prize, $20, bronze medal, and certificate; Annie Neil (Diocesan Girls' School; and
THE FORCE OF PUBLIC OPINION. Esther Noma, (Belilios Girls' School) third
the
111,198 trees were planted in Hongkong during the year, including 105,645 pine and It was proposed at the 1,978 camphor trees. commencement of the year to introduce a scheme for felling and re-planting pine forests on the block system with a twenty-five years rotation. But as the scheme (actually begun on a big scale) was looked upon with ill-favour by the public and as the opinion was expressed in well-informed quarters that a longer period of rotation was preferable, it was decided to suspend felling operations while the advice of was obtained. A the Indian Government scheme of issuing Forestry Licences in was initiated in the the New Territories hope of inducing the Chinese to adopt more
in dealing with economical methods considerable plantations of pine trees formed before the cession of the Territories, and with the object of tempting them to take up fresh areas of raste lands for further planting. The small area available for rice cultivation and the unfertility of the soil combine to prevent agriculture from becoming a prominent industry in the Colony. The low-lying land in the New Territories is probably utilized to nearly the fullest extent possible, and it is therefore from the profitable cultivation of the steep hill slopes that any increase in the productiveness of the Territories may be derived. In this connection the cultivation of pineapple, and experiments that are being made with sisal hemp are of mich interest.
prizes of $15 each, and certificates; Martha Peterson and Andie Lesbirel (Belilios Girls' School), fourth prize of $10 each, and cer- tificates.
Boys-Thomas Loft (Diocesan Boys' School), first prize, $30, silver medal and certificate; Will am Drude (Diocesan Boys' School) second prize, $20, bronze medal, and certificate; Harry G. Brandt (Diocesan Boys' School), third prize $20, and certificate; Chow Kwai Lam (St. Stephen's College), and Lau Li Cheung (Ellis Kadoorie Sohool), fourth prize $15 each, and certificates.
LIGHT DUES.
at
The amount of Light dues collected
Rate No. of Ton. Total fees Hongkong during 1904 is as follows:-
per ton. ships. nage. collected.
1 cent 4,109 6,565,562 $65,655.62 14,105 141.05
Class of vessels.
Ocean vessels Steam launches
River
steamers,
to
I
358
"}
•
}
(night boats) Launches plying
exclusively Macao and West River, by night ↑
steamers, (day boats) Launches plying
exclusively to Macao and West River, by day.
River
Total
2,305 1,935,576 6,452.52
434
31
Free
21,246
1,149 1,149,464
80.97
Free
235 14,541
8,590 0,703,494 72,830.16