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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND is not always'able to execute the laws which it promulgates. But that by the way. The main point is that PRINCE CHUN is not content to adopt a passive attitude, but that he wishes to indicate the lines which pro- grese should take in the great Empire whose de tinies are figuratively, if not actually, under his control.
steam engine itself th eatened with extinc- tion before the internally fired machine of the day. was but the other day that the electric tram car came to the great joy of the locomotive public, yet to the Intense disgust of all lovers of art, who see their view of God's heaven shut out by a vulgar network of poles and wire. It was only a generation ago that the el- otric wire came to connect the most distant lands, and create new wants and new inconveniences and dangers; yet already we see looming in night quite a new development of electricity which will for the moment gladden the heart of the artist. Wireless telegraphy,
a few years, or mouths ago, a vision of the imagin- ation of a few sanguine experimenters, is now looming on the horizon as a ral accom- plished fact. Already a concert performed in Berlin has been heard in Stockholm, and signs thrown into thee her at New York are regularly read on the coast of England. It seems to be certain, following up pre entable. indications, that the barbarous practise, as We shall call it then, of carrying our electricity along unsightly wires will be done away with, and the people who accomplish this will be hailed by artistic folk us true benefactors of the human race. But will they be so ? Experience would rather tend to show that it will be merely an exchange, and that our imaginary artistic paradise be followed by something even more profoundly nasty,
It was but the other day that SANTOS DEMONT astonished the world by navi- gating a huge balloon round the Eifel Tower. Then German inventors claimed the world's attention for airships. But other clever and more practical inven- tors had been for some little time at work, and to herald the last year HENRY FARMAN, with a mere stretch of canvas actually flew a few hundred yards, and came down none the worse for his Icarian attempt. So already the airship has had to give way to the more han ly and workmanlike aviator. Now there is little doubt that in a little while, as in the case of the humble byke, the aviator, or whatever we shall call it then, will take the place of the byke, and the school boy will think as little of putting on his wings and flying off to school, as to-day he does of mounting hs byke. Probably the artist will rejoice at having found a joy for ever; but as before, will it turn out a thing of beauty, and will the world be any the happier for the veut? It will be very pleasant doubtless for future ROMEOs to be able to evade the watchful CAPULETS of the day, and by into the chamber of their JULIETS without the encumbrances of ropes and ladders. But will the world be aught the wiser or happier for the perfor- mance? That is still the mighty problem of the future.
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Compulsory education in China sounds well, and bears the stamp of progress. But desirable as it is, it hardly comes within the region of practical politics, and for ne great incontrovertible reason the where- withal is lacking. Before China can attempt any real roform abe must reorganise her finances. She must have a steady revenue: she must have an income on which she can rely. The money raised from the taxpavers must not go to the eari hment of the ax gatherers, but every cent of it should go into the public purse. Then all things which are humanly possible become practic. A strong army, a powerful navy, a system of education, these an other things will follow the readjustment of taxation which will provide the necessary funds for the exchequer to finance and administer the country. But
even under present limitations much may be done to make education more general than it is in the Empire. Viceroy Saux, who was regarded as a reactionary by many in Hongkong has the honour of having made very laudab'e attempt to provide greater educational facilities in the Two Kwang Provinces. He ordered that schools should be established in practically every village in Kwangtung and Kwangsi and threw the responsibility of maintaining these upon the gentry. The sohenie may not be frie from criticism, but it appeared to be an honest attempt to deal with a crying evil, and it has the merit of surviving his departure. The schools started by his prompting exist in large number to-day and, as they are conducted on fairly modern lines, teir institution must be regarded as a bount, the two provinces named.
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[December 21, 1908
THE CANTON HANKOW RAILWAY.
