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of course to be found in the fact that very few men are content to pass the whole of their days in Hongkong. They prefer "to husband out life's taper to its close" in the homeland, and thus the returns include very few deaths from senile decay. The other important factor is the exodus of invalids; for few Europeans who fall into ill-health remain in the colony to die if they have the wherewithal to leave it.
The same observations are applicable to the death rate among the Chinese residents in the colony, and it is not improbable that among these the percentage of invalids who quit the colony to die is very much greater than among the Euro- pean community. The average Chinaman, though he has lived in the colony a quarter of a century or more, takes the earliest opportunity of returning to his native city or village when sickness and the fear of death come to him.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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September 17, 1906.
showed his gratitude to the British Government from India agreed to grant the farther exter by making British territory (Hongkong) hission asked for by the local Chinese dealers headquarters from whence anti-dynastic expedi-| Owing to the abnormal rise în rupee exchange tions were sent to Canton to wreck the Chinese the shrinkage on the 'valne of púrahissé mado Government there. It is now stated that Sun [ some two or three months ago amounts very Yat-sen has allied his party to the Triad Society nearly to 825.00 per bald, and it is with a view in Kuangtung province which has enabled him to help the dealers in getting rid of their high to come into touch with the Kolao Hui and priced stocks that the Indian firms have con- other revolutionary societies in the Yangtze sented to the farther extension of time. This Valley. These Societies, however, are merely trade depression, however is not confined to anti-dynastic and they recognise the divine cotton yarn only. In all other branches of “ rights of kings.
trade such as piece goods, provision, metal, tobaccos, and hardware the wffact of the depression is keenly felt, with the result that stocks have sccumulated to an abnormal extent, and prices are ruling ruinously low; › The main cause of this depression can justly be attributed to the destruction of the fi ́st, second, and third crops of silk in the Kwangtung province,
sufficiently compensated the people for the loss of the first three crops. The rice and frait crops were also partially destroyed by heavy floods a few months ago, and what little spare money people had was withdrawn
NORTH CHINA TRADE.
AMERICAN COTTON GOODS AFFECTED.
In the plague season the least symptom of fever opening of the port of Newchwang for the and though the fourth crop is good,' It has not
is sufficient to cause many of them to be off by the first steamer, and employers of labour in Hongkong are well aware that this factor tells in favour of the colony's death rate, and explains how it comes about that the death rate among Chinese in Hongkong figures out below that of the majority of large centres of population in Europe. Yours &c.
RESIDENT.
SUN YAT-SEN AGAIN.
CHINESE REBELLION PROMISED FOR NEXT
MONTH.
The well-informed writer of native notes in the N.-C. Daily Neics says 'on ept. 7th
As may be remembered by our readers the high officials who were appointed by the Throne to supervise the Army Manoeuvres next
October are Their Excellencies Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai, of Tientsin, and Chang Chih-tang, of Wucbang. A private dispatch received from the last-named city now states that Viceroy Chang Chih-tung has lately received informa tion from the South of such an alarming nature that the chances are considerably against his Excellency's leaving Wachang at all. It appears that Viceroy Tsen Chun-hsuen of Canton, "from information received "when
An American Consul reports: With the
season (f 1906, after being icebound for three months, business was found to be sluggish, and it soon developed that shipments made to the interior did not reach the consumer promptly The passage of goods between the outposts of the Japanese and Russian zones of military occupation was unsatisfactory and was accom. plished only at a great risk from robbers and great expense in cart hire. Therefore the temporary relief to a congested commercial condition at Newchwang was followed by an abnormal state of affairs in the interior.
The Newchwang merchants complained that 3,500,000 taels (aggregating approximately $2,450,000 gold) were practically withdrawa from the local market by being tied up in goods advanced to the interior districts. Money grew tight, and Shanghai returned drafts for interior was, roughly estimated, the aggregate large amounts, The money tied up in the
due elsewhere to meet unsettled accounts. Beans and bean products did not arrive in the that did reach the port were handled by nsual way from the interior, and practically all Japanese interests. Therefore the export trade, generally speaking, was even more nasatisfactory early in the season than the import business.
The Shanghai American cotton goods in. terests, which have built up an extensive trade in Manchuria, almost wholly through the port of Newchwang, aggregating in 1905 upward of
from circulation by the Canton Hankow Railway sink so much capital in such gigantic sohemes, scheme. The people of China can ill afford to and if nothing else the present trade depression proves the absolute necessity of China "getting foreign loans for all such enterprises.
HISTORIC CHINESE OPINIONS.
