1921-01-15 — Page 3

THE CHINA MAIL EXTRA.

--HONGKONG, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 15, 1921.

DISASTROUS' FIRE.

SHIPYARD DESTROYED.

BIG BLAZE AT BAILEY'S.

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES,

J.

OBITUARY.

MR. C. J. HIGGINBOTHAM.

DEATH AT SOURABAYA.

MIROWA AND PODOLSKY.

ART DÄNSLUSE AND PIANIST.

CONCERT ON WEDNESDAY.

The news of the death of Charles of the better music are promised Lover of artistic dancing and Higginbotham, a popular resident a rare opportunity next Wednesday, of Hongkong, in Sourabaya on night, when Vera Mirowa and January 12th, has come as a shock Leo Podolsky appear in a concert at the Theatre Royal They come

a

to his many friends in the Colony. to Hongkong in the COUTBA Mr. Higginbotham was an assistant of a tour of the East- in the firm of John D. Hutchison and tour which has been highly success Company, King's Buildings, ........

ful, judging by the enthusiastic plaudits of the press in the coun tries they have visited.

As the result of a disastrous fre which broke out in suspicious cir cumstances late last night W. S. Bailey's shipyard at Tokawan, Kow- loon, is now little more than & smouldering mass of ruins. Great as the blaze was, it would have been even more terrible had the flames reached the ail store, some little dis tance apart from the other buildings, the only structure left standing. As Brisbane, Queensland. He first came Mr Higginbotham's home was in it was the offices, stores, pattern to Hongkong in 1907 as a teacher in shop, mould loft, and other buildings the Ellis Kadoorie School. About were all gutted, together with two 1910 be joined the Bandman Com wooden ships in the course of con-pany as an actor, and went on tour. Mr. Podolsky is a pianist, also

struction on the slips.

Some nine years ago be entered the

steamer

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Vera Mirowa is a dancer of the highest attainments, described: as the Russian Isadora Duncan, and

from Russia. It is said that

About 12.5 this morning the gen-employ of John D. Hutchison & Co. the East has never seen a finer eral alarm was raised. Ten minutes For some time his health had not? and more imaginative exponent. later Mr. King. A.S.P., with the been of the best, and in November of the art of dancing than Miss Kowloon Brigade and No. 2 Engine last he was ordered to take a

-Mirowa. They have recently arrived to find the shipyard in flames. trip. Accordingly be accepted appeared in the Straits, and the The Firefloat and the Hongkong the opportunity of making a voyage their praise of her dancing."

audiences there were most lavish in Brigade were immediately summoned, with his friend Captain Walker, and in the meantime every effort was the master of the

Mr. Podolsky has bad an enviable made to check the ever-growing Hai Yang", bound for Sourabaya. record in the world of Music. flames, but with little success, for as The weather was bad, and the He began his studies under the firemen attacked them in one rough treatment the ship feceived Lalovitch in Odessa and followed place they appeared to spring up in aggravated his illness. He

that master to Cracow and Vienna. another. Fanned by a north-easterly was suffering from gastritis. When In Cracow he stayed for six years, wind, the flames had soon enveloped the ship arrived in Sourabaya, it was winning the first prize. Afterwards the whole yard with the exception of found necessary to transfer him to be went to Vienna. There he gained the oil store, which fortunately the hospital. It was there that death the Rubinstein and Lizst prizes. escaped destruction. With the excep- occurred.

While a student at the Royal Musical tion of the office itself, all the build- ings were of wood and burned with great intensity. In the small hours of this morning the walls and roof of the office and store fell in. It was not until eight o'clock that the flames were finally got under control, and the main body of firemen, exhausted by their long and stremous fight, were able to leave the yard in charge of a few firemen who continued to "play hoses on the smouldering ruins.

A visit to the shipyard this morn- ing revealed a woeful sight. All the buildings, with the exception of the oil store and the fitting shop, were a mass of charred ruins, while nothing but ashes remained of the two wooden ships under construction. Nothing but the safe was saved from the office and the damage, which has not yet been estimated in figures. is very extensive.

The cause of the fire, which is said to have originated in the blacksmith's store, is at present uncertain. The Indian watchman holds that lighted candles left in the blacksmith's store by workmen knocking off at midnight caused the blaze. Rumours of foul play rife this morning seem to find substantiation in the fact that the fire appeared to have broken out in at - least three separate places, but there again, the vagaries of the wind may have been responsible.

Thanks are due to the dancers at

the Kowloon Dock Ball last night who sent hot coffee and other refreshments to the toiling firemen.

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Mr. Higginbotham was about 36 Academy he was the only years of age, and unmarried. He foreigner to be awarded 2 belonged to the Phoenix Club and Fellowship by the Ministry the. Kowloon Bowling Club, of Art and Music, He, graduated and being of a genial character, had many friends. Much sympathy in extended to his parents, who reside in Brisbane,

OXFORD-STREET.

NEW DANCING HALL.

£1,500,000 SCHEME,

London is to have the largest and finest concert and dancing hall in the world.

from the Academy with the first prize and a concert tour endowment that enabled him to make appear. ances in Paris, Berlin, and London, .in

each place with brilliant success. He made a concert tour through Russia, Siberia, China and Japan by special permission of the Czar's Goverment, being, released from military service for the purpose,

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A well-known Government official tells a story apropos of the - precautions being taken at Whitehall in view of the Sinn Fein menate, of one permanent official, the head of his department, who The new building, costing nearly issued stringent instructions £1,500,000, is being erected on the that no one, no matter who, was to large vacant site on the south side of be allowed into his department Oxford-street, W., opposite Messrs. without a special permit. The next D. H. Evans and Co.'s premises, be- morning he himself turned up with- tween Oxford-circus and Bond-street out his, and, acting on his own The concert room, which will be instruction, his subordinate: refused above the dancing hall, will have to let him go to his room.. He lived accommodation for a large orchestra in a remote suburb and could and will be reserved entirely for not go back, so be spent half an classical and sacred music. In the hour storming at the attendants and dancing hall it will be possible for kicking himself. But they could only 2,000 couples to be on the floor at reply that their orders were impera- one time.

tive. At length he got over the difficulty by filling in a form asking: to see himself, and was escorted to his own room and introduced to - himself by one of his own messengers.

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Hopes are entertained that the ball will be ready next summer. The Lordon County Council granted a provisional licence for the hall.

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