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not have been carried out.. Most of the cricket olubs had refrained from making fixtures for that afternoon, and the result was a blank for everybody. Nobody is to blame, and it must be conceded that the Cricket Club officials have done the best they could under awkward circum- stances.
The Hongkong Volunteer Camp, which has hitherto been quite a social event, is attracting very little notice this year. The decision to go further afield for the annual training in camp and to make its duration shorter but more military is no doubt responsible
for this. Still, if the Volunteers are made more efficient the public can well afford to forego the little picnics to Stonecutters' which were such pleasureable features of former camps.
What a pity the visit of the Cameron Highlanders to Hongkong did not synchronise with St. Andrew's Ball. Then we might have hoped to see the strathspeys and reels danced as they ought to be. At last Tuesday's practice dance the music was made to suit those who took the floor for the strathspey, and it ended much more satisfactorily than at the previous practice.
The typhoon which did not visit the Colony has been giving the shipping a lively time in the South. The Kent and the Rewa both delay ed their departure in consequence, and the Dutch cruiser squadron postponed their farewell of the Colony for a day. The German Mail steamer was considerably overdue from Singa- pore, and we are still waiting for news of the Palawan, which brings up the cricketers from Singapore. It is difficult to overcome a feeling of anxiety as to the safety of the Rewa, which is not the best type of boat to weather such storms, and we would feel happier if we knew that all was well with her. This supplies another argument for ships being fitted with wireless telegraphic apparatus.
We are to miss the usual picturesque display at the Happy Valley in honour of the King's Birthday this year, the massing of troops at the unveiling of the monuments on Thursday taking place instead. It is a pity, because in teresting as Thursday's ceremonies will be, they will not be so impressive nor open to so many spectators as the King's Birthday Review at the Happy Valley. Incidentally, the occasion will afford an opportunity to the public to appreciate the objections raised by the Hon. Mr. Murray Stewart to the unsightly erections which disfigure the ground designed by the Government to be laid out with flowers as a companion to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank's beauty spot.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
HONGKONG.
[November 27, 1909.
The marriage arranged between Mr. F. S. G. Piggott, Royal Engineers, elder son of Sir Francis Piggott, Chief Justice of Hongkong,
After a long immunity a Chinese case of and of Little Woolpits, Ewhurst, Surrey, and plague is reported in the Colony.
The Soudan with the Cameron Highlanders on board sailed from Hongkong on Saturday.
We notice that a wreath from Hongkong was placed on the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square on Trafalgar Day.
Three cases of enteric fever (all British) were reported in the Colony last week. One was an imported case. None were fatal.
At the Magistracy on Nov. 23 Mr. J. R. Wood sentenced a native, who was found guilty of returning from banishment, to six months imprisonment and four hours' stocks.
Mr. de Champmorin, agent of the Messageries Maritimes at Hongkong, has been appointed agent at Yokohama. Mr. Thomas, from home, will succeed Mr. de Champmorin in Hongkong. A naval funeral took place at the Happy Valley on Monday wher Stoker Neeton, of R.M.S. Monmouth, who died in hospital on Sunday morning, was interred with full Naval
honours.
Juanita, daughter of Mr. W. James Smith, of Gibraltar and Villa Vieja Algeciras, will take place at the Cathedral, Gibraltar, on December 11th.
The Board appointed to determine the amount of compensation to be paid for the Government resumption of Kowloon Inland lots 442 and 618 will commence its sittings at the Supreme Court on Friday, December 3rd. The Govern
ment members are His Honour Mr. Justice Gompertz (chairman) and the Hon. Mr. P. N. H, Jones. Mr. R. G. Shewan has been nominated by or on behalf of the owners of the property, and Mr. I. U. Wirza, Puisne Judge's clerk, has been appointed clerk to the Board.
The first prosecution under the Liquors Ordinance was made at the Magistracy on Saturday, when Revenue Officers Wilden and Brett charged the master of a junk with making a false declaration to the Superintendent of Imports and Exports in reference to 100 jars of They spirits of wine, containing 350 gallons. also charged the keeper of a Chinese wine and spirit shop in Queen's Road West with smuggl- As the s.8. Kinshan was entering the harbouring the liquor specified. The defendants were on Saturday night she ran down a rice junk in represented by Mr. Leo D'Almada. the southern fairway. The crew of the junk prosecution affirmed that the liquor was brought were rescued by sampans in the vicinity of the into the Colony as samshu in order to escape collision.
payment of the heavy duties on spirits of wine, it being stated that only $15 duty was paid, instead of $1,050. Mr. E. R. Hallifax remanded the case until Friday next, bail being allowed the junk master in a sum of $250 and the shopkeeper in $500.
His Majesty the King has not been advised to exercise his power of disallowance with respect to Ordinance No. 17 of 1909, entitled -“An Ordinance to amend The Stonecutters Island Ordinance, 1889."
Two men were at the Magistracy on Saturday fined $1,000 each or three months' imprisonment The police applied that the money found on the for conducting a lottery at 246, Hollywood Road. premises be forfeited, but his Worship refused to make any order.
Mr. Geo. E. Lerrigo, who for a number of years was general secretary of the Y.M.C.A., at Topeka, is shortly due in Hongkong, where he has been appointed as one of the secretaries of the Association. He is making a short stay at Shanghai.
