August 2, 1909.]
SHIPPING NOTES.
The Osaka Shosen Kaisha has appealed for the setting aside of an execution levied on certain of its property under a judgment obtained against it by r. E. Appenzeller and four others, residing at Lancaster, Pa., U.S.A. It appears that the parties named sued the 0).S.K. for compensation for the death of their father, who was drowned in June, 1902, when the Kumogawa Maru collided with the Kisa Maru: After three trials, in the local court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, judgment was finally rendered in favour of the plaintiffs, who were awarded yen 140,000 damages. Certain movable property of the O.S.K. was thereupon attached and the object of the present suit is to nullify such attachment.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
and the deficit for the term may not exceed Y. 600,000. Taken in conjunction with the deficit for the previous half year. it makes a total of Y. 1.410.00. The Company's outlook is, however, not necessarily pessimistic for the last half year. The Nichi Nichi says that among the shareholders there is a movement aiming at the passing of a vote of want of confidence in the Board of Directors. It is alleged that Y800.000 was incurred in connection with the investigations on the South American services but there still remains a doubt amongst the shareholders whether such a big loss had actually been incurred. There are said to exist not a few evidences that the interests of the niass of shareholders are made subservient to those of the directors. When new shares were issued last year, the shareholders acquiesced in the increase of capital without much studying the ** A case of considerable importance to those pros and cons of the proposed increase. The interested in shipping was decided last week in
so issued were guaranteed 12 the German Consular Court at Shanghai, when
per cent. preferential dividends. This pleased an action at the instance of Melchers and Co.,
the shareholders at the time. but it and the Norddeutscher Lloyd against Captain must now be condemned as a reckless_measure. Goerz, owner and master of the s.s. Ascania, When the shares were thereby forced was dismissed. On the 19th of February last, siderably some shareholders sold out their when the Ascania was on a passage down the holdings either to escape their own losses or Yangtsze she collided with and sank the hulk | to eurich themselves in the transactions. The Bremen, owned by Messis. Melchers and Co., at | shareholders, says the Nichi Nichi, have decided Chinkiang. An action against Goerz was
to investigate the financial condition of the accordingly instituted by Messrs. Melchers and Company with a view to pass a vote of want of Co., and the Norddeutscher Lloyd, the amounts
confidence on the present directors or other claimed being Tis. 35.000 as the value of wise. The directors are thus placed in a difficult the hulk and Mks. 40.000 for the cargo.position, especially as Y.2.000, 00 debentures A large number of witnesses were heard. the Harbour-master and his assistance
**
at
Chiakiang being summoned, and also experts upon the practice in the river. It was shown that while proceeding down river the Ascania had taken a course between H.M.S. Clio, which was lying at anchor, and the hulks moored alongside the shore, her intention being to come to a stop in order to get the Custom's papers. Owing, however, to the nature of currents the Ascania was carried against the hulk Bremen, and as a consequence the latter was sunk and her cargo lost. Dr. Voigts appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. R. Mahufeldt for the defeu- dant, and after hearing the speeches of counsel the court gave its decision in favour of the defendant, holding that he was not to blame for the collision, being quite justified in taking the passage he did.
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com.
The tonnage statistics of the Federated Malay States for 1908 show the remarkable increase of 43 per cent, on those for the preced- ing year. Sir William Taylor, Resident General F.M.S., in his annual report, writes that, exclusive of native craft, there arrived in ports of the Federated Malay States during the year 1908, 4,402 vessels. with a tonnage of 1,333,639 tons. an increase of tonnage, as compared with 1907, of 43 per cent. At Port Swettenham 1,133 steam vessels of the regis- tered tonnage of 819.483 tous entered during 1908, an increase of 276,967 tons as pared with 1907. The ocean-going steamers numbered 112, with a tonnage of 383.577 tous. There was also a large increase in the number and tounage of native craft making use of the port, the figures for 1908 being 415 vessels and and 11,603 tons. Steamships entered at Telok Anson numbered 659, with a tonnage of 139,227 tons, the tonnage being almost station- ary as compared with 1907, but showing a decrease in the number of vessels of 34. The shipping trade of Port Dickson revived somewhat, the number of steam vessels entered being 675, and their tonnage 254,999 tons, an increase of tonnage of 55,000 tons, due to the maintenance during the year of direct communication with Penang by the Fessels of the Eastern Shipping Company. At Kuantan, on the east coast, the steam vessels entered were 266, with a tonnage of 26,419 tons, as compared with 246 vessels of 20,608 tons in the preceding year.
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According to the Japanese papers, the Tore Kisen Kaisha greatly suffered, like other steamship companies, from the economie conditions in America during the first half year, the dullness of trade on the Oriental lines and the continuance of the a-Japanese boycott in South China. By reeing the personnel on laud and sea, the Company has, however, saved Y. 300,000 for the first half
year
new shares
up con-
raised in the United States last year falls due in October, the conversion of the loan being impossible under the present condition of the Company and also because the Company has not as yet made any preparations to redeem the debentures at the maturity.
