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RIVER PORTS.
(Daily Press, 8th July).
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND |
The latest fascicle of the I. M. C. trade returns, dealing with the Central Ports, Shanghai, Soochow, Hangchow, Ningpo, and Wenchow, is mainly a Shanghai num- ber, as might be expected. In addition to the usual report and statistics for each port, it gives a lot of information about the river itself, its recent condition, and about the work being done to improve its naviga- bility. Those interested in these matters should apply for copies, as there are charts and plans whose lucid details cannot well be dealt with in ordinary type. The price is two dollars.
The trade report for Shanghai says that during 1906 the most interesting character istic of the condition of the port generally was the ever-increasing expansion of the town in every direction. Building and re- building operations everywhere indicated the faith in the future of the settlements. The inauguration of an electric tram system prompts the following reference:
"One of the alternative schemes to the tramway, and one which was strongly advocated, was to have no tramway at all, but lines of motor vehicles. This scheme was negatived. mainly, upon the hypothesis that the native could not be trusted to become a reliable chauffeur. Curiously enough, the reverse has prove to be the fact, and no modern invention has developed more rapidly in Shanghai, or contributed more to the expansion of the town, than the motor industry. Garages and repair shops are springing up in all quarters, and the large number of valuable motor-cars and motor boats, all of which are most of the time solely in charge of the native chauffeur, would strike any newly arrived Occidental as exceptional anywhere.'
factory
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Soochow also reported bigger takings, mainly due to increased shipments of green tea, but Hangchow had a different tale to tell, of bad crops and the lowest revenue for five years. Imports had increased, but exports fall very low. The result of the year's trading at Ningpo could only be described 85 somewhat lesa unsatis- All these places find their figures reduced by the diminution of the opium trade, but the Hangchow Com- missioner foresees substitutes and smugs gling. Wenchow shared in the disappoint- inent over the Manchuria demand, and with failing local crops, might have been expected to show worse returns. As it was, however, the uet value of trade was a little better than in either of the two previous years. This was due to the steady develop ment of the export trade, especially in tea, followed closely by tobacco.
A REHEARING.
(Daily Press, July 9th.)
em.
[Jaly 13, 1907. however, too fascinating; it is Utopiau, and we had better abandon it, with a sigh for the literary reputation that could therein be so easily earned, for, as every literary person knows, the chief merit of SHAKE- SPEARE et hoc genus omnes is that they had the first chance to tell the good stories, before competition became so keen. It may safely be urged, on behalf of LI SSU deceased, that his advice to the Emperor was not prompted by any such personal aims. It was not a private literary ambi- tion that led to the Burning of the Books. It is not suggested in any of the records that he was afflicted with the cacoethes scribendi, and wanted an open field for his own efforts. It is permissible to assume, from what is known of his life, character, and career, that he was a well-meaning person, a politician who wanted to đồ the best he could for his country and people. He was, moreover, and this is too obvious to need elaborate demonstration, a man of ideas. He found, as other men of ideas constantly find, that other men had had ideas before him. He found himself and his political schemes hampered and barrassed by the existence of these other ideas, for which
many of his compatriots, obliged, like so many citi zens of all countries, to acquire their ideas second-hand, showed a foolish respect. LI SSU must have been a sort of Chinese JosEPH CHAMBERLAIN, in fact. He had ideas, and being human, had the ordinary human cocksureness in their infallibility. His ideas were the best, he knew, if they could only have a fair chance. He was an advocate, so to speak, of Preference-of preference for his own ideas of government and administration, and the ideas of the Chinese COBDENS who had preceded him were very much in the way of progress. They were a clog. What could mere naturally have occurred to him than the idea of getting rid of these clogs at one fell swoop? A child would have thought of it. It was, however, an undertaking too big for him. From the first he was weak. He permitted himself to make some exceptions, and that was fatal. If not oue exemption, why not others? Other people had their literary fancies, and so it came about that many books were surreptitiously saved from the flames. But for that weakness, China might now have been governed on more modern lines, on a system evolved within the last two thousand years at most, and so not quite so rusty; and we should certainly have been spared a good many of the acrimonious arguments of the sinologues. The 1-sson that all rulers and governors and ministers may, learn from this regret- tabl: incident in the career of Li Ssu is to be thorough. But for his policy of balf measures, that mandarin du temps jadis might have been held now in mɔre ruspect- ful memory.
