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Mr. Harding then put a series of questions, concluding with, How much do you pay for your clothes P-What do you want to ask me all these questions for ? I am suing the man for money Question repeated-Several tens of dollars
a year.
Your late brother had a wife named Ip,Lung Shi ?-How do I know her name.
What, don't know the name of your brother's wife! What used you to call her ?
His Lordship-Probably he called her mother in-law, auntie, or something of that sort.
Witness-No. I called her Ah Fo. Mr. Harding said the defence was that the defendant went to the witness and requested him to ask Ah So whether she could lend the defendant $200. He went, and on March 5th the amount was handed over to the defendant at Ah So's house in Des Voeux Road in twenty cent pieces. Defendant give her an be road ont. Tt acknowledgement which happened to be in the plaintiff's name, and
in wanted it the woman said she
her name. Defendant wrote another acknowledge- ment in Ah So's name, but by inadvertence left the original one on the table; When the defendant left the house the woman noticed the original acknowledgement, and gave it to plaintiff to hand over to defendant, but the plaintiff failed to return it,
Defendant's evidence (which was in accordance with his solicitor's opening statement) having been substantiated by Ah So. his Lordsbip found for the defendant with costs, told the plaintiff he did not believe a word he had said, and advised him to leave the Colony.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE SIR FRANCIS PIGGOTT (CHIEF JUSTICE.)
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
A QUESTION OF BALE. The hearing of the action conoluded in which the Hip On Insurance, Exchange and Loan Co. Ltd., and the Hongkong and Manila Yuen Sheng Exchange and Trading Co., Ltd. sued Li Po Yung and Li Po Kam for $49,052.62 as money lent. The Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C., and Mr. McNeill from Shanghai, who were instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley (of | Messrs. Dennys and Bowley) appeared for the plaintiffs; Mr. M. W. Slade, who was instructed by Mr. F. P. Helt (of Messrs. Brutton and Hett) and Mr. C. E. H. Beavis (of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist) represented Li Po Yung and Li Po Kam; while Sir Henry Berkeley, K.C., who was instructed by Mr. R. D. Atkinson (of Messrs. Deacon, Looker and Deacon) appeared for Kwok Yik Ting, the defendant in the counter-claim.
Counsel, having concluded their addresses, his Lordship reserved judgment.
Friday, August 14th.
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION.
BEFORE MB. H. H. J. GOMPERTZ (ACTING PUISNE JUDGE).
A HOST'S LIABILITY. His Lordship delivered his reserved decision in the case in which the Yin Kong Lam Kee sued Kam Tsun Hing to recover $182.55, being amount due for meals supplied defendant and his guests,
Mr. E. J. Grist (of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist) represented the plaintiffs, and Mr. R. Harding was instructed for the defendant.
His Lordship stated that Mr. Mirza, his clerk, had found a case very much on all fours with the present one, which was decided in 1902. In that case Mr. Justice Smith non- suited the plaintiff, and the plaintiff appealed to the Full Court. The Full Court returned the case to the Paisne Judge, and the writ was amended. The point was not decided by the Fall Court, so his Lordship did not think it his opinion on it. He thought necessary to pass the best thing was to follow what has previously been done, and allow the writ to be amended.
Mr. C. M. Dixon, who represented Mr. Harding, said that as the plaintiffs had made a mistake and could not have succeeded on the writ in its present form they ought to pay all costs up to the date of amendment,
[ August 17, 1908.
Mr. Grist-If Mr. Harding had taken the Last year the centenary of Protestant mis- point at once, and applied to have the writ|sions in China was celebrated, and it must struck out, then he might have got his costs, strike many people as singular that nothing was done to renovate the tomb of the pioneer but he waited until the trial of the action had concluded; therefore the plaintiffs ought to missionary, the inscription on the slab at the have the costs of the trial,
end of the year-being almost unreadable,
His Lordship-I will order judgment for the plaintiffs subject to the writ being amended. I think defendant is entitled to costs for to-day.
Mr. Dixon-It was impossible to take this point before, because it was elicited in cross- examination that the plaintiff firm had ceased to carry on business at the date of issue of the We did not know until we came in writ. Court and cross-examined a witness.
His Lordship-I think you had a shrewd idea!
Mr. Dixon-We had a shrewd idea, other wise we would not have examined on the point. His Lordship-There will be judgment for plaintiff with costs, subject to the writ being amended so as to make all the partners in the firm plaintiffs defendant to have costs for t| day's appearance.
THE OLD PROTESTANT CEMETERY AT MACAO.
There is a strangely pathetic interest in a visit to the old Protestant Cemetery at Macao where lie crambling into honourable dust the bones of many a sturdy pioneer of Western civilisation and trade. If some Thomas Gray were to mase therein for half an hour his poetic inspiration might well give us lines as enduring as the famous" Elegy" written in an English country Churchyard. The present writer is not a Thomas Gray, but many a reader may perhaps be thankful for a few lines which will serve to direct his steps to this historic spot when next he visits the peaceful little Colony of Macao.
