July 24, 1905.]
MAIDEN SESSIONS.
When the Criminal Sessions were called After on July 18 there were no cases for trial. the Chief Justice (8ir F. T. Piggott) had taken his rest the Attorney-General (Sir H. S. Berkeley) said :-May it please your Lordship I have great pleasure in announcing to your Lordship that there are no cases for trial at this Assizes. And I have to offer my congrat- ulations to your Lordship and to the com- munity on the fact that the peace of the Colony should be such as to call for no occasion for
troubling the inhabitants thereof.
The Registrar (Mr. Seth)-Your Lordship. it is usual in accordance with ancient custom on an çocʻsion of this kind for the presiding Judge to receive a pair of white gloves in token of the I have the maiden purity of the sessions pleasant duty of asking your Lordship's acceptance of a pair of white gloves which I
Mr
have the honour to present on this occasion.
you, His Lordship-I have to thank Registrar, on receiving this presentation in accordance with the ancient custom of the Court. I have also, Mr. Attorney General, to acknowledge the remarks which you have made on
this occasion. Gentlemen of the panel-in consequence of the absence of crime at this time, it is my pleasant duty t congratu. late you on escaping from the duty of sitting as jurors, and especially on escaping the spending of a hot day in Court. It is a pleasing sign of the condition of the Colony, which has been symbolised by the presentation to the judge of a pair of white gloves. And it has also another aspect-the asp ct as it affects the Colony. One swallow does not make a spring, nor one white calendar a millennium; but this is the secoud occasion within a short space of time on which this Court has met only to find that there were no cases for trial; and I think one is justified in considering this point, that it should be possible the public peace of the Colony should remain undisturbed from the commission of those
graver crimes which are tried at the Assizes. "I his fact is especially noticeable, and especially worthy of congratulation, because the Legisla ture, in appreciating the frequency of the occur- rence of crime in the Colony, bave judged it expedient to hold the Assizes once a month. In two separate months during this year the calendar has be-n completely blank. I have again to congratulate you on this occasion and it is now my pleasant duty to discharge you from attendance at this Court.
THE SHANGHAI ROAD TO THE HILLS.
8
We (N.-C. Daily News) u id‐rstand that the recent visit of Senior Consul Knappe to Viceroy Chou Fu. at Nanking, regar it the extension of a road to the hills through the district of Tsingpuhsien, when, it is also reported, that the former laid a complaint cone-rning the alleged obstructiveness of Yuan Thotai of this port, has not been as successful as might be desired by the foreign community here. In fact, it is stated in mandarin ci el s that Viceroy Chon Fu has issued instructions to the officials of the districts through which the proposed extension is to run that they are expected to give strict injun、tions to the i labi ants under them that no one shall be a lowe I secretly to sell, for the sake of filthy lacre, la d to interested parties in order to avoid cuss leading to undesired complications." This is under stood by
be the
of Viceroy Chou Fu to the Senior
Consul's visit to Nanking. Probably Viceroy Chou Fu feels his position in Nanking to be so insecure by reason of the money charges made against him by his enemies, that his Excellency does not wish to do anything which may lead to fresh charges against his good nam'. His Excellency, Lowever, has at least one strong backer behind him, namely, the powerful senior Viceroy of the Empire, Viceroy Yuan Shih-k ́ai. and we think that it will take much more than has so far been attempted by his enemies in Peking and the Liangkiang successfully to oust him from the Viceregal yamên at Nanking. Furthermore, Prince Ching is far from unfriendly to Chou Fu.
many
to
answer
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE ANTI-TORTURE
ORGANIZATION.
The movement started in Hongkong for the abolition of Torture in China is progressing steadily. We hear that two Ministers base taken up the matter and have distributed pam- phlets to the principal Chinese authorities in Peking. The local committes is also petive. They have sent copies of pamphlets to all the principal authorities in the 1 provinces of China Proper, and in the outlying territories. They have also sent a letter to Wa Ting Fang who has done such meritorious work for legal reform in China
The letter to Wa Ting-fang read as follows. Hongkong, 15th June, 1905. Excellence-Allow us to express our sincere congratulations for the good work you are doing to modify the Criminal Jurisprudence and Procedure of China. Your success in the abolition of "ling-ch'ib "and your proposal for the abolition of Judicial Torture, still under discus- sion, (as we are informed), represent important landmarks in the present evolution of China. As we have been some time working in the same field, we have much plesure in offering you all our assistance. We beg to forward you some copies of a pamphlet, containing a frausls- tion we considered most opportune at the It is the translation of the present moment. celebrated Chapter XII. of Marquis Becraria's
Crimes and Punishment,' which, as Your Excellency well knows, was translated in most of the languages of Europe and transformed the Criminal laws of Europe n the XVIII. century.
work on
& work
Perhaps the greatest advantage of inter- national intercourse is the exchange of ideas and historical experiences. The truths dis covered by chance or skill in one nation thus become the common property of all mankind, whose progress is therefore rendered more rapid and extensive. We, therefore. hope that the thoughts which produced so much good in Europe nearly 150 years ago may assist China in her present state of evolution.
