1903-07-11 — Page 17

INDO-CHINA'S, N. CO.

The Financial Times of the 20th of May has the following comment on the recent report of the Indo-China S. N. Co.:-

indicate :-

1900

1912

Shareholders in the Indo-China Steam Navi- gation Company are not unacquainted with the vicissitudes of fortune, but the report for the past year comes as a distinct disappointment. The Directors remark that the depressed con- dition of the shipping trade in the Far East will have prepared the proprietors for financial results much less satisfactory than the hand- some earnings of 1900 and 1901, and they ex- press satisfaction at the fact that after allowing for the usual premium of insurance to under- writing account and for depreciation, etc., the revenue account shows a credit balance. But the decline in the net earnings of steamers is a serious matter, as the following figures

£188,817 1991............. 148,061 59.913 Seeing that the gross tonnage of the fleet has been increased in the three years from 66,191 to 80,355 tons, the falling-off is most disappointing. True, the shareholders are to receive a dividend of 5 per cent, which com. pares with 14 per cent for 1900 and 10 per cent for 1901, but the distribution, which absorbs £24.794, is rendered possible only by the trans- fer of 29,656 from the underwriting account, which, thanks to absence of loss or damage for a long time, is nearly equal to half the paid- up capital of the Company. It will be remem bered that an increase of capital was mooted last year with the view of building more ves- sels, but in the circumstances it is not surpris ing learn that the operation has not been proceeded with. The freight market has re- cently undergone some improvement, but the outlook does not seem to have been regarded with much confidence.

THE SPREAD AND · PROPHYLAXIS OF PLAGUE.

In the discussion on plague during the American Medical Association Meeting, May 5th to 9th. Dr. W. J. Calvert stated that so long as such plague centres as "Canton and Hong kong existed, the disease was likely to appear in the Pacific coast of North America.

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1903.

THE, Magistrate of Nan Hui Hsien who was very unpopular, and was a man of illreputation, has been fined by the Viceroy Wei Kwangtao Ts. 600,000. The mucy is intended for Kwangsi.

ACCORDING to the Manila 7imes the anti plague serum used in that city, comes from Japan and costs the Government $4.50 per bottle containing enough serum to inoculate five people.

WRITING from Canton under date, 3rd inst., a correspondent informs us that samples of tea have been sent to various European tea mer- chants, and the market will probably be opened very shortly,

THE Monetary Commission which the Ameri- can Government has convened, has been opened. The American delegates asked that system newly adopted for the Philippines. Indo-China and China should accept the

A

THE steuer Sam Shui, late chartered trans- port in the Q. M. D. service at Manila, has been given over to the command of Captain Casey. and he will take her to Shanghai and deliver her to the owners, Messrs. Farnham Boyd- and Co. of that city.

C.M.S. Hsinchi made a record run last trip from the Taku anchorage to the Tientsin Bund. She left the anchorage at 5.30 am. passed Tangku at 635 a.m. and arrived at the Bund at noon, drawing 9 feet 3 inches forward and to feet 2 inches afi.

CAPTAIN F. Davies, of the N.Y.K. s.s. Bingo maru, has received a medal from H.H. Prince Arisugawa in recognition of his service to the Mr. Hosokawa, Mariners Aid Association.

THE construction of the Canton-Hankow-Rail- way is making very satisfactory progress, although work has been greatly retarded of material are commencing to arrive at the Can- late owing to heavy rainfall., Engines and ton end of the road The ten-mile double track line to Fatihan is about completed, and ready for the equipment and rolling stock.

ONE of the masts of the old Spanish flagship Reina Cristina, which sank during the battle of Manila Bay, has been secured by an enter- rising young American who paid a substan- tial price for the relic. and then had it turned into walking sticks. This he sold to patriotic Americans, but the number disposed of would far exceed the cubic contents of that mas'.

THE Exmouth is to take the place of the Victorious, which has been absent from Eug land for about five years, having served for the first two years in the Far East, to which she was suddenly sent on being detached from the Channel Fleet while on passage down the English Channel For the last three years she has served in the Mediterranean Fject, which she joined on her return from China,

THE sleamer_ Australian, of the E. and A. line, which arrived on Thursday from Sydney and Manila, was docked at the former city, and is in splendid trim. She had a valuable cargo, including nine boxes of gold, valued at £630, shipped for Hongkong, and in addition brought away from Sydney shipments of frozen mutton, lamb, beef, pork, milk, butter, and vegetables, fodder, chaf, hay, bran etc., N. Z. Bax, and Stearine soap, and large lines of fungus and beche de mer

•

REPORTS from St. Petersburg confirm the statement that time expired soldiers of the Russian Army Manchuria and the Amur district are not sent home, but are placed at the disposal of the Military authorities, and are partly enrolled in the Railway Protection Force, which includes eight Line and four Reserve Battalions belonging to the Frontier Guard Corps in Manchuria, with about aa guns. Besides the railway protection troops there are at present in Manchuria the Staff of the 2nd Siberian Army Corps, 20 battalions of riflemen and one reserve battalion, two artillery brigades, two machine-gun companies, three Cossack regiments, and one Cossack battery. To this must be added the garrison artillery with heavy guns, which has evidently been transferred there to occupy important positions prepared for it.

