June 11, 1906.]
odd ; but bere again the movement of sugar in 1905 was quite abnormal. A little more tea than usual came down, but the average change is scarcely worth noting. Foreign goods going through to the interior show generous improvement all round. Cotton goods, not including Indian yaru, which fell from 2,546 picule to 1,716, went through in much larger quantities, showing that the demand this year is still active. The increase in piece goods was well over seventeen thousand pieces. Woollens also figure well in the transit trade; while metals seem to have been less in demand.. The customs revenue shows the usual increase.
At Kongmoon shipping was more brisk than in the same period of last year. Im- ports show a wonderful improvement. For instance, of cotton goods, excluding the Japanese lines which are counted in yards, there were 31,119 pieces imported as against only*10,942 pieces in 1905. Indian yarn practically disappeared from this list Metals were slightly scarcer. The import of white sugar seems to be growing more | rapidly than any other. A remarkable feature of the exports was the three and a half million straw mats, whereas previous returns were always well under the oue thousand pieces. Previous transit returns at this station were scauty, but the quantities of foreign goods going inland look quite respectable in the present
returns....
Samshui statistics show increased imports of opium, piece goods and metals, and there is a net improvement in the import of foreign sundries. In exchange the outside world took much more mats and timber than usual. The transit trade, except for sundries, is not conspicuous. Wuchow alone continues to demand Indian yarn taking about a thousand piculs more than last year, when the figures for the quarter were 15,561 piculs. Metals imported were about a thousand piculs less. A fast grow ing import of paper fans is noted at this station; and the export of first class paper. curiously enough, continues to increase almost pro rata. Nearly ten thousand pieces of Hongkong dyed shirtings passed through for inland buyers; and over fifteen thousand piculs of Indian yarn.
EXCHEQUER PROBLEMS AT
HONGKONG,
}
(Daily Press, 9th June.) Making ends meet, the chronic expression of a perpetually sordid struggle, is not a difficulty that faces only the wife of the working man. The last speech of His Excellency the GOVERNOR to the Legislative Council shows clearly that people in high places may share the very same worries that oppress her soul when her children want boots and clothes, while all the while she is thinking how far her income will meet the stern demands of rent and food. In the nature of things, children do not have the parental view of ways and means; and the constituents of a government, national, colonial, or municipal, are apt in their demands to think only of the seeming need of the moment. The child cries for a
OHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
་
more strongly and comfortably built, and properly kept. There is nothing unreason- able in the stipulation for covers; Shanghai insists upon rain-aprons, and dirt is as damaging as rain. The pullers themselves may argue that heavier-built ricshas would mean cruelty to them; that point will doubtless not be overlooked by their friends. With regard to firstclass ricshas, we do not | suppose the Hon. Mr. OSBORNE meant that the Government itself should introduce rubber-tyred ricebas; but rather that it should permit the higher tarea that private speculation would insist upon for the use of such vehicles. As the inhabited area of the Colony continues to expan, extra markets become necessary; and doubtless the one at Teim-tea-tsui is as urgently required as any. The provision of a refuse burner is bot at any time the acquisition of a mere toy. It is an excellent, economical, and eminently sensible method of dealing with rubbish; anu in the case of a government with satis- factory revenues, and fow other demands, it might be a matter to claim even urgency. With circumstances as explained by Sir MATTHEW Nathan, it is obviously a matter that must wait its turn. With regard to his most important question, that relating to our subsidiary coinage, the Hon. Mr. OSBORNE did not ask for further expeudi. Lure. He asked a question to which we could foresee no possible answer but a plain
19 yes as we little expected the stateinent that "the Government have made quiries". Of whom? By whom? These are two queries which immediately suggest themselves, especially when we are told that
the only practical means
is to cease for the time to issue such coins", which others tell us are already insufficient to oust the Chinese subsidiary currency. If there be one subject upqu which dogmatic opinions are improper, it is this one of coinnge; and though we adopt our own theory empirically, we wish to avoid what in the Government itself we deprecate. Some people say there has been over- production: others say the contrary. Many people we have interrogated, who traffic largely with the smaller currency, assert that it is difficult in the ordinary way of trade to get hold of the colonial coins ; others ask, why, if they be so scarce, are they at a discount? Discount is a mystery to be approne sed in fear and trembling by the layman they who discount have ideas and principles all their own. Practical men like the Hon. Mr. OSBORNE and the Hou. Mr. HEWETT hold views diametrically opposed on this subject. We should be glad to know how the Gorerument came to be "satisfied", as the HoN. COLONIAL TREASURER put it; by weight of evidence, or how?
|
toy, the constituent for a luxury, when the parent or the government is at its wit's end to make revenue cover normal expenditure. We had better point out at once that this comparison may be carried too far. In the desiderata mentioned by the Hon. Mr. E. OSBORNE there was nothing toylike, under ordinary circumstances. The very desirable improvement of our ricsha service need cost the Government nothing, beyond a little extra trouble for its servants. That is to say, with regard to insisting on their being
18
34
en.