The first turial in this ground was that of Mrs. Morrison, wife of Dr. Morrison, the pioneer Protestant Missionary to China. It is recorded in an obituary notice published at the time that "The Chinese refused a place of burial where it was desired, and where an infant of Mrs. Morrison's was before interred and those Christians who inhabit Macao, not allowing other Christians any place of interment bat within the limits of the Fosse, outside the city wall; the managing Committee of the English factory in China, with a humane and liberal feeling, assisted by some worthy Portuguese gentl-men, to overcome legal impediments, purchased a piece of ground to be a cemetery for we doubt not for other the Euglisb, and Protestant Christians who in future choose to avail themselves of it. This arrangement en- abled Dr. Morrison to lay the remains of his lamented wife in a place decently appropriated to sepulture."
Mrs. Morrison while anticipating a living mother's joy suddenly, but with pious resignation, departed this life after an illness of 14 hours bearing with her to the grave her hoped-for ohild." Death occurred at Macao on June 10th, 1821. An infant of Dr. and Mrs. Morrison died in 1811 and was buried on the bill called Meesenber." Dr. Morrison himself was buried beside his wife in this little, cemetery in August 1834. The inscription on the slab of stone which lies upon the narrow cell in which he was laid to rest reads as follows:-
Sacred to the Memory of
*
ROBERT MORRISON, DD. The first Protestant Missionary to Ching.
Who died after a ervice of 27 years chiefly spent in extending the Kindom of His Redeemer, during which period te compiled and published a Dictionary of the Chinese language and for several years laboured alone on a Chinese version of the Holy Scriptures, which he was spared to see completed and widely circulated among it was destined,
Ee was born at Morpeth in Northumberland
January 5th, 1772;
Was sent to Chins by the London Missionary
Society in 1807;
Was for 25 years Chinese translator in the
employ of the East India Company And died at Canton, August lat; 1834. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them,"
Perhaps the only other name of historic inter- est in the cemetery is that of George Chenery which is inscribed on a stone slab let into the north wall. There is no date of his death and no recital of his virtues or his failings simply his name in blear-cut letters. To Chenery are wre of this generation indebted for some paintings of enduring interest, notably a painting of the old Factories at Canton.
In another part of the cemetery is to be found a stone to the memory of one John P. Williams of Utica, "who assisted in setting up the first magnetic telegraph in Japan in 1854."
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The finest memorial in the cemetery marks the resting placs of a son of the sixth Dake of Marlborough. He was a captain in the Royal Navy and died at Macso in 1840.
Perhaps the stones which most "implore the are the frail memo- passing tributs of a sigh rials erected over the narrow cells in which are confined the bones of many of the sturdy old sea-dogs who piloted the argosies of commerce between the ports of England, Europe and America three-quarters of a century ago. It was not an uncommon practice in England in the early part of the last century for the friends of a deceased person to provide the sculptor of tombstones with a little doggerel by way of vary. ing the monotony of the Scriptural text; and the sea faring men who traded to the Far East seem to have carried a preference for doggerel with them. In the old Protestant cemetery at Macao may be found "graved on the stones" which mark the resting place of captains of barques once famous in the maritime commerce of the East some interesting examples of which the following may
be cited and treasured :- "Poor Wand'rers of a stormy day
From wave to wave we're driven, And Fancy's haste and Reason's ray Serve but to light the troubled way - There's nothing calm but Heaven.
is
1
"The port is reached The sails are furled Life's voyage now is o'er By Faith's bright chart He has roached that world Where storms are felt no more."
"Though Boreas blows and Neptune's waves
Have toss'i too and fro
By God's degree you plainly see I'm anchored here below, Where we at anchor safely ride With many of our Fleet;
But once again we must set sail Our Saviour Christ to meet.”
A fund, of which the British Consul at Canton trustee, exists for keeping this cemetery in good order, and though it cannot be said that the cemetery is in a neglected condition, one could wish for more evidence of tender interest in so historic a spot,
THE CHINA TEA TRADE.
Some time ago the authorities in Peking bad under consideration a proposal to increase the tax on tea, in order to meet the growing the revenue. When the requirements of matter was referred to the provincial authori- ties for their consideration it was found that there were numerous and serious difficulties Their in the way of the proposed increas». Excellencies Chang Chih-tung, Yuan Shih- kai, and Duke Tsai have therefore mended that the scheme be postponed, but they have arged upon the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce that the tea trade should be encouraged in every possible way, and this is the origin of the notion of His Highness Prince Pa Ting, who is seeking to establish a tes combine sad to finance it with joint commercial and official capital.
recom.
China is stated to have declined to accede to a request made by the Government of Rumia for permission to extend her telegraph, lines from Tomsk to the Chinese frontier for the purpose of facilitating commercial communica- tion with China.
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