Ar the general meeting of the shareholders of the Russo-Chinese Bank everything passed off satisfactorily. A dividend was declared of 15 roubles on the old shares, and 3.75 roubles on the new shares. CAPTAIN A. W. Outerbridge of the Sungklang was married by Bishop Bren! at Manila on 7th purser of the same vessel, has received a letter Lloyd Orient Line and the lighter Lucky.ing information for the veracity of which we do than a year ago over the vaults is becoming inst, to Miss Jessie H. Woodward, a former of thanks and a silver cup. hospital nurse. The couple will make their home in Hongkong.

MARIA Gonzales, "Queen of Caloocan," has been discharged by Judge Rohde, at Manila. on the charge of "bandolerismo," but the court directs that the accused be arrested and tried

for sedition or treason.

A PROPOSAL to connect America and Asia has fees made by an American syndicate, which has offered to Russia to construct a bridge across the Behring Sea. The length of the structure would be 107 miles,

In Brazil the "giboia," a kind of boa, is largely kept and sold for the purposes of keeping down the rats and other vermin. They are quite harmless, very beautiful and graceful, and sleep all day, doing their hunting ai night.

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THE King's exequatur empowering Don duardo Nuelle to act as Consul of Peru at Mr. Nuelle re- Hongkong, has been issued. parted his arrival and assumed charge of the Peruvian Consulate on the 30th ultimo.

THE Yokohama Fire and Transport Insurance Co. made a net profit in the past half year of Yen 380,937. Of this amount Y 217,510 is carried forward, Y 125,020 distributed in a dividend of 5 percent for the half year, Y 30,000 added to the legal reserve, and Y 8,427 to the special reserve.

THE inquiry opened at the German Consulate, Bangkok, on 24th ult, into the circumstances attending the collision, which took place at the bar on the previous Sunday night between the steamship Petchaburi, of the North German An Indian contemporary published the follow- Several witnesses gave evidence, but on not vouch as we neither knew that the deceased account of the steamer having to leave for doctor was a plague specialist at Hongkong Hongkong the inquiry was adjourned until the

nor that there had been a yachting fatality near next visit of the Petchaburi to Bangkok. the roit:-Dr. Frank Merry, the distinguished plague specialist at Hongkong, whilst yachting near that part, was drowned. A Sikh and two Chinese servants were with the doctor at the time of the disaster, and only the former succeeded in getting ashore.

AFTER all the cattle dealer in Siam does not know everything, remarks the Bangkok Times. Some stir has been brought about at Sourabaya by the evil practices of certain cattle dealers from the island of Madura, off the Java coast, THREE Japanese training vessels are expected They fill the cattle with water by means of to arrive in Manila about the middle of the bamboo injecters, so that the animals increase month with a large number of naval cadets in bulk present a sleek appearance, and weigh aboard. The vessels have already been to Aus-heavy. Such cattle are sold by weight and not at so much a head. The police are making tralia and are now en route to Manila, via Japan. The ships will be received with inquiries into this. fitting ceremonies.

THE Times l'eking correspondent says that the Chinese representatives on the Tibet Boundary Commission have been nominated but the Amban of Lassa bas no influence either with China or Tibet. The Times correspondent urges India not to waste time negotiating with the Chinese but to send a mission to Lassa and treat direct with the Tibetans.

THE C.M.S. Hea", which arrived at Shanghai from Newchwang and Chefoo on the 3rd inst.

reported: Fine weather and light southerly wind. At 1o.15 am., off Shaweishan, observed signals and noticed shipwrecked crew ashore on the island. Anchored and sent boat ashore and took off Capt. and Mrs. Jensen and 9 men of the crew of the American ship Carrier Dove, which was wrecked on the bank north of Tsung- THE Universal Gazelle gathers that Li Ching-ming. One man had been lost in leaving the

wreck on the night of the 1st instant. lisi, Governor designate of Kweichow, applied for a month's leave of absence at his last audience, therefore he is still at Peking. His

is due to lack of an army and funds in Kwei- chow which adjoins the provinces of Yunnan and Kwangsi where affairs are in a very dis turbed condition.

