THE
Hongkong Weekly Press
VOL. LXIX.]
Far Eastern News
Leading Articles.-
AND
China Oberland Trade Report.
CONTENTS.
Trade Depression in England The Calamity in Italy.............
Yuan Shih Kai's Downfall America and China....
Reform in China
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, 9TH JANUARY, 1909.
.21
No. 2
The Regent has ordered the Grand Council His Highness Prince Ching has been appoint to again send despatches to the various Provincialed by the Prince Regent to superintend the con- PAGE authorities, urging them to submit proposals instruction and repair work of the Ta Chêng-yü connection with the abolition of the eight banner Mausoleum; where the remains of the late regiments during the present Chinese year. Emperor Kuang Hsü are to rest. The Mau- soleum in question has been in process of con- struction for many years in preparation for the Imperial occupant.
22
22
The Korean Emperor has announced his intention to visit Fasan and other places. His 23 Majesty will be accompanied by Prince Ito, the 23 Resident. This imperial journey will
stitute an unprecedented event in Korean history.
24
ག་ ་་་་་་་་་
Random Reflections
24
Hongkong News
25
Sanitary Board.......
25
The Canton-Hankow Railway Loan
26
A New Baronet
.26
A New Solicitor
*..26
His Excellency's Private Secretary
26
New Year Meeting
A Dishonest Boy
The Destruction of Bats
Correspondence :--
.....
- Kuiangsu (Amoy) Municipal Council Supreme Court
H.M.S. “King Alfred" at Saigon Far Eastern Telégrams
Chinese Imperial Ediots
Commercial Shipping.
26
con-
Soiled paper currency, retired from circulation on accounts of its condition, representing a value of three million pesos, was burnt at Manila a few days ago in presence of the Governor- General, the insular treasurer, and the insular
auditor.
↓
An earthquake fund to assist the sufferers in Italy is being raised in Japan on the initiative 26 of the newspapers. Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress have wired condolences, 26 and have also forwarded a contribution of .26 | Yen 10,000,
27.
Sir Alexander Hosie, C.M.G., the British 19 Commercial Attaché, has been gazetted as 29 | Consul-General at Tientsin in succession to Mr. 29 Hopkins, who has retired, but it will probably 29 be some time before Sir Alexander takes over
the duties of the Consulate. 32
British capital, a St. Petersburg dispatch says, continues to pour into Siberia in a remarkable. way. The latest announcement is that the
Hongkong Weekly Press, famous goldfields on the Altai have been sold
HONGKONG OFFICE: 10A, DES VEUX ROAD CL. LONDON OFFICE: 131, FLEET STREET, E.C.
ARRIVAL OF MAILS
The English Mail of the 11th Dec., and the parcel mail closed in London for despatch by the all sea route on the 2nd Dec., and for despatch overland on the 9th Dec., arrived
per s.s. Delhi, on the 6th inst.
1
FAR EASTERN NEWS..
Vladivostock was completely frozen in on
the 24th ult.
A scheme has been formulated by the Grand Council at Peking with the assistance of the Board of War for the unifying of all the military forces of the Empire, the Regent being
Commander-in-Chief.
**
To "speed away" 1908, and to welcome 1909, the Members of the Amoy Club gave, on the 31st December, a Fancy Dress Ball at the Club Theatre, which the Amoy Gazette describes as a huge success.
A young Hollander in Java, Mr. F. C. Dons, is reported to have made a new flying machine, easily handled by one man, 30 by 11m, which turns easily, makes 300 km. per hour, and has a carrying capacity of 4,500 kilos. He is forming a syndicate, with the assistance of Mr. G. van Det of Hilversum.
to a British syndicate, which has also acquired goldfields on the River Lena and mining con. cessions in Saghalien.
Mr. Miles W Lampson, of the Foreign Office, who came out as Secretary to H.R.H. Prince Arthur af Connaught's Special Mission to invest the Emperor of Japan with the Order of the Garter, has now returned to Japan to assume the position of Second Secretary to the British Embassy.
A municipal tax of two plastres imposed at Saigon upon all natives earning their livelihood there evokes strong opposition. A Saigon journal declares that it will inevitably result on the one hand in an exodus from the town, aud on
the other it will keep away a large number
of natives having business at Saigon.
Mr. J. C. Farrow, manager of the China Mutual Insurance ompany at Amoy, shot himself at 2.30 p.m. on
the 5th inst. [Mr. Farrow was one of the most successful agents of the company and was very popular in Amoy where he has been for several years. He was about 38 years of age and is survived by a widow.]
:
Grand Secretary Chang Chih-tung, who is also Comptroller General of the Affairs of the Ministry of Education, has issued a circular to
the Viceroys and Governors of provinces to dismiss summarily any foreign teacher in the Government schools who may in any way mis- behave himself, or act unreasonably towards the scholars.
The Ministry of Finance has denounced to the Throne a second class secretary of the Departament, Kui. Yin, for asking for extended leave of absence on flimsy pretexts, as it has been discovered that the accused official is using his leave to continue his opium smoking habit. As a punishment for this, Kuei Yin has been ordered to resign.
as well as in Macao.
!
The new Portuguese newspaper Vida Nova ("New Life") which has made its appearance in Macao promises to meet with great acceptance among the Portuguese community in Hongkong"
The articles in the first number are well written and give expression to views concerning the colony which are widely entertained. Macao has now two newspapers after being without any for quite a long time.
We have been hearing so much about a reform of the Chinese currency during the past twelve months, and seeing so little of any actual results that one is almost tired of reading of the Chinese Government "proposals" But the latest is worth noting. We are indebted to a Peking contemporary for the information that "the Government proposes to endeavour to institute a gold currency next year." It has been sug- coins should equal one pound sterling. gested by an official that 15 hinese half-tael
Sweden, the Times Peking correspondent states, will not ratify the treaty of friendship and commerce with hina signed in Peking on July 2, on the ground that the text as signed diverges too widely from the Swedish draft first presented for negotiation. As announced at the time, the terms of the treaty were more favourable to hina than the stipulations of previons treaties, especially in emphasizing the reciprocal nature of the agreement and the equaactlity of the two high contring parties.
The mail brings us the news of the death of two old residents, says the Shanghai Mercury. Mr. Wm. Morrison Harvie and Mr. Charles Lyall Grant. Mr. Grant many will remember as a partner in the firm of Messrs. Adamson, Bell & Co. from the sixties to 1890 when the firm closed its doors. He was well known in other ports in hina where he has still many old friends who will regret to hear of his demise, Mr. Wm. Morrison Harvie was well known in
the nineties as an importing and commission agent here and in Hongkong.
•
On the 4th ult., at a meeting in Berlin of the Executive Committee of the German Colonial Society, under the presidency of Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg Admiral von Tirpitz, Minister of Marine, announced that the Govern- ment intended to establish at Kian-chan a high school for hinese, at a cost of 600,000 marks (£30,000) with a recurrent expenditure of 150,000 marks (£7,500) per
The
annum.
Minister stated that the view prevailed in China that a thorough reform of the school system
was a necessary preliminary to the modernis- ation of the State's methods of government. The hinese Government had shown its
readiness to support the new school both by a 'sympathy with the project by expressing its sudsidy and by the provision of suitable scholars, and also by admitting scholars from the German school to State examinations and to posts under the Chinese Government. The German Government Admiral von Tirpitz added, desired to create a commercial high school as a basis for technical and medical schools and for institutes for political economy, forestry, and agriculture, to be founded later.