(Daily Press, December 18th.) Commenting, some weeks ago, upon thể Edict giving to H. E. Chang Chih Tung aupreme control of the affairs of the Canton- Hankow railway we anggested that, in view of the difficulties experienced in obtaining payment of calls on the share capital as they fell due, the announcement seemed to threaten that the Director would raise a foreign loan if the Chinese shareholders persi-ted in their neglect or refusal to provide the funds they had undertaken to supply. This is evidently the view which has heen taken of the announcement by the shareholders generally in the province of Kwangtung, for our Canton correspondent in his communication published this morning reports that a sum amounting to upwards of five million dollars has now been paid by the recalcitrant s areholders in Kwangtung province on the second instalment of the share capital. This call has been long over- due. Time for payment has been extended again and again without much result. The intimation issued by CHang Chih Tung when he assumed supreme direction less than a couple of months ago, clearly indicated that the limit of patience in this matter had been reached, and his thinly. veiled “inten iou to have recours 10 foreign capital, rather than suffer the work of construction to be d layed, has obviously stimulated effort on the part of Kwangtung shareholders to prevent a stultification of that great outburst of patriotic pride and pre- tension which started the work on Chinese cap tal and under Chinese supervision and coutrol. It would appear from a Peking telegram published in northern papers that steps have already been taken by the Viceroy of Canton with a view to raising a loan from British capitalists for this purpose, though in the face of the Ediot giving to H.E. CHANG CHIH TỪNG 'upreme control and expressly prohibiting interference by the provincial Viceroys, it is by no means clear what the Viceroy has to do with the question. We can only suppose that H. E.
HANG CHIH TUNG being overwhelmed with affairs of State connected with the nocession of the new Emperor, has delegated authority to the Viceroy for the arrangement of the loan. The Viceroy is reported to have telegraphically memor alised the Throne that there is no prospect of completing the Liangkwang section of the line unless recourse is had to a foreign loan, and His Excellency is stated to have pointed out that, provide the agreement is properly dawn on the lines of the Tientsiu-Pukou "the borrowing of rail ay agreement, foreign money in no wise interferes with China's rights and powers over the railway." He has, therefore, with the knowledge and consent of the Wai-wu-pu, the Viceroy of of Hupeh and th· Governor of Hunan applied to England for a loan, in accordance with the agrement entered into when the Hongkong Government lent the money to redeem the concession from the American
Undoubtedly the education question demands attention. While those resident in cities and in villages near the great centres of population usually possess some degree of learning acquired by more or less atten- dance at school, ti e great mass of the people in the interior remain illiterate. And it will be no easy matter to reach them. To make education compulsory and universal is a formidable undertaking from which even the nost prog essive statesman might shrink. Village schools could not be sup. ported by the ordinary village community without some grant in aid from governmen', unless of course in those happily cir. cumstanced localities where philanthropists come to the rescue, and the Government is not yet in a position to make the No matter from necessary contribution. what standpoint the subject is viewed, the financial difficulty presents itself. That even the son of the poorest farmer might be able to attend school is the report d ambition of (Daily Press, 17th December.)
the Regent, but grave obstacles stand in the China's new ruler apparently intends to
way of its reali-ation and this ideal, like so create a favourable impression. One of the many others, is certainly very far off. Cuina Development Co. This agreement pro- latest pronouncements of the PRINOS That, of course, need not prevent educational
vdes that in the event of the Liangkwang REGENT is a suggestion that education leaders working for it. Robs was not Provinces wanting to borrow money for should be made compulsory throughout the built in a day. Many years of agita iou railway purposes, England shall have the Empire. He has not issued a decree on the and debate passed before education was
option of fending it. Perhaps it was · subject, and therein he shows his wisdom made compulsory in Britain. What the knowledge that negotiations, appro- for, desirable as the object is, it could not hiatus there was between the establishment ved by Imperial Rescript, are actually be carried out at present. Were he to have of the universities and the establishment in train for a foreign loan that has obstructive shareholders published an Edict commanding that schools of the grammar schools we know, and also reduced the
Loull be established and education made the blank in educational progress between to penitence and fear. With the sum general and compulsory he would have that and the Education Act of Brought the Turone into a ridiculous light China has a long road to travel before she and demonstrated, what it is not expedient attains universal education, but that need to make too clear that the central authority I not deter her from starting on the way.
THE REGENT ON EDUCATION,
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five 1870.1 of
million dollars in haud the
constructing staff are able to push on with the work. The determination of the higher authorities to countenance no delay in the