In about a fortnight's time one of the most interesting Commissions which japan has ever sent to this country will arrive in England. It will include two judges and a professor of law, and its business will be to study our system of legal training, our Court procedure, and the principles upon which barristers are promoted to the bench. Arrangements are already in progress for entertaining the Commissioners at the various Inns, and it is understood that facilities will be given them in the Appeal and other courts to follow cases at the side of the various judges.—Manchester Dispatchip

THE Hongkong correspondent of the N. C. D. Newr writes as follows: The New Law Courts do not grow apace. Grees grows the site, though, and the huge matshed erected more decrepit, one corner being partly destroyed. As a sign of the very remota period at which the building may be expected to rise, the old fanereal vault that has so long served as the Hall of Justice has been carefully painted up, and, save for the ugliness of the colour, looks almost no beautiful as it did when the proud architect first turned out his magnum opus. As

it is apparent this most inconvenient and obsolete structure has got a fresh long lease of

life, I would suggest that the site for the proposed New Law Courts be laid out 25 & useful and ornamental, and the road fmaru the croquet ground, tennis lawns, or something City Hall to the Club-which has for some

occult reason connected with contractors been thrown into the site-be reopened for the public convenience.

SENATOR Dietrich of Nebraskn said, in the

Senate in February last," Bath the great to- hacco and sugar estates of the Philippines have been so conducted that the great mass of labourers on them never saw any money from one year's end to the other. The pittance which they received for their labour was given in goods from the company's stores. In fact they were always kept in debt and thus held in semi-slavery." Hence the past and present unrest. Weekly cash pay rolls are a quietus.

possessions that can produce all of this coffee, rubber, copra, cocoa, dye woods, spices and other tropical products, I am in favour of placing a protective tariff on them against the rest of the world. We should do what is best for our own people and the people of the Phil- ippine Islands, for they are our own people. The Philippine Islands are ours; why not develop them instead of paying out millions yearly to develop foreign countries?"

Dr. J. J. Kinyoun said that the sine qua nan himself in the fighting in the North in the 1900 disinclination to proceed to bis appointed post able authority that the bids for the Opium and operate in the Sulu Archipelago, which is said The senator further said: "Now that we have

in prophylaxis was the accurate diagnosis of the first case, and that the clinical forms were so varied that errors in diagnosis of first cases were the rule. Plague might resemble anthrax, tonsilitis, mumps, diphtheria, erysipelas, pne umonia, acute pleurisy, malignant pericarditis, typhoid, typhus, relapsing and malarial fevers, acute dysentery, miliary tubercle, septicemia, pyamia, and syphilis. These forms of plague

and its insiduousness and the inexperience of the profession rendered plague one of the most difficult to recognise. For diagnosis a bac- teriological examination was essential.

Dr. F. G. Novy emphasised the fact that plague was essentially a disease of animals and primarily was not a human disease. The disease was transmitted by the biles of animals, such as the rats or rodents of China. How the

disease was communicate to the human being, what was the portal, of entry, was a very diffi cult question to answer and possibly never would be answered satisfactorily. The virul ency of the germ decreased the longer it was kept in artificial culture. The organism be did not consider to be very resistent and could be easily destroyed. Besides isolation of the sick, disinfection, segregation, &c., he said we have a powerful method of controlling the disease, fe, by serum inoculation.

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

NEWCHWANG has quarantined Yokohama and Formosa.

LIBUT-Gen. Fukushima, who distinguished troubles, has been made by King Edward a Military Knight-Commander of the Bath and is now Sir Yasumasa Fukushima, K.C.B.

Ar a launch in England recently of a mission vessel, the customary bottle of wine was dispensed with at the christening. Instead, a buttle of oil-indicative of peace and calm was made fast to the bows of the vessel before she left the ways.

CHINESE persons bem in the Philippine if such persons make application, there is no Islands are not required by law to register, but reason why they should not be given a certifi- cate of residence in the same way as any other

Chinese person.

REPRESENTATIVES of one of the largest syndicates in the United States have arrived in anila and are conferring with the Philippine Transportation Improvement Co. concerning the advisability of bringing to the island large amount of capital for various investments.

A DESPATCH from Constantinople to the Figaro states that the Sultan has commanded the Seras Kierat to order two heavy guns in England which are to be used as patterns in the Imperial foundry at Tofane. One gun is to be a six inch quick-firer and the other of larger calibre.

