May 10, 1909.]
THE SUGAR TRADE IN JAPAN
A lull has been reached in the proceedings with regard to the sugar scandal. No more arrests are now anticipated says the Japan Mail | and people are beginning to turn their atten- tion to the question of sugar itself. The demand for this commodity is always there, especially at this time of the year, and the problem is how the demand is to be supplied so long as the Dai Nippon Sugar Refining Com- pany keeps its doors closed. The total quantity of sugar produced in 1907 in Japan was 138,83,490 catties, and of this total the Dai Nippon Company stood for 64. 00.550 catties while its Dairi branch stood for 15,828, 00 catties. With these two factories thrown out of work, the price of the staple must rise rapidly and the door will thus be opened for the import of foreign sugar, which had virtually been driven from the market by the home product. As to this question of imported sugar the following figures show how largely the quantity decreased during the 10 years ended
1907 :-
---
1898
Catties. 274,915.600
1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
MASONIC INAUGURATION CERE- MONY AT SHANGHAI.
a
1
387
of musketry training is the only one which makes a soldier really efficient. I congratulate you, Major Barnes, and also the Municipal Council, upon having such an efficient body of men.
I also congratulate the Corps on having such a Council that responds without grumbling to any suggestion that tends to make you efficient. I shall look with the keenest interest to your welfare in the future, and I trust, that you will go on increasing in efficiency and numbers. I shall have pleasure in making the highest possible report on your
moved off the parade ground and dismissed. efficiency to the authorities concerned.
After Colonel Bayard's speech the Corps
With Colonel Bayard at the Saluting base were Messrs. D. Landale. W. D. Little, and H. A. J. Macray, of the Council, and Colonel Bruse, Captain Superintendent of Police.
THE OPIUM DEPARTMENT OF
INDIA.
The Masonic Hall was last night (says the Mercury of the 1st inst.) the scene of the most important Masonic function which has taken place in Shanghai in recent years, Worshipful | Brother Robert Sutcliffe Ivy being inaugurated as District Grand Master of Northern China, E.C. It had been originally arranged that Rt. Wor. Bro. Sir Paul Chater, D.G.M. of Hong- kong and South China, should perform the sustained a somewhat serious accident the previous inauguration ceremony, but owing to his having
week he was unable to attend. his place being taken by Wor. Bro. T. F. Hough, Deputy D. G. M. of Hongkong and South China. There was
large very
attendance of Masons in the hall to witness the ceremony, all the Lodges in Shanghai under the jurisdiction of the District Grand Lodge of Northern China having large contingents while Tientsin, Chinkiang and Kiukiang Lodges were also represented. The local Lodges under the The report on the administration of the Opium Scottish and Massachusetts constitutions were Department for the twelve months which ended also fully represented, as was Lodge Johannes on the 31st October last contains interesting under the Geriau Constitution. Besides the references to the reduction in the cultivation of Deputy District Grand Master, the District the poppy in the Behar and Benares Agencies. Grand Lodge of Hongkong and South China Consequent on the policy which aims at the was represented by Wor. Bros. W. J. Tutcher, eventual extinction of the trade with China in D.S.G.M.. W. H. Wickham, D.J.G.W., A‚O'D. ten years, the Governmant of India are steadily Gourdin, D. G. Sec., and E. C. T. Lewis. A curtailing manufacture of the drug. The area deputation was also present from the District which is settled "annually for cultivation was Grand Lodge of Scottish Freemasonry in ordered to be restricted to 900,000 bighas in the Hongkong and South China consisting of Wor. year 1907-8. but later on it was announced that a Bro. H. Horley, D.G. Sec., and Wor. Bro. F., further reduction of 50,000 bighas might be car- Last P.D.G.J.D. The proceedings were opened ried out. Eventually the area actually dealt with by Wor. Brother T. W. Kingsmill, P.A.G.D.C., was just under 845,300 bighas as against P. D. G. M... who extended a hearty wel. 952.000 in the preceding year. This decrease," come to the visiting bretheru, All being in it is said, "was due partly to action taken by readiness Wor. Bro. Ivy was received and the Department in refusal of licences for the the inauguration ceremony was gone through less productive lands in order to effect con- Regulations have been issued by the Ministry in a most impressive manner. After the Rt.centration, partly to the growing unpopularity of local Government to take the place of those Wor. Grand Master had been duly installed of the poppy crop and partly to the unfavour issued in the year 121 with regard to the and invested, his first duty was to appoint Wor. !able opening of the season: A reduction of Chinese pol tax. The Chinese are asked to pay the Bro. William Charles Murray Deputy over 100,000 bighas in a single year is certainly ordinary capitation tax. each in the district District Grand Master, an appointment that remarkable, but this would not have been where he lives, at the place to be appointed for
met with universal satisfaction.
if secured
there had not been drought the purpose. The tax may be paid at any
it the conclusion of the ceremony a large in the Benares Agency, where many of the time between the 1st of May and 31st of August. number of the brethren adjourned to the Club gultivators abandoned their poppy crop and The Nai Amphurs have to arrange for the Concordia where a splendid banquet
betook themselves to famine relief works. inspection of their districts with a view to ascer-partaken of. The Town Band under the direcIt is noticed also that the best land is no longer
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1204
1905
1906
112.663.400
195.399,900
264.625,300 85.366.200 97.363.300 71.553,900 8,122.200 35.443.200 33.354,700
CHINESE POLL TAX IN SIAM.