THE FOREIGN DEVIL IN 1732.
devotes special attention to the writings of the
Professor Giles, in his "Chinese Literature,"¦. historian Lan Ting-yuan, or Lan La-chou. They are interesting as the untrammelled views date at which they were written, namely, in of the greatest living Chinese scholar of the 1732. The following is one of his essays:
and from whom does not transpire-has heard $9,000,000 gold, sent agents to the centres of forts and fortifications and dense settlements of
that that arch conspirator and anti-monarchist "Dr." Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Wen) intends to take advantage of the Army Manou vres in Honan province to start a rebellion in the Yangtze Valley, during the absence of the best troops of the Hukuang Viceroyalty under the command of Viceroy Chang Chih-tung. As only a certain portion of the Hupeh Army have been detailed to take part in the Manoeuvres there will be no change of programme, except that in all likelihood Viceroy Chang Chih-tung will
under the circumstances remain at Wuchang to watch events instead of going up North. It is claimed that Sun Yat-sên and his follow anti-
To allow the barbarians to settle at Canton was a mistake. Ever since Macro was given over, in the reign of Chia Ching (1522-1567) of of the Ming dynasty, to the red-haired bar- barians, all manner of nations have continued without ceasing to flock thither. They build
land, and all the country beyond Hsiang Shan houses. Their descendants will overshadow the will become a kingdom of devils. Red haired ' is a general term for the barbarians of the Western islands. Among them there are the and Yu-su-la (? Islam), all of which nations are Dutch, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, English horribly fierce. Wherever they go, they spy around with a view to seize on other people's territory. There was Singapore, which was barbarians went there to trade, and by and by originally a Malay country; the red-haired seized it for an emporium of their own. So with the Philippines, which were colonised by religion was practised there, the Western the Malays; because the Roman Catholic foreigners appropriated them in like manner for their own. The Catholic religion is now spreading over China. In Hapeh, Hunao, Honan, Kiangai Fuhkien and Kusugai, there
are few places whither it has not reached. In the first year of the Emperor Yung Cheng, the Viceroy of Fukkien, The trade depression through which the Mar Pao complained that the Western colony is at present passing, and which sepus foreigners were preaching: their religion and to affect the whole of South Chins, has been tampering with the people, to the great detri- further accentuated by the steady rise in ment of the localities in question; and the sterling and rupee exchange that has taken petitioned that the Roman Catholic skapels in place during the fortnight. We published some the various provinces might be turned into days ago an account of the conference held by lecture-rooms and schools, and that all Western the Chinese dealers in Indian cotton yarn at foreigners might be sent to Macao to wait until which it was resolved to suspend all operations an opportunity should present itself of sending of sales and purchase of the cotton yarn for them back to their own countries. 'However оде month from the 17th August. It now the Viceroy of Kwang-tung, ont of mistaken seems the suspension of business did not kindness, memorialised the Throne that such produce any appreciable effect on the trade of the barbarians as were old and unwilling nor did it materially help the dealers to reduce to go away might be permitted to remain in the large stocks held by them. Accordingly the Roman Catholic establishment at Canton, the Chinese dealers asked for a further exten- on the condition that if they proselytised, spread sion of two months' time, thereby completely, their creed, or chaunted their mored books, they stopping all new purchases of cotton yarn for were at once to be punished and sent away. three months commencing from 17th August. The scheme was an excellent one, but what A further conference was therefore held on were the results of it? At present more, than Monday afternoon at the office of Messrs. §. J. 10,000 men have joined the Catholic chapel at David and Co., and after a prolonged dis-Canton, and there is also a department for cussion the direct importers of cotton yarn women, where they have similarly got together
TRADE DEPRESSION IN SOUTH CHINA.
and removing, if possible, the causes that tended trade depression with a view to ascertaining to hamper sales. They found a large quantity of native, but very little Aerican, cotton goods, that had been forwarded via Shanghai, considerable Japanese cotton yarn, some of were being shipped inland, together with which had arrived via Dalny (Tairen) before the port of Newchwang opened. Flour, handled via Vladivostok and Dalny, has also been in large shipped to Manchuria this season quantities. There are, however, no available records of the exact or approximate amount. A stimulated demand for Italian cotton and woollen cloth, dyed in imitation of Chinese monarchist conspirators have, during the past satin, was noted, as well as a tendency, on the six months been busily engaged in making an part of recently established, Newchwang alliance with the Kolao Hui and other revolution-commission houses, to order American cotton ary secret societies in the Yangtze Valley and perpreparing a rising in Hupeh or Hunan to take goods direct and not via Shanghai. place this autumn whilst the Imperial armies are engaged in their manœuvres in Honan. Where are the arms and ammunition with which 'successfully to oppose the well-armed and disciplined troops of the Hukuang Viceroyalty has not transpired. Bat we learn from a reliable source that the news is taken in seriousness and that probably Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai himself may also abstain from going to Honan. In this case the Throne will have to appoint two other high officials to inspect the troops at the grand manœuvres, and Tieb Liang, Manchu President of the Board of Revenue, and Hsu Shih-ch'ang, President of the Board of Public Safety, both of whom are members of the Council of Army Reorganisa- tion will probably be named as High Commis- sioners to inspect the Imperial forces on his Majesty the Emperor's behalf. A word as to the arch conspirator Sun Yat-sên. He will be remembered as the man who was arrested and imprisoned in the Chinese Legation in London, during Lord Salisbury's time, by the than Chiness: Minister Kung Chao-yuan, who was subsequently compelled to give the man up to the British authorities upon the demand ́and strong protests of the Premier. The man
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