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April 16, 1906.¿
Lan-moon in the southern district. A member of the crew who carelessly threw a match after, lighting a cigarette set fire to the oargo. Quite penio.ensued, as there were many cargo-boats in the neighbourhood and the junk was drifting towards them. The junk and its cargo burnt to the water. The other boats managed to keep clear of the burning craft.
HIPELE GAOL IMPROVEMENTS.
April 9th.
The Nam Hoi Magistrate some time ago received instruction from the Viceroy to repair and improve the sanitary conditions of the Nam Hoi prisons, which were deemed to be in a very insanitary condition. All the openings used to face the south this has now been altered to west. Tea spacious wards have been built and extra buildings to accommodate the guardians and their families have also been erected. In the plans, two hospital wards, two kitchens, and 15 coils are provided for. The gaol-keepers think, however, that there are too many openings in the new buildings and that prisoners stand now a better chance to escape owing to the numerous openings provided for better ventila- tion. These gaols were notoriously unhealthy.
77 " MUSHROOM MISSIONS.
The Viceroy has issued the following proclamation for the protection of missionaries, churches, etc.:
Churches have become very numerous of late, springing up like mushrooms all over the Kwangtung Province, and very frequently both the civil and military officials are not aware of their existence in the localities under their jurisdiction and are consequently unable to extend their protection in times of emergency, resulting in international disputes. The Tipaos of the various districts are hereby instructed to report to the authorities the following particulars, viz.: Number of missionaries, number of converts, and nationality of the mission societies that own the churches and buildings. The local authorities shall report same at once, so that stringent measures may be taken for their protection.".
TERRIBLE DROWNING ACCIDENT.
On the 5th inst. a passenger boat towed by & steam launch was leaving here for Ching Yuen. As the following day was the Ching Ming festival, the boat was full with passengers. When she was passing the neighbourhood of Si Nam, in the Sam Sui district, the rope by which she was towed broke. Owing to this she capsized. It is reported that only three men were saved out of more than 400
A SHAM TRIAL
Yuan Shu-fau, Taotai, who was Taolai in Shanghai some time ago and was implicated in the recent riot at Shanghai, has been delegated by Viceroy Chau Fook to proceed to Canton to investigate the recent dispute between the Viceroy and the people. Viceroy Shum is sending a deputation to Hongkong to receive him; and making elaborate preparations for bis entertainment in Canton. It is probable that he and his guest will succeed in finding some petty officials to act as scapegoata.
THE EARTHQUAKE IN FORMOSA.
LATEST LIST OF CASUALTIES.
The Formosa correspondent of the Osaka Shimpo sends the following returns of the loss of life and property destruction ascertained ap to the 25th ultimo :—
Crushed to death ...
Severely injured
Houses collapsed
(Japanese 13 1 Natives
1,005 Japanese 24 Natives 1,878 Totally 4,214 Partially 2,523
The correspondent writes that the casualties were „much heavier among the women than among men, more than two-thirds of the lint representing women. This is due to the fast that the feet of the women are crippled similarly to those of Chinese women.
On the 26th ult. the list of casualties rose to 1,227 in killed. and 2,829 in injured, 5,566 the number of houses totally destroyed, 10,938 in the number partially destroyed.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
COMPANIES.
CHINA LIGHT AND POWER CO.
The fifth annual general meeting of share- holders in the China Light and Power Company was held on April 7th at the office of the general managers, Messrs. Shewan, Tomes and Co. The Hon. Mr. R. Shewan presided, and the others present were-Sir Paul Chater, Dr. J.,W. Noble, Messrs. H. P. White, A. Babington, Fang Wa chun, and R. Hancock (secretary).
The Secretary having read the notice con- vening the meeting,
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considerable saving in fuel by our type of engines. We
A
an order for one 200 p alternator set, which will with our present steam is still our finances. You will paying heavy commission we managed to font $100,000 of new capital which we could not otherwise dispose of, and that in this way we have improved our position, and reduced our bill for interest which should be still less this year, but money on loan cannot be dependel upon, and if we are able to do all the business which we can see before us, we must get more money. That probably will not be eBay, hold a valuable concession, our business is now but it shocon not be impossible, for we
on a paying basis, and our prospects for the future are certainly very good.
No questions were asked, and on the motion of the CHAIRMAN, seconded by Dr. NOBLE, the
The Consulting Committee consisting of Sir Paul Chater, Dr. Noble, and Mr. H. P. White, were re-elected on the motion of Mr. Fond WA- CHUN, seconded by Mr. BABINGTON.
Sir PAUL CHATER moved, and Mr. WarTE seconded, the re-election of Messrs. W. H. Potts and A. O'D. Gourdin as auditors, which was agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN having intimated that dividend warrants would be ready on Monday, the meeting separated.
