1887-1903
295
COLONIAL REPORTS-ANNUAL.
7
be tried on a large scale, while I see no reason why, with the further propagation of succulent grasses already growing in the Colony, the hills north of the Kowloon range and the island of Lantao should not support a sufficient number of cattle to render Hongkong independent of the supplies now procured from the West and North Rivers.
12. Unfortunately during the year the large river steamers that traded between Hongkong and the West River treaty ports were withdrawn in consequence of the difficulties that beset them on account of the strained interpretation by the Imperial Maritime Customs of the inland navigation agreement. The Companies interested asked no more than that they should have the liberty to carry passengers to and from any place on the river, undertaking to confine the carriage of cargo and parcels to the ports and stages already agreed upon, and being prepared, if necessary, to carry a Customs Official on board and to conform to every local regulation as to inspection, &c. This proposal, which I made personally to the Viceroy Li Hung Chang, when on his way to the North, to the Tsung-li Yamen, and to Sir Robert Hart, was accepted by all three. It was referred to a Committee in Canton appointed by the Acting Viceroy, and, for some reason that I have not discovered, it was recommended by them that the proposal should be rejected. I hope that the proposal may yet be accepted, as its adoption would be effective in checking the piracy so difficult to cope with on the West River, by affording to Chinese travelling to Canton with valuable property, or returning with large sums of money, a safe means of transit to their own towns in a British steamer carrying a regular guard.
13. On the 9th of November the Colony was visited by a very severe typhoon, the centre of which passed over the town and harbour. Although due notice had been given of its approach, there was but little precaution taken, as it was assumed that at this season no typhoon would be more violent than an ordinary gale at most. There had been, besides, several typhoons signalled during the summer, the tracks of which went north or south of Hongkong, so people had become careless. The wind reached typhoon force about 10 o'clock at night, the smaller vessels having taken shelter from the north-easterly gale. At 4 a.m. the centre passed over the harbour, and the wind suddenly veered to South-west, when the boats, junks, and steam-launches found themselves on a lee shore. At 7 o'clock, 10 launches and over 110 junks were sunk, and the harbour was a mass of wreckage. H.M.S. Sandpiper sank at her moorings, and a large dredger just out from England foundered. Over 200 lives were lost in those fatal three hours. As soon as a launch could live, I went along the shores of Kowloon, the whole sea face of which was a mass of wreckage, among which the Chinese were already hard at work to effect what salvage they could, and I found that the Directors of the Tung Wah Hospital—a charitable Chinese