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
318
Council was held on the 7th instant in the A meeting of the Hongkong Legislative Council Chamber at 2.30 p.m.
PRESENT
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, Major SIR MATTHEW NATHAN, K.C.M.G.
HIS EXCELLENCY Major-General VILLIERS HATTON, C.B. (General Officer Commanding the Troops).
Hon. Mr. T. SERCOMBE SMITH (Colonial Secretary).
General).
Hon. Sir H. S. Berkeley, K.C. (Attorney-
Hou. Mr. A. M. TuoиSON (Colonial Trea- surer).
Hon. Mr. A. W. BREWIN (Registrar- General).
Hon. Captain L. A. W. BARNES-LAWRENCE, R.N. (Harbour Master).
Works).
Hon. Mr. W. CHATHAM (Director of Pablic
Hon. Dr. Ho Kai, M.B., C.M., C.M.G. Hon. Mr. WEI YUK.
Hon. Mr. E. Osborne. Hoa. Mr. E. A. H&WETT. Hon. Mr. W. J. GRESSON. Mr. A. G. M. FLETCHER (Clerk of Councils).
MINUTES.
read and confirmed.
The minutes of the previous meeting were
NEW MRM DER.
Mr. W. J. Gresson took the oath and assumed his seat as a member of the Council.
FINANCIAL.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY by command of H. E. the Governor laid on the table the report its adoption.
of the Fiuance Committee No. 3 and inöved
The COLONIAL TREASURER and this was agreed to.
昌
seconded
QUESTIONS. Hon. Mr. OsB ENI asked the following questions standing in his name:--
1. Will the Government take steps to improve the ricksha service by-
(*) Requiring them to be more strongly- built and provided with better springs.
(b) Instituting a monthly inspection. (c) Making it à condition of the licence that- every ricksha be provided with a clona white cover to the back and to the seat.
(d) Introducing first class rickshas (both for Victoria aud Kowloon) similar to those at Saigon.
2. Will the Government make provision in the forthcoming Estimates for→
(~) A market at Tsim-isa-tsui, (b) A refuse burner.
3. Will the Government take steps to enquiro what practical means can be adopted for ru- establishing and maintaining the value of British subsidiary coinage on a par with the
dollar.
first question, said The Government have The COLONIAL SECRETARY, replying to the under consider tion the question of improving the ricksha service in the Colony on the general lines indicated in the question.
Returning to the position at which we started, that of ways and meaus generally, we wonder if His Excellency the GOVERNOR, when he referred to the Opium Farm as the importaut source of income, took into account the grini possibilities of the recent anti-opium resolution of the British Parlia. meut We presume he did not; but if there be in the Colony any supporters of the agitators responsible for it, it is to be hoped they will remember the promised additional taxation; and reflect on the probable situation in case these good people manage to grant China an opium monopoly, which is what the “reform" really weans.
The Shanghai Life Insurance Co., L., bas held its first annual meeting. During this its first year the business offered to the company amounted to Tk. 1,791,450, of which amount Tls. 1,526,730 was accepted and Tls. 264 720 declined or postponed. The shareholders ex- pressed satisfaction.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, replying to the second question, said—(1) It is doubtful whether provision can be m de iu next year s estimated to cost 880,0 0, Estimates--for a market at Teim-tsa-telli
have recently been prepared.
(b) Plans and estifiates for a refuse burnor The cost of sito, buildings and plant will amount to $450.0 10 and it is doubtful whether provision can be made for it in next year's Estimates.
that
The COLONIAL TREASURER, replying to the third question, said-The Government have made enquiries and are satisfied that the only practical means can be adopted for
coins is to cease for the time to issue such coins and to induce the Cantonese authorities to stop the issue of Chinese subsidiary coins, the over-production of which combined with depressed trade has brought about the fall in value of both British and Chinesa subsidiary
currency.
HIS EXCELLENCY-I propose to supplement the answer given by the Director of Public Works to the hon, member's second question, as the answer he has received will probably not be