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July 20, 1908.)
KOWLOON CRICKET CLUB.
The formal opening of the new club house of the Kowloon Cricket Club took place on July 11th in brilliant sunshine and in | presence of a large gathering. The ceremony should have taken place on June 6th but it anffered nothing by reasdn of the delay and the cinder track laid down has also been completed, H. E. the Governor was present and performed the opening ceremony, which was followed by an inter-club tennis match. Music by the 105th Mahrattas' band added to the pleasures of the afternoon, and the hospitality dispensed by the club was appreciated.
As is well known, the club has been for a long time without a suitable habita- tion. Though it is one of the youngest organisations in the Colony, ita progress has been as remarkable as the growth of Kowloon itself, and as one of the premier clubs of Hongkong it certainly deserved a proper pavilion. This the members recognised, but difficulties confronted them for a long time. Happily these were overcome and the present handsome structure was erected on a site near the entranos. Built of wood, with a ruberoid roof, the pavilion has length of 50 feet and a breadth of 40 feet. There are a large dressing room equipped with lockers, a bath room, a ladies' room, a spacious bar, and committee and storé rooms. A wide verandah runs along the front of the building which was built from plans prepared by Mr. E. M. Haseland.
The officials of the Club are:-Patron, H.E. Sir Frederick Lugard, K.C.M.G.; President, Mr. H. N. Mody; Chairman, Mr. H T. Richardson; General Committee, Messrs. C. E. Libeaud, J. H. Mead, W. Stewart, J. Celland. H. E. Goldsmith, E. Smith, J. P. Robinson, J. H. Menagh and D. Harvey; Hon. Treasurer, Mr. F. P. Shroff, and Hon. Secretary, Mr. T. Chee.
His Excellency was received by the officials and members of the committee, and
Mr. H. N. MODY said:-Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the committee and members of the Kowloon Cricket Club as its President, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you here to-day, and I am sure we all regret that absence from the Colony prevents Lady Lugard from accompanying you as the did on the last occasion when you visited us. We trust that the day of her return to Hongkong completely recovered in health is not far distant. Since your Excellency's last visit on New Year's day you will notios that great advances in the interest of sport have been made on this ground. The Amateur Athletic Association have now completed a splendid running track, the finest, if not the only track in the Far East, and the fine Club House which I shall directly ask you to formally open has been finished. We soknow. ledge with grateful thanks the generosity of the Government in placing at our disposal a ground which lends itself so admirably to sports. Exercise and recreation are necessary to us all and I am sure that nowhere can these be better obtained than in this most excellent ground, and I am glad to be able to tell you that its opportunities are being fully taken advantage of by our members. That Kowloon has a great commercial future cannot be doubted, and that it should also have a great future and take a leading place in the sports of this Colony is our ardent wish. I have to thank your Excellency for so kindly coming over here to-day, especially as the original date for this ceremony had on account of bad was- ther to be postponed and your coming here to-day may have been at the cost of some other more important engagement. I osa only assure you that we appreciate your kindness in doing so very highly, showing as it does the very keen interest you take in the sports of the Colony. I have now the great pleasure to present you with this key (at the same time handing His Excellency a silver key) and ask you, Sir, to open our new Club House (Applause.)
HIS EXCELLENCY maid':---Mr. Mody, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I proceed to open this Club House with the key with which I have just been presented by your President, I would like to say a few words. We all know that wherever British Colony is started, the first thing he Colonists do is to a get a racecourse, polo
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NOTES FROM THE NORTH.
(FROM OUR CORBESPONDENT,)
TIENTSIN, 20th June.
Mr. Merrill is being lent by the acting Inspect- or General to the Chinese Government for special service in America. He will not leave the Customs. The new appointment has been made in the following circumstances. Mr. Ragsdale, the U. S. Coneni-General in sientsiɔ, has just gone on promotion to St. Petersburg, Mr. Williams, of the U. 8. Legation in Peking, has moceeded Mr. Ragsdale in Tientsin and Dr. Ten ey, formerly president of the Peiyang University, Tientsin, and latterly appointed to the charge of a Chinese educational mission to the United States, aucceeds Mr. Williams in Mr. Merrill is now to be sent to Peking. America to take obarge of the Chinese students there in place of Dr. Tenney.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
ground and orioket ground. I know that from my own experience in Africa. My omloers were content to live in tents and grass huts, through whose roofs the rain found its way, while busily planning for polo and cricket ground, and since it is the tradition of our race to put sport-I will not say before anything else
CHANGE AT THE CUSTOMS, but before anything which is not absolutely
Tientsin is about to lose its Commissioner of necessary, I am glad to see that this tradition Customs, Mr. H. F. Merrill, Mr. Morrill, who is being maintained here in Kowloon. It is the is an American, joined the L.M.C. in 1874, and same thing on active service, as I have also seen.
was made Commissioner in 1887: Before com- Where a British force camps for a few days or ing to Tisatsin in the spring of 906 in succes. weeks, a cricket ground or polo ground springssion to Mr. Datring, he was Commissioner at into existence, as if by magic. I remem er Ningpo. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill and their when I was a young soldier about thirty years daughter have been very prominent aud popular ago-I am sorry to say that it is a long time socially in Tientsin, and their loss will be greatly ago when I was on active service in Af. felt. gha istau, we sometimes had to march with & very light kit indeed, with only bare necessities and everything that was not light was thrown out; yet every day when camped the men were very foad of putting a 2016. weight! (laughter). We never found out to the day that we left the country how that 201b shot was brought from camp to camp. Your President has alluded to the last time I was here. That was on New Year's Day when I witnessed the Children's Sports and I think that it is a most sporting and most generous thing of this Club to have that institution of Children's Sports each year.