In the City of London Court, on 30th ult.. before Judge Rentoul, K.(., Samuel Williams and Sons, Ltd.. of Limestreet, claimed £34 78. for damage done to their dredger Gleaner. by what was described as the "terrible wash of the Kamo Maru, a large Japanese mail boat in charge of the defendant. Mr. G. F. Payne, Trinity House pilot. the plaintiffs' case Was that on March 11 the defendant brought the Kamo Mare up the river Thames at a danger ous speed of 12 miles an hour. The Kamo Maru was 480ft. long, 54ft. broad, drawing 22ft., and carrying nearly 9,000 tons of cargo from Japan. Her displacement was therefore considerable, and her wash damaged the plaintiffs' dredger. Mr. Nelson. for defendants, said that if Japanese steamers were to be blamed as the plaintiffs were doing, they would not come at all. The plaintiffs damage resulted from the ordinary incidents of modern navigation of steamers of the size of the Kumo Maru, Steamers would assuredly get larger, and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line, which owned the steamer. attached importance to the case. The pile to which the dredger was attached was old. Mr Stepheus said there were some piles still in the river which were driven in in the time of Charles I. and they were still good. Judge Rontoul, K.C., found for the plaintiffs, with
costs.
DIPLOMATS IN PEKING.
M. de Carcer, Spanish Minister, who has been in Peking since 1905, starts for home on July Diplomatic Corps to M. von Kuchinski, Austrian 26, leaving the position of doyen of the
Minister. The British, Japanese, Austrian and Spanish Ministers are still in Peking, but other Ministers are away at Shanhaikwan, the summer resort. M. A. Delcoigne, Charg d'Affaires, may also shortly leave Peking. Mr. H. D. Fletcher is the American Charge since Mr. Rockhill's promotion to the Ambassador. ship in Russia, and no new Plenipotentiary has yet been appointed. M. Pabst has been transferred to the Paris Foreign Office. and M. Margery, now in Siam, may not Boisanas is now arrive in Peking until the end of this year.
the French Charge. M. Ondenjik is the Dutch Charg till the arrival of the Minister. Baron Seudal is now in Tokyo and M. Broderode is DOW
the Portugues Charg. Owing to the absence of M. Wallenberg. M. Cronholm will shortly leave Tokyo to take charge of the Swedish Legation. -Japan
Herald.
DEATH OF AN OLD ILOLLO MERCHANT.
105
ALLEGED JOKES AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE.
He was
Manila newspapers record the death of Mr Archibald Buchanan, one of the oldest foreign residents of the Philippines, He passed quietly away sitting in his chair at the residence of Mr. George Gilchrist in Manila. Mr. Buchanan was a Scotchman, a native of Dundee, Scotland, and a well-known merchant in Iloilo. a trader chiefly in sugar and owned an estate in Negros Occidental. He had lived thirty years in the Philippines and respected among the members of the British was highly community and by all who knew him, Death is believed to have been caused by apoplexy or heart failure.
Mr. Buchanan was a single man and it is not known whether he leaves any near relatives. His affairs will be attended to by the British Consul.
Mr. H. M. Uill, chief engineer of the Luzon Sugar Refinery at Malabon, writes to the Cablenews-American as follows:-
Permit me as a fellow countryman of the late Archibald Buchanan to take exception to the manner in which Reverend S. B. Rossiter, of the Presbyterian Church, conducted his funeral yesterday afternoon at Dell's undertaking parlours. Instead of giving an appropriate funeral service he stood there before the corpse and Scotch elders, whereupon the chief mourner, and started to tell jokes about Scotch ministers Mr. George Gilchrist, who, I presume, had put the preacher up to such levity, pulled his whiskers and smiled. The honourable British Consul-General and a number of prominent Scotchmen were present. Not wishing to in- terfere with the service, such as it was, I got up and left the room at once. Before this Mr. Rossiter told all about how the late Mr. Buch- anan had been found dead with a book in one
hand and a cigar in the other. This was and said nothing about Christianity. It was the ouly reference he made to the deceased,
an attempt at a lecture and not a funeral service, and thanked the preacher for what he had said, to my way of thinking. Then Gilchrist got up but added that he thought that the lamented Buchanan had gone to the place above, which fact Mr. Rossiter forgot to mention. All this time I was standing up in at the back of the
room. After the service several Scotchman
agreed with me that it was more like a political meeting than a funeral service."
When asked for an explanation of this letter by a Cablenews reporter the Reverend · Mr. Rossiter made the following statement for publication:
Mr. Hill wholly misinterpreted what I said at the funeral service of Mr. Buchanan. The story I told was this:
"A Scotch minister at Newark, New Jersey, young men who claimed to be Scotchmen and was frequently asked for financial assistance by
sons of elders of the kirk. The minister would then ask them to explain justification of faith, and their failure to do 80 disclosed their cupidity. But one young man thus interrogat- 'ed burst into tears and gave the answer- Justification of faith is the act of God's free grace.'
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funny in it," continued Mr. Rossiter.
That is the story I told, and I see nothing,
I did not say anything about Mr. Buchanan's having a cigar in one hand when he died, although I told of his being found with his finger between the leaves of a magazine publish-
ed in San Francisco."
TAOTAI JEME AND DR. MORRISÓN.
Tien-yow to the Yuch'uanpu in regard to Dr. A report has been submitted by Taotai Jeme
Morrison's letter in the Times criticizing the Chekiang and Kiangsu Railways. Taotai Jeme
that on account of the minute carefully examined the works in his inspection criticisms by The Times on the railway he of the line with Mr. Foord, and found that the selfish, intended to mislead those unacquainted statements made in that paper were one-sided, with engineering works, inaccurate and un- founded. He deala with the charges seriatim,