1907
THE NEW REGULATIONS.
taining the number of Chinese, liable to pay- ment of the tax in all the houses. A receipt is to he given to each person paying, and on it wil be noted any distinguishing marks on his body, Any Chinese who fails to pay by the 31st August will be fined one tical in addition to having to pay the tax. In the case of a person who refuses to pay or who is unable to pay. the authorities may seize his goods and sell them in satisfaction of the debt, or if he has no goods he will be employed on some public work for 30 days. The kamnau and pu-yai-ban employed on inspection duty and in bringing people to pay will receive a commission, the former of 3 and the latter of 2 per cent. A person arresting a hinaman who has evaded payment will receive are ward of 25 satang-Bangkok Times,
CRUSADE AGAINST PROLONGED CREDIT.
7
as
was
tion of Mr. Da Souza was in attendance and rendered a choice selection of popular music during the evening, While the banquet was in progress the usual loyal and Masonic toasts were proposed and honoured. Songs, etc., were also contributed by several of the musical brethern and a pleasant evening was brought to a close about midnight, thus terminating an historical eveut that will be long remembered by all who participated.
COLONEL BAYARD AND THE SHANGHAI VOLUNTEERS.
!
After inspecting the Volunteer Corps at Shanghai on the 24th ult. when 661 rank and file were on the parade ground. Colonel Bayard spoke as follows:-Major Barnes, officers and men of the Shanghai Volunteers, when I was detailed to make this inspection I was told that I should find you a very efficient body of men. Speaking at the annual meeting of the but I can assure you that after eight days Penang Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Cecil inspection of the Corps I am more than sur- Guinness, agent of the Hongkong and Shanghai prised at the efficiency I see. I should have Banking Corporation, said he feared he was liked very much to have had an opportunity unable to paint in rosy colours the outlook of of seeing you at work in the field, but Penang's trade in the near future. This, he said,
from what I have seen of your work, and the was notwithstanding the revival of the crusade reports I have perused of the field work you by the leading European firms in Singapore have done during the winter. I am convinced against the pernicious system of prolonged that you are as efficient in the field as you are credit. He urged the importance of a scheme
on the drill ground. I have had considerable having in view definitely, the settlement of who experience with the auxiliary forces of my the partners of chops were, and said that while country, and I know how difficult it is to protecting creditors traders would not be inget men really efficient, and as efficient as convenienced. Mr. Guinness considered that Von are, in the small number of drills they could not look to America buying tin laid down. Your efficieney clearly shows that freely until the terms of the new tariff were the best part of you have put in a great deal settled, and the home market operated freely. more time than was laid down, to make yourselves He praised the work of the Government in proficient. If not, all I can say is that you respect to the facilities for handling cargo at have mistaken your vocation. I am particularly the wharves. which, he said, were now more
pleased to be able to make a satisfactory report satisfactory than ever. In conclusion. he concerning your musketry. Our old friend the expressed the hope that Penang would reap bull's eye has disappeared, and you have taken many benefits by the inclusion of Kedah in the most kindly. I am told, to what your Comman- federal states
dant calls "Mr. Bobbing John." This new course
being the devoted to the crop. In both Agencies cultivation will be slowly but surely concen- trated. Advances will not be made to cultivators whose lands are poor, and as the very best lands will probably be given in an increasing ratio to other crops, it seems likely that the poppy will finally be grown only on soil of medium puality. The result will be a decline in the annual outturn, and automatically, the produc- tion of opium will be less and less. It is too early yet to say whether any hardships will be experienced by those who have grown the poppy for many years, but the official reference to the increasing unpopularity of the crop is signifi-
Pioneer," cant :-"
SERIOUS CAR ACCIDENT IN THE PHILIPPINES,
On the 1st inst. at Baguio, the Philippine Summer resort, a waggon containing American ladies and two gentlemen from the teachers' camp fell over an embankment a distance of twenty feet from one of the roads near Sunup, the residence of Commissioner and Mrs. Newton W. Gilbert, As a result of the accident Miss
essie Taylor and Miss Nina Paddock are in the hospital, the former with a broken clavicle the latter suffering from contusions and Mrs. James F. Connolly is at her residence badly bruised. Several others of the party sustained painful though not serious hurts.
In falling the waggon turned turtle and the top was demolished. Driver Starks was forced to hold the wreck balanced on one corner while the ladies pinioned beneath it extricated them. selves, aided by Mr. James P. Connolly. That the party escaped with so few injuries is re- garded as little less than miraculous.
Those composing the party were Mesdames E. B. Barrows, T. L. Johnson, Edith Horiston, E. B. Baldridge, L. W. Ford, James F. Connolly; the Misses Nina Paddock, Anna King, Bertha Tibbets, and Bessie Taylor, and Mr. James F. Connolly and Driver Starks.