General Sir J. French, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., etc., Brigadier-General D. Henderson, C.B., D. S. O., and Lieutenant the Hon. M. V. B. Brett are passengers to Hongkong by the P. & O. s.8. Mooltan, from Marseilles, Nov. 26, trans-shipping at Colombo to the Mantua.
The news that Mr. George Moffat, who had been in Messrs. Shewan, Tomes, & Co.'s office for nine years and was invalided home two and a half months' ago, had died in Glasgow on the 18th inst. was learned with regret by his many friends in the Colony.
Inspector Gourlay charged two Chinese shop. keepers before Mr. E. R. Hallifax, at the Magistracy on Tuesday with trading with unjust scales. The charges were proved, and the defendants were fined $25 each. Two other shopkeepers, whose check measures were found to be short, were fined $10 each.
A good deal is being written about the aboli- tion of the queue in China, and while our knowl edge of the Chinese leads us to the belief that it will be many years before the change becomes universal, that is no reason why the first step in this direction should not be taken. Cutting the queue will not in itself effect any reforms, but it will indicate a susceptibility to outside influences and to new ideas which must make for progress, The Department of State Affairs is said to have Seven Chinese who were arrested at Hunghom decided that when the period of mourning for on Sunday were charged before Mr. B. R. the Empress Dowager is concluded an order Hallifax at the Magistracy on Monday with shall be issued in the sense that all officials, gambling. Three of the defendants, who were military men, students and policemen must proved to be the keepers of the game, were fined give up the queue and wear their hair short.$25 each, and the remainder of the players were The queue was introduced into China by the each fined fifty cents. Manchu dynasty nearly three centuries ago, Gunner Cook, R.G.A., was found drowned according to one writer on the subject. It is said to have been originally suggested to the Manchu by their sense of gratitude to horses, those animals having acted such a great part in the Tartar conquests. In short, the "Pigtail" was a method of establishing a relationship between human beings and horses. The fashion was
The
THE "PALAWAN’S” EXPERIENCES.
The P. and O. steamer Palawan was sighted from Gap Rock at 10.45 Monday morning, Her three days overdue from Singapore. passengers included the Singapore. Cricket team, besides a considerable number of wives and prospective wives of Hongkong residents, so that there were many very anxious people in thẻ Colony when the steamer became more than two days overdue. The Palawan encountered the full force of the typhoon on the 19th inst., but the ship behaved well and the damage she sustained is trifling, being confined to the bridge and boat decks. It was an unpleasant experience for the passengers, and one which they are not likely to forget.
THE SAD ACCIDENT IN THE SUEZ CANAL. With regard to the accident in the Suez Canal which resulted in the death of the little child of Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Bird, and the amah who had charge of her, we learn that it was shortly after breakfast time that the alarm was raised that the child and amah had gone overboard. The ship was then steaming against a strong current from Suez and the child was seen drifting away, the amah drifting behind her. It would appear that the child fell out of the porthole of one of the lavatories and that the amah went overboard the same way. Nothing can be said with certainty as to whether the tragedy was accidental or not.
а second Quartermaster Watling and class passenger, Mr. A. W. Jones, of the Shanghai police force, jumped overboard from the poop deck and swam to the rescue. They got up to the child, who was still alive, and sup- ported her till rescued by the boats, the res- cue taking a considerable time. The amah when brought on board was dead, having been drowned, but the child, was still alive, the theory being that a blow she had received in falling overboard made her unconscious for the time and prevented her struggling. Every- save her life, but she thing possible was done
e to
in Hunghom Bay on Monday morning. The body was interred in the Military part of the cemelry in the afternoon, and was accom- panied to the grave, with full military honours, by the Officers and men of 88 Coy. RG.A., and the band of the 2nd. East Kent Regiment: H.E. the Governor has been pleased to vience, and they long resisted it. This was true specially of the natives of Swatow and Sanitary Board for a term of three years, vice Mr. Jones was the recipient of a congratulatory Mr. Ho Kom Toug, resigned. The new member, address on his heroism, and the passengers made ed to adopt the irksome coiffure, they hid the wretaries of the Yuen Fat firm, of Bonham after him, suitable presentations, and signed a Amoy, and when they were ultimately compell who is an old Queen's College boy, is one of the both him and the quartermaster, who went over. queue under cotton turbans, which to this day Strand, the largest Chinese firm in the Colony, / recommendation for the Royal Humane Society's they continue to wear. It will be seen, there- fore, that the use of this appendage has much being importers of rice, sugar, etc., and in 1907 medal. The burials took place at sea. The he was on the Board of Directors of the Tung greatest sympathy was shown for Mr. and significance, and that its abandonment would | Wa Hospital, being at that time compradore of Mrs. Bird, who were on board, and the affair the National Bank of China. At present he is cast a gloom over the whole ship throughout
member of the Public Dispensary Committee. the voyage.
regarded by the Chinese as a badge of subser- appoint Mr. Ng Hon-tsz to be a member of the died shortly after from shook and exhaustion..
go far to remove the distinction between Man- chu and Chinese.
RODERICK RANDOM.