OWING to the drought, the sugar crop in Jamaica, in the British West Indies, is 43 per cent below par. The planters' losses amount A FRENCH paper, Le Courrier de Tientrin, to £60,000. This bit of bad luck for Jamaica should make the market a little better for the has been started at that port,

sugar crops of the Malay Peninsula.

KANG Yu Wei, who is at present in Rangoon, is leaving in a few days for Maymyo.

ACCORDING to the China Times all Japanese in North China who belong to the army reserve have been recalled.

THERE are six native convicts isolated inside the walls of Bilibid Prison, Manila, who are bubonic plague suspects.

Two American visitors to the Osaka Exhibition have succeeded in climbing to the top of Fuji, notwithstanding the deep snow.

ACCORDING to the Erko, the Chinese of Penang are discussing the advisability of forming a Chinese Chamber of Commerce,

THE Japan Times says that there was nothing in the position of the Manchurian question on the 26th ult, to warrant a gloomy forecast.

SERIOUS disturbance is reported to have been created in Hochienfu. Honan, by mounted bandits. Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, on learning the news, immediately sent a large detachment of troops under the command of an expectant official named Li Hao Tsai to the scene of the trouble to suppress it.

A LARGE number of japanese and Russian war- ships are assembled at Mazampo at present. A portion of the Japanese fleet is at Chin kaiwan. The Chinese merchants at Chemulpo have secured contracts for a large supply of provisions to the Russian vessels. The pro.

OWING to reports received by the Hospital Depiriment from so many different parts of the Kingdom showing the existence of small- pox in virulent form, the Hospital Department has decided to make a systematic effort to stamp out the disease in Siam. For this pur pose a sum of Ticals 15,000 has been put aside and to pay for vaccinating." by the department for the purchase of vaccine

THE "Church and Stage" combine has another illustration in Penang, where the Rev. Frank W. Haines is stage-managing the preparation of linero's comedy "Dandy Dick." The caste is to include Messis. J. it. Aiken, Harold Cold, James Murray, Harry Neubronner, Orio Thomas, Roben Withers and Ethelbert Sker tchly, Mesdames Lisa Anthony, Muriel Burg. hape, Flo Sketchly and Evelyn Thomas

FOOTBALL has found its way to Port Swetten ham and sons desperate games between mixed teams of Europeans and Malays have recently taken place there. A regular club for general recreative purposes is being formed, and a recent visitor says that the place gives indications of a prosperity and virility which no one who knew it ten years ago could possibly have conceived.

A CERTAIN viceroy has incurred the dislike of the Empress Dowager for being one of the foremost in sending students to Japan, who are rapidly acquiring revolutionary sentiments and are holding nati-dynastic principles. The Empress Dowager once remarked to her ade visers that these students, for whom the government spent large sums of money, are in future a menace to the dynasty.

THE Strails Times understands on very reli-

Spirit Farms have, in one instance at any rale, reached a fiugue exceeding $5,000 roo, per annum, and indeed approaching $500,000, per month. The present holders pay but $263,709 per month. If anybody can afford to offer half a million per month for the same concession it is easy to realise what a delicious financial picn'e the present incumbents must have heen enjoying for the past year or two.

A MEETING of the Justices of the Peace was

held at the Magistracy on Friday, for the purpose of considering the application of Hans Peter Jertram for the transfer of his publican's licence to sell and retail intoxicating liquor on the premises situated at Nos. 266 and 268

#German Tavern

cen's Road Central, under the sign of the to Paul. Miscing. The Magistrates present were Messrs. 1. H. Kemp, F. Lyons, R. H. Craig, and C. D. Melbourne, Mr. Grist appeared for Mr. fetrum, and the ar plication was granted

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MANCHU 1A has cost us hundreds of millions, drawn from our national treasury. In a short time, instead of anarchy, insurrection, and universal chaos. we have there evolved such order and well-being as have drawn forth un- qualified praise from the English Press. so Manchuria belongs to us by the best of all perpetually hostile to us. In view of all this: sights, the right of lustice; and all claims on Manchuria we cannot consider as other than attacks on our rights and our property.-Editor of the St. Petersburg Novos Premy in Harper's Wachly, New York,

THE Manila Times states;-An important commercial fling has just been made with Re gistrar Barrara, and with it the Sulu Pearling Co. launches itself into business life with a paid up capital of $25,000. This company will

to afford pearling fisheries equal to any in the world. Well known and substantial Manila citizens are at its head. The company mans its own fleet, which will be among the best equipped operating in this part of the Orient. As yet the commercial importance of existing