I was de- lighted to hear that you are going to make them an annual institution, and I know that the idea has received the very special in- terest and generous liberality of your President (applause). I see two extraordinary changes on the ground since I was here before the admirable cinder track and this delightful pavilion. I hope that you will see from this platform many sporting contests carried out in & sporting spirit, not for the sake of a Cup but for the sake of sport-run well and Anished well. (Applause). I have to thank you, sir, for the kind allusion you have made to Lady Lagard, who would have been delighted to have been here this afternoon, but she was compelled to go to England ander medical advice and I hope that she will be back again early in November. I hope to see her back again in time for the Children's Sports next year (applause). I have now much pleasure in opening the door. (Applause.)
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HIS EXCELLENCY then placed the key in the look, and turning it said I declare this pavilion open, ladies and gentlemen (applause).
HIS EXCELLENOY afterwards undid the tape, and with this ceremony the oinder track was declared opened.
In the subsequent match between the Kow loon Cricket Club and the Hongkong Cricket Olub the home players after leading the greater part of the contest were beaten by their opponents.
The results were :—
Hancock-Carr (Hongkong) V. Lapsley. Brewer 7-5; v. Klimaneck-Clelland, 5-7; v. Fowler-Edwards, 11-1: 23 games to 13.
Murray-Hastings (Hongkong) v. Klimaneck Clelland, 9-3; v. Fowler-Edwards, 6-6; Lapsley-Brewer, 10—2, 23 games to 11.
Wodehouse-King (Hongkong) v. Fowler. Edwards, 5–7; v. Brewer-Lapaley, 2—10 ; v. Klimaneck-Clelland, 4-8 : 1 games to 25.
Hongkong, 59 games ; Kowloon, 43 games.
THE TROUBLE ON THE INDO-
CHINA FRONTIER.
Hanoi papers continue to contain reports of conflicts with bands of Chinese reformers who are giving trouble on the frontier of Anuam, The most recent affair has been at Khon-Day where. Commandant Lecreus met a band of them. He killed 13 and took four prisoners. He took possession of fifteen rifles and several hundred cartridges. Four of the rifles were of a 1902 model. One of the men killed was a chief and upon his person were found several objects belonging to the late Lieut. Reynaud. There was no loss on the French side in this engagement.
The headman of Bac Quang succeeded in am. bushing another band who were fleeing before the French troops. He took 50 prisoners and 37 rifles. The rest of the band is expected to be captured shortly.
Mr. Merrill is succeeded in the Tientsin Commissionership by Mr. C. L. Simpson, who is at present Commissioner at Ningpo. Mr. Simpson, who has one son in the M.C. and had two, is the oldest Commissioner in the service with the exception of Sir Robert Hart who joined two years before he did. One of Mr. Simpson's sons used to be in the Customs head office in Peking, and now residing in the capital is perhaps better known to the world as Putnam Wesle” the author of four or five very successful books on Far Eastern politics. BIR WALTER HILLINE.
Referring again to Reuter's telegram about the appointment of Sir Walter Hillier as adviser to the Chinese Government, one of the Peking rumours in circulation is to the effect that Bir Walter has come out in connection with the Chinese Engineering and Mining Co., and another report confirms this and adds the particulars that he has come out to give authoritative meanings of Chinese documents.
THE C, B. AND M. Co.
The Agent and Manager in Chins of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Co., is, as many of your readers must know, Major Nathan, brother of the late Governor of Hongkong. He is an able business man and a diplomatist, but he
has here difficult, if not an impossible task. He has to satisfy his directors, and he has to get on smoothly with the Chinese authorities. The latter have their own view of the result of the big law case which Chang-Yen-Mou lost in Loudon three years ago. Since then there have been continual negotiations, but these have not had mutually satisfactory results. The Chinese are dissatisfied, and can make things · · very unpleasant for the Mining Co. The latter has been doing its best to make its position strong. It has been going into the matter of title deeds, &o,, creating new ones when these were found to be defective. Now, however, there are rumours that a settlement is about to be effected. But apparently it is still to be negotiated, and the interests" of the European and Chinese parties concerned are so diverse that it would be rash to anticipate a successful outcome.
Of course in any such negotations the inter- pretation of documents would be an important feature, and there is considerable verisimilitude in the report that it is for this purpose. that Sir Walter has come out to China.
TIENTSIN, June 25th," AN ABLE OFFICIAL,
•▲ Cantonese has been selected by the Chinese Government, as briefly stated in my last to conduct the important negotiations Chinese Engineering and Mining Oỡ H.E Liaug Fụ Hảo, who was formerly. of the Chins Merchants 8. N. Co, the Imperial Railways of North Chine Tuotai of Newchwang, and Customs
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