The general concensus of opinion doubtless is that the Burning of the Books' in B. C. 213 was an unmitigated atrocity, an act worthy of the worst of Philistines, of Vandals. The extent of the holocaust, Dr. LEGGE bas suggested, may have been exaggerated, and we have no doubt what ever that it was. Exaggeration has come to be regarded as a proverbial and almost pardonable weakness of writers, and it is natural to suppose that under such apparently wantou provocation, the Chinese literati of subsequent periods would let themselves go when referring to this famous, or infamous, attempt to destroy the literary records of the Middle Kingdom. Whether References in the Shanghai papers have the burning of the books was on a wholesale prepared us to believe that more than newly scale, or only a half-done job, we cannot arrived Occidentals have been struck by expect for one moment to enlist the them, and we would fain be thankful that sympathy of any lovers of literature by a Hongkong, not possessing Shanghai's levels, belated attempt to redeem the memory of is unlikely to betray the same striking pro- Li Ssu (the Minister at wlose instigation gress. As it is, however, we have one or the First Emperor commanded the destruc- two stray specimens, which have yet to harn tion of the then existing argrevation of that there is a legal limit to speed in city sapience) from the obloquy and execration streets. It is almost a certainty, judging it has had to suffer for so many years, by further observations on the subject, that A MACHIAVEL might say the attempt Mr. Commissioner HOBSON, the writer of deserves blame because it did not succeed: the report, is himself an enthusiastic the literati will say it deserved censure from motorist. With an eye to cheaper tyres, the moment it was allowed to dwell in the he even suggests that the poppy fields, left mind of its originator. So much depends fallow, owing to the anti-opium edicts, on the personal equation, on the point of should be used for the cultivation of the view. In these days, when the saying that equally remunerative india-rubber tree". of the making of books there is no end is Dealing with other signs of progress, he true beyond the wildest dreams of its author, remarks that it is becoming increasingly it should not be impossible to summon up recognised that Shanghai is to be the per-sufficient tolerance to make some allowance manent home for most of its foreign for the late L Ssu. The literati of all nations may be challenged, as likely to form a biassed jury, although even amongst them, given a little calm reflection, there should be some able to recoguise the idea that a repetition of the incident, especially if not bungled as that was, might be "good fər trade." The modern scribblers might pretend to be shocked, but what a chance for them if the classics could be wiped out once for all. Everything would be original; there would be no more platitudes for quite a while; and the awkward copyright in ideas, by which SHAKESPEARE, and PLATO, and other gentlemen are permitted to retain credit that is of no use to them, would no longer be a stumbling block in the way of philosophers who are afraid of being told that "that was said before." Probably all of SOLOMON's wise sayings were platitudes when he published them, and it is certainly unfair that every modern Solomon who thinks one of them for himself should have to say them in quotation marks. The picture of a world without any literature at all is,
residents.
Coming to trade figures, we find that no less than 965,000 applications were passed in the Custom House, as compared with 843,000 in 1905, then the highest recorded. The total collection was over 12 million taels, showing an increase of about three quarters of a million taels on the 1905 record. Part of the increase was in tonnage dues, in which connection it is pointed out that British shipping contributed over half a million taels less than in the previous year, while Japanese tonnage was augmented 700 per cent, and paid over a million more in dues. The German flag held its own with a slight increase, while the French made a decided advance. Figures of imports do not afford evidence of the actual state of trade, as many importers overstocked in consequence of 100 sanguine estimates of the demand to follow the declaration of peace. The chief increase in the revenue, however, was attributable to exports and re-exports- mainly tea and silk.
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HONGKONG SUBSIDIARY,
COINAGE.
(Daily Press, 10th July.)
Our correspondent yesterday, who signed his letter "Chopped Dollar," is an example of a voice crying in a wilderness, a wilder- ness of opinion. To a person earnestly endeavouring to form an opinion out of the collective opinions of bis fellow residents in this Colony, there comes inevitable bewilder ment. Never was such mental chaos betrayed on any local subject; never more diverse ideas more dogmaticaƒ expressed; and perhaps never such a un inimous clinging to indefiniteness when the enquirer pushes home questions. It appears there is so little solid data to go upon, so few premisses of
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