200
will not meet with fog along the coast, but he, will, at times, find a good deal of haze. For example, in February, 1905, during the period 8th to 17th inclusive, anticyclonic conditions prevailed over China, and not a single station on the coast recorded fog. The mean height of the barometer in Hongkong for the period named will be a sufficient index as to pressure conditions over China. It was 3.26 or 0.11
inch above normal. From the 18th to 25th fogs were general over the S. coast of China, the Formosa Channel and the E. coast as far North as the Chusan Archipelago, correspond. ing to a period of low pressure over S. China and the Eastern Sea. The mean height of the barometer in Hongkong for this period was 29.98 or 0.17 below the normal.
VICTORIA GAOL.
The report of Mr. F. G. Badeley, superinten- dent of Victoria Gaol, as published in the Government Gazette, shows that the number of prisoners received into prison during the year 1905 was 6,227, as against 7,464 for the year 1904. There was thus a decrease of 1,237 on the total number of admissions, as compared with the previous year. The number of convictions from the New Territory was 169, against 80 for the previous year. The following table shows the number of convicts confined in Victoria Gaol on the 31st December, for the past ten years:---
No. of Convicts.
Percentage to Estimated
Population.
Year.
1896
40
.016
1897
51
1898
.021
1899
93
.037
1900
141
.052
1901
180
059
1902
215
.068
245
.075
243
1903 1904 1905
216
C67 .057
The number of prisoners admitted to the prison on 1905 for offences not of a criminal nature was 3,383, made пр as follows:- Convicted by Courts Martial, 64; under the
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[April 21, 1936.
in cases of fire are sufficient and in good, ment. Individually and collectively, a dosen working order. The conduct of the staff Chinese of this class can exercise influence out thronghout the year has been good.
THE HONGKONG OBSERVATORY.
The report of the director. berck.
on the Hongkong appears in the current Gazette.
are extracts:-
Mr. W. Dor- Observatory, The following
Following the method used in meteorological offices and taking the Bum of total and measure of success, and Partial success as a the sum of total and partial failure as a measure of failure, it follows that 89 per cent. of the weather forecasts were successful in 1995, The
China Meteorological Register was printed every morning at the Observatory, and in formation regarding storms was telegraphed to Hongkong and exhibited on notice-bards as often and as fully as such information could be justified by the weather telegrams received. This happened on 90 days in 1905. The Red Drum alone was hoisted twic, the Pad South Cone and Red Drum twice, the Red South Cone alone, once, the Black Drum alone four times, the Black North Cone and Black Drum three times, the Black South Cone and Black Drum twice, the Black South Cone alone four times, and the Black Cone and Black Ball three times. The typhoon gua was fired once. Printed bulletins for general distribution ware issued once. The thanks of the Govern ment are due to the telegraph companies, who continue to forward meteorological telegrams from outports to Hongkong free of charge. and also to the staffs of the Eastern Extension and Australasian Telegraph Company at Sharp Peak, Iloilo. Bicolod and Cebu, who make and transmit observations twice daily.
As oar warnings in connection with typhoons in the China Sea are based mainly on reports received from the Gap Rock lighthouse, it is of the utmost importance that the cable between Hongkong and Gap Rock should be always in working order. During 1905 in addition to meteorological registers kept at about 40 stations on shore, 2,074 ship logs have been copied on board or forwarded by the captains. The total number of vessels whose The total number of days' dbservations (count- ing separately those made on board different ships ou the same day) was 14.705. The time ball was dropped successfully 2902 times in 1905.
of all proportion to their knowledge, and unless we take measures to prevent it this influenca will be against our interests." The memorandum went on to point out that many Chinese officials were deterred from sending their sons to be educated in England on the scora of cost, and the China League suggested an arrange- ment between the chambers of commerce and the leading technical schools to offer advantages to Chinese students with a view of spreading our commercial influence as a nation.
A DIAGNOSIS OF DEPARTMENTALISM. "So far it has led to no practical results." Conld comment go further? It is easy to con- ceive what happened to the memorandum. The League's letter and memorandum would be opened by some clerk whose knowledge of the British Empire and its trade is bounded by Brighton on the south, Margate on the east, Blackpool on the west, and an indefinite place called Scotland on the north.
the Anything in letters this morning. George?" gasps the secretary of the loca chamber of commerce as he struggles out of his overcoat. As the memorandum was sent out in the middle of an English summer, overcoats would still be worn).
*
W
Nothing much, sir. There's a letter hore from some of those silly societies in Loadou suggesting that we should pay for the technical education of the Chinese," replies George.
Nonsense! Let me look at it. H'm (after Seems to me that perusal. Well, I never! people fail to realise what we in England have to pay already for the education of other people's children. How many Chinese do they say there are in China, George?
Four hundred millions, sir."
“Well, I don't think our chamber can begin to educate them. Chuck it amongst the papirs for next month's meeting."
When the memorandum is brought before the meeting, one of the "practical" members of committee suggest that it should be thrown into the waste-papor baskot. In there it drops the China League writes the epitaph : with a dull, dead thud; and the Secretary of "Bo far it has led to no practical results."
