412
Mr. Pollook-There was a family agreement? Mr. Slade --Yes, there was a division of the property among the members of the family. It was done in the most formal way in the pre- sence of the elders of the clan,
Mr. Pollock-I must formally take objection to all this. This family agreement is not pleaded. She pleads her title, that the shares were a gift to her.
The Chief Justice - As the question of gift may be at issue I cannot exclude it at this stage.
Mr. Slado-The deceased had left instruction as to the division of his property,
Mr. Pollock-That also I object to as not being evidence.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
that the accounts of the dividend and intereste be made up and paid to the plaint ff, was resumed. Mr. Slade, instructed by Mr. P. M, Hodgson, appeared for the plaintiff and the administrator was represented by the Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C., instructed by Mr. Crowther Smith.
|
Mr. Pollock concluded his case for the defence and bis Lordship gave judgment for the plaintiff with costs to come out of the estate.
CORRESPONDENCE.
THE OPIUM QUESTION.
Mr. Slade The administrator cannot put (TO THS EDITOR OF THE DAILY FRESS." | himself in a better position. I submit that a statement made by a man is evidence against himself. It is evidence against his personal representative.
His Lordship-What attitude does the administrator take up-not bostile?
Mr. Pollook-No. We require the trans action to be proved. It is obvious that the only transfer of any validity would be the transfer to her name in the books of the company.
Mr. Slade went out to explain that the will of the deceased provided for all the other members of the family and there was no mention of this family and there was no mention of this property. They were known to the family to belong to the plaintiff.
The hearing was adjourned.
Thursday, 25th June.
IN SUMMARY JurisdictioN.
BEFORE MR. H. H. J. GoMPEETZ (ACTING PUISNE JUDGE).
AN AMUSING PASSAGE.
When the case of the Hung Ya Bank against Tsang King and Chow Lim Kam was called, Mr. Holborrow, who appeared for the first defendant asked for an adjournment as he had not been instructed and his client was ill with
dysentery. He asked him to get a medical certificate but instead they brought round to him a prescription. (Laughter.) There was no doubt that he was sick.
Mr. Grist, who appeared for the plaintiffs, said that defendant was at the Police Court yesterday.
Mr. Holborrow-I am instructed to defend. I cannot defend until I see my client.
Mr. Grist That is your olient's fault. His Honour-What is the claim P
Mr. Holborrow-It is a claim for $1,000 dus on a promissory note.
Mr. Grist-He was at the Police Court yesterday. Mr. Morrell saw him and I believe the reporters also saw him,
His Honour-I have no doubt about it. He is well known,
Mr. Holborrow I am instructed be is suffer ing from dysentery. If my friend objects to the adjournment you might fix the case for this afternoon.
Mr. Grist-He was going about yesterday
and-
|
His Honour-That he was going about yester- day does not follow he could come here to day.
Mr. Grist-The man has not been to see his solicitor since last Friday. He is playing fast and loose with the Court.
Mr. Holborrow- He has been to see me but 1 have been out.
His Honour-I will fix the case for to-morrow and if I am not satisfied you will have to pay the costs for to-day.
Mr. Holborrow-As your Lordship pleases.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE THE CHIEF JUSTICE (IR F, PIGGOTT).
ACTION TO RESTRAIN AN ADMINISTRATOR.
The action brought by To Kan, a widow, of 22 Caine Road, to restrain H. Peroy Emith, administrator of the estate of the late Toog Ping E, from declaring that 260 shares in the Central Stores, Limited, did not form part of the estate and an injunction restraining defen- dant from representing to the directors thereof that the said shares were part of the estate, and
|
SIR-It may be taken for granted that Mr. Clementi's most valuable analysis of the opium statistics of China will be communicated to the Colonial Office, and it is fervently to be hoped that it will be printed as a Parlia entary Paper and circulated for the idformation of the members of the British House of Commons who have been so grossly misled by the missionary bodies and globetrotting members of Parlia ment (who have sought the truth on the surface of missionary wells) as to the alleged alarming prevalenos of the opium smoking habit in China and its demoralising effects.
What impartial student of the question in China can honestly endorse the assertions which ars referred to in the opening paragraph of Mr. Clementi's paper P They call to mind a story told by Mr. W. E. Cooke, the Times correspondent who came out to China in the late fifties. The outcry against opium was as strong then as it is to-day: men were even decapitated for smoking opium. Mr. Cooke and some friends, anxious to see for themselves the evil consequences of the habit, bad taken a mis- sionary as a guide. They came across an old emaciated man who could scarcely bobble along. The missionary at once held him up as horrible example." The inquirers wanted to learn something as to the quantity of opium the
man
4
a
was accustomed to smoke, and it was promptly discovered that the man had never smoked a pipe of opium in his life!