We started our work some months ago, and
had the fortune to begin under the auspices of H.R.H. the Duke of the Abruzzi, who graciously consented to preside at our first meeting, and since then we have published the chapter before mentioned in many papers and sent copies of the pamphlet to the principal Metropolitan and Provincial authorities in China, and we shall be most pleased to forward copies either to you or to the addresses you may point out to us.
Morement for the Abolition of Torture in China. Founders' Committee: Z. Volpicelli, Consul General for Italy: J. L. Hoara, Bishop of Victoria: Sir Henry Berkeley, lately Chief Justice; P. de Maria, Pro-Vicar Apostție,
To His Excellency, WU TING FANG.
CHINESE CONJUGAL INFELICITY.
MISCELLANEOUS.
37
Mr. Alex. Cumming, managing director of McAlister & Co., Ltd., ship-chandlers and agents, died suddenly 19th "July, during an apoplectic seizure.
Mr. Leong Fee, the well know Tambun mine owner. has offered to build and equip a Pasteur Institute for the benefit of the inhabit. ants of the Federated Malay States and neighbouring communities.
The Rev. A. G. Jones, of the English Baptist Mission, has been spending the summer at Taishan, and has there died under extraordinary circumstances. He was killed by a "cloud-burat, which at the same time caused the collapse of a temple near by.
The Government Gazette says:---,
-A rock has been discovered, with six feet of water on it at L. W. S. to the N. E. of east
L
point of S onecutters Island, situated N. 36 deg E. 1,350 feet from the Trocas Rock buoy. This rock will be marked, from the 1st August.
Hankow 1905, by a White Nun Buoy, with
From the same date in Blck letters thereon. the Trocas Rock buoy will be a White Nun
in Black letters thereon. Buoy, with "Trocas
It is reported at Shanghai that the occupation of the new Municipal Markets is now practically complete. Except for the out-lying part of Yangtsepoo the only district not properly served by Municipal markets lies immediately east of the Hongkew creek: the provision of a small market in the Li Hongkew district would be advisable. The fresh food supply of both foreign and native population is now placed under much improved hygienic conditions.
Manila must be more The editor of the
Journalism
in
strenuous than elsewhere. Philippines Gossip is in hospital as a result of a meeting with the new proprietor of the Sunday Sun. Mr. McGovern had said in his paper that Mr. Wall was not really the owner of the Sun; that it belonged to a Jew money- lender. Mr. Wall says: "I hit him and knocked him down. When he got up, I knocked him down again. I asked him if he had got enough. He had, so I let him go after that."
Things Japan-se are greatly in vogue in Korea to-day. The watches, glasses, trunks. hats umbrellas and other things shipped to Korea by Japanese merchants are eagerly purchased. In particular, a hunting-cap is the prevailing fashion among the Koreans who are following the new order of things. The mem- hers of the Yiohin Association, who number tens of thousands, have made the cap their emblem of identification. The upper classes of society are wearing felt and tall hats.
Mr.
The Bangkok Times understands that Mr. B. F. W. Hamacher has sold his tin mine con- cession at Baagtaphan to Mr. Dibley, an American citizen, for $6,000 (gold). Hamacher has had this concession for some- thing over twelve years, and the lease has nearly The site of the thirteen more years to run. concession is about fifteen miles from the coast, and water has to be brought some distance to the works. Mr. C. C. Jones is acting as manager for Mr. Dibley who has left Bangko for the United States.
an
recurrence
As the nearest approach to the heart of man is supposed to be through his stomach, so is the
Another prosecution for creating a nuisance neglect to satisfy that digestive organ on the
by the discharge of black smoke occurred at the part of his wife the means of raising his anger.
Police Court on July 21, when Inspector Lamble Proof of this was given in a case which came on for hearing before Mr. F. A. Hazeland at of the Sanitary Board charged the Ming On the Police Court on July 18, wherein two fokis Company, agent of the 8.3. Wingchai, with were charged with assaulting a woman, the wife allowing that vessel to discharge black smoke in such quantities as to be a nuisance while of one of them. Evidently she was nt an experienced cook, and they had previously com- lying at her wharf, and while leaving the har plained about her dishes, until, it may be sup-bour on the morning of the 15th instant.
His Worship inflicted a fine of $15, and made of the posed, the food became unbeirable to the men.
order prohibiting a On Monday, as they were sitting at table, sha brought in the soup, the appearane of which so
Several complaints have been made to the angered them that one after the other they jumped up and poured the hot mixture over her head. Police of late of noises created on flower sam. pans plying in the harbour at midnight, or the Their d-fence was that, as she was passing, the soup spilled over her, but as the men were early hours of morning, and, as a result, the sitting down and she was standing up. His mistress of one of these boats was yesterday Court, at the instance of Inspector Langley. Worship refused to believe this, and ordered charged before Mr. F. A. Hazeland at the Police each of the fokis to pay a fine of $10.
The constable who arrested the woman stated that there were three women on the boat, and they were singing Cantonese love songs. San- day night was still and calm, and their shouting
would
to return, and
The woman then informed His Worship that she was afraid to go back to the house as they His Worship possibly beat ber.
warned the advis d her defendants that if they attempted to chastise her they would be sentenced to a term of imprisonment without the option of a fiue.
Anisance.
awoke many sleepers on board ships. His Worship inflicted a fine of $10, the alternative being one month's imprisonment.