I leave
THE PROPOSED AMALGAMATION. There is another item mentioned in the
Opium Ordinance, 1,307; under the Gambling | log-books have been made use of was 2g you to draw your own editorial reflections. Ordinance, 342; under the Market Ordinance. 288; under the Arms Ordinance, 19; under the Vehicle Ordinance. 85; under the Sanitary Bye-laws, 141; under the Harbour Regulations, 68; for drunkenness. 74 for trespassing, 47 for disorderly conduct. 27 for vagrancy, 52; for contempt of court, 5; for | 1×88, 15; 1889, 3; 1892, 18; 1893, 87; 1894 | China Association together. If the result were
assault, 206, for obstruction, 124; for cutting trees, 36; for fighting, 250; for mendicancy, 5. 1,778 persons were imprisoned without the option of a fines; 1,989 served imprisonment in default of payment of fines: 837 fiues were paid in full, while 719 were part paid. There were 13 deaths from natural causes, three executions and two births in the prison. 83 juveniles were admitted into prison, 35 of whom were sentenced to be whipped in addition to various terms of imprisonment varying from twenty-four hours' detention to one month's imprisonment with kard labour. The percentage of convicted prisoners admitted to prison with previous convictions recorded against them was 8.50, as compared with 12.26 for the year 1904. There wera 1,029 punishments awarded for breaches of prison discipline, being an average of 1.47 per prisoner, against 798 in the preceeding year, and seven prisoners were sentenced to be whipped with the birch by the Assistant Superintendent and
with the cat-o'. officer nine-tails by order of the in conjunction with a Justice of the Peace. The Home system of registering prisoners on their admission to prison was introduced on the 1st January, 1905, and is working well. The complete separation of first offenders from habitual criminals has been observed during the year. The site for a new prison at Kowloon has been selected and the sum of $40,000 towards erecting the same has been included
in
One
same
the Estimates for the current year. All minor repairs to the prison have been carried out by prison labour. The industrial activity, to in my previous annual reports con- tinues referred and no efforts have been spared to keep prisoners employed in productive forms of labour. The sanitary condition of the prisons is good and the appliances for use
1
The number of sets of observations made in
the various years was as follows: 1887, 44
13; 1893, 2, 1896, 30; 1897. 9: 1898, 39; 1899, 90; 1900, 48; 1901, 96; 19 2, 162; 1903, 94, 1995, 112. In 1887 two sets were rejected and in 1893 twenty-two sets were rejected on as being palpably wrong, in 1892 eighteen sels
account of being made mostly in the open air or in situations where light, radiation and air motion were uncontrolled.
says,
HOME AND CHINA AFFAIRS.
[EXTRACTS FROM OUR LONDON
CORRESPONDENT E.]
THE CHINA LEAGUE,
The report of the China League for the past year coutains a short paragraph that will prob. In July last," it ably escape general notice."
"the China League addressed to the secretaries of all the leading chambers of com. merce in the manufacturing districts a memor- andum on technical education for Chinese students. So far it has led to no practical A pithy comment on the attitude of results." English public bodies towards things Chinese. The memorandum found out that the Belgian Consulates throughout China were letting it be keowu quietly but effectively, in the proper quarters," that Chinese students would be admitted to technical schools in Belgium at nominal rates and that the cost of their mainten- auce would be arranged as cheaply as possible. The memorandum went on to say: "In one case (that of Szechuan Province), the result last year was that a dozen students were sent at Government expense to learn railway engineer ing and other subjects in Belgium. Inasmuch as these men return to China practically trade, missionaries in the Franco-Belgian interest the education thus given them is a sound invest
report which is full of interest to all who take part in the development of British influence in the Far East. This is the attempt that has been made to draw the China League and the
64
to inoculate the League with the virus of secrecy which has always been the weak feature of the Association, I fancy there would be the most strenuous opposition to the amalgamation. hole-and-corner” No practical good comes of work. The British communities in China do not seek preferential treatment. All they want in matters of public policy is a fair field and no favour. The objection to the amalgamation bitherto has been that the League believed in
whereas the publicity and pressure,' Association believed it was wielding a powerful influence behind the scenes at the Foreign Office. There was never much evidence of this
influence alleged
in the treatment of Chinese affairs by the British Government. Shanghai, always ahead of Hongkong in the shaping of public opinion, never had much faith in this private influence. The Shanghai members of the Association and the London Committee have been at variance on the subject of methods of bringing pressure to bear on the Government of the day, and it is not at all unlikely that the subject will be ventilated again at the forthcoming meeting of the Association on the 27th instant. The annual report of the Association, which has doubtless reached you, contains some correspondence on the subject.
PUBLIC OPINION.
Let me quote from a letter by Sir C. J. Dudgeon on this point, in recalling the views expres-ed by several leading members of the London Committee in 1900. (It might almost be a transcript of what appeared in the Daily Press of 8th September last.) "Sir Edward Ackroyd said that 'The Foreign Ofee was always willing to help, and did so far as it could; but the Foreign Office was not the Government and the Government was not the people. What
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