1
Still, I suppose it is not to be doubted that "horrible examples" do exist, and in view of the strong and emphatic assertions made by represents ives of the religious bodies, I, for one, have had a mind open to conviction; and, as during a residence of more than five years I have not by hazard come across any striking evidence of the destructive and demoralising evils of the habit, I have purposely sought for evidence in this Colony which Mr. Theodore Taylor, M.P., inclades among "the blackest opium spots in China." I have visited so-called opium deas" of various degrees of respecta. bility-from the "first class" to the "lowest class and I am simply amazed at the grossly exaggerated ideas which are propagated about these places. My moral sense has often been shocked in England by the, scenes which may be daily witnessed in any large city there, in the neighbourhood of public-houses, but I am bound to say that I sought in vain for the sight of anything so demoralising and bestial in the opium ders. Instead of enfeebled and em. ciated crowds lounging with pipes in their mouths around the opium lamps, I saw strong- looking, robust men, especially in the places to which men of the coolie class resort. My moral sense was certainly not shocked by what I saw of the use of opiur, but I my take this opportunity of saying that I was, in one or two instances, much surprised that the Govern. ment should have licenced such structurally unsuitable and insanitary hovels for a public
[June 27, 1908.
my stay in China, that the alleged demoralis. ing and debasing evils of opium have been, and are, vastly exaggerated." Like all other indulgences, excesses in its use are bad and reprehensible, but I have neither myself seem saoh vicious consequences as are frequently sscribed to it, nor have I been able to obtain authentic proofs or information of their existence. The great, and perhaps I might say sole, objection to the trade, looking at it morally and abstractedly, that I have dis- covered or heard of, is, that it is at present contraband, and prohibited by the laws of Chin, and therefore to be regretted and disavowed but I have striven and I hope with some prospect of eventual success to bring about its legalisation, and were that point once effected, I am of opinion that its most cbjectionable' feature would be altogether removed, Even as it now exists, it appears to me to be unattended with a hundredth part of the debasement andḥmisery which may be seen. in our native country from the lamentable \ abuse of ardent spirits; and those who so sweepingly condema the opiam trade, on that principle, need not, I think leave the shores of England to find a far greater and besetting evil.
That statement, so far as it relates to the alleged demoralising and debasing effects of opiam will be endorsed, I venture to think, by every impartial student of the question.
Opium-smoking, I am convinced, is not a growing babit in China - not at leas in "the blackest opium spots Sir Henry Blake, one of our former Governors, in the letter to The Times which you reproduced a few days ago, Sir, warned the Government that the effect of their instructions to close opiam divans would be to change the stimulant of the people from opium to alcohol. Personally I think the change will come soon enough without this new impetus. Whoever takes the trouble to inquire will and that among the younger generation there is not much inclination towards opium, bat that a strong preference is developing for alcohol, and I think this tendenoy must have been very apparent to those who are developing a brewing industry in Hongkong.-Yours truly.
ANTI-HUMBUG.
HISTORY OF FORMOSA RAILWAYS.
There are three stiges in the development of railways in Formosa
(1) Chinese Railways.-In Formosa at pre- sent there are foreigners who have lived here from thirty to forty years. It sometimes am uses such to see magazine or newspaper articles which refer to the Japanese as civilising the When that remark inhabitants of Formosa. refers to the civilising of the head-hunters on the high hills, all may, perhaps, more or less agree (though the present method of "civilis- ing" the savages seems to be that of extermina- tion); but when it is interpreted to mean that the Japanese are civilising the Chinese inhabitants, there are not many foreigners but will at once demur: As an example of what I mean, few outside of the island have any idea that for years before Formosa belonged to Japan at all she had a comparatively good railway. As far back as 1887 the enlightened Chinese Viceroy, Liu Miug-abuan, did nobly iu this matter. Work on the railway was, of course, to begin with, very slow; but in 1891 the twenty-mile station from Keelung to Dai- totei was opened for traffic, sad by 1893 other forty miles (Daitotel to Shinchiku on the south) were also opened. In the meantime Governor Lin Ming-obuan was removed to China, s0 that railway construction in Formoss did not proceed farther south than Shinchiku. But while willingly crediting Japan with great re- forms in Formosa,, one point to remember is that for some years before Formosa was ceded ▲ most useful railway sixty-three miles of already existed in the island. "I take this opportunity to advert to one (2) Japanese Private Railway.—The second important topic on which I have hitberts stage consisted in the formation of the Japanese considered it right to preserve a rigid silence. Formosa Railway Company. The island became 1 allade to the Trade in Opium: and I now Japanese property jearly in 1895. In October unhesitatingly declare, in this public manner, 1896 the railway company was formed. The was estimated at that, after the most unbiased and careful capital to be invested observation, I bave become convinced, during Y15,000,009. As the compny was thought to be
purpose.
That, however, is beside the main point, to which I wish to revert for the purpose of quot- ing the following extract from a speech which Sir Henry Pottinger, (the first Governor of Hoogkong) after be had left Chins, delivered at a meeting of the Bombay Chamber of Commerca, fifty years ago. He said:
i