THE CHINA TRADERS' INSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED.
The report for presention to the shareholders at the fortieth ordinary meeting, to he held at the company's offices on April 28th, reads i-
duly passed and confirmed at the extraordinary In conformity with the special resolutions general meetings of the company held on the 16th February and 10th March last, the directors have now to lay before the shareholders the accompanying statement of accounts -as at the 31st December, 1905.
The working acount for the eight months from May to December shows a balance at oredit of 8598,294, 17, oat óf which the directors recom« mend the payment of an interim dividend to shareholders of 12 per cont. (83 per share) absorbing $72,0.0; a bonus of 15 per cent. to contributors on bonus-bearing contributions, absorbing about $60,000, the remainder being carried forward to be dealt with at the next annual meeting.
The CHAIRMAN said-Gentlemen,-The report and accounts baving been in your hands since 23rd March will now with you permission be taken as read. The gross profit on our working at Canton and Kowloon is $61,184.97, after paying interest on borrowed capital amounting to $22,218.80, allowing for deprecia-report was adopted. tion $7,395 35, and deducting other sundry charges there remains $31,219.89, out of which we recommend paying a dividend of six per cent, equal to $30,000, and carrying forward $1 219.89 to next account. As stated in the report the result would have been consider ably better had it not been that_the_boycott at Canton through a mistaken notion was directed against us, which error it took us some time to dissipate, and for the high price of coal which was at times as much as 30 per cent. higher than it was the previous year. For tunately, the former trouble has quite passed away, and as for the latter I am glad to say that the price of coal shews sign of being on the turn, and now that the war demand is over there seems no reason why the market should not return to normal figures. The returns from Kowloon though still in modest figures show a marked increase, and will we have no doubt continue to increase year by year. The gross returns from Canton were some 3 per cent. higher than those of the previous year, but Devertheless our workmen are still kept con- stantly employed on new installations, while we have a very large field for our operations left un- touched. Our sales of current expand every month; in fact that expansion is only limited by carcity of skilled labour, we having to simply train our workmen ourselves. With a conorasion from the Chinese Government for lighting up the city of Canton and areas beyond, our future prospects seem fully assured, but of course to keep up with the demand we have had to increase our plant, and to spend money. You will see that besides about $34,000 expended on lines at Kowloon and Canton we have spent some $70,000 at Canton on buildings and machinery. With this money we have installed another “ Engine Alternator Set," a Babcock and Wilcox boiler and superheater and smaller access ry plant. Further we had to extend the building containing our engines sad boilers, and in doing so we had considerable difficulty, owing to the lack of provision for extension made by the original Chinese proprietor. In fact we began to fear that we should either have to remove the works altogether, or split the plant up into separate stations, neither course being desirable, but fortunately owing to the banding scheme, and by filling in a creek we have been able to parchase a piece of land which although expensive will afford us a compact power station quite large enough for all ordinary requirements. The extension work on this site was necessarily expensive, as a hard bottom for our foundtions could not be found, so the heaviest description of piling was necessary. The ospitall expenditure on lines is due to our pushing our mains into all positions in the city, wherethore is likely to be a good demand for our light. It also includes the cost of a submarine cable scross the river to Honam. We have still h wever, to make further additions this years to keep a with the demand. In making these extensions, we have, as coal has proved such au item, felt justified in turning eur attentions to s me of the latest systems of generating electricity from fuels other than coal; as a result of these investigations we decided to order a Diesol oil engine; this type of engiue
works
оп B. now principle and is without doubt very economical, and we feel confident from the “enquiries we have made that we shall effect a
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DIRECTORS.
Mr. A. R. Linton having retired from the Board, Mr. F. Ormiston accepted the invitation of the directors to rejoin the Board, and his appointment will be submitted for the confirum. tion of shareholders.
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Messrs. E. Goetz and A. J. Raymond retire by rotation and offer themselves for re-election.
AUDITORS.
The annexed accounts have been audited by Messrs. T. Arnold and H. U, Jeffries, who offer themselves for re-election.
H. W. SLADE, Chairman. BALANCE SHEET
870,000.00
as at the 31st DECEMBER, 1905. ASSETS. Fixed deposits with banks in
Hongkong Invested in mortgages of properties in Hongkong ...$654,000.00 in Shanghai 347,368.4!
***
Bon-ls of Chinese Imperial Govern- ment, 1886, 106 bonds at Tls. 25"-Tls. 26,500 Shanghai Waterworks ('o., Ld.,
debentures London branch :---
Cash in land and in
course of onllection$251,271.39 Fixed deposits with
banks Travancore
15%,939.11
estates debentures 9,746.19 Imperial Japanese 6 cent. sterling
Loan
་
Imperial Japanese :
per cent, sterling Joan ***
49,82741
1,001,868.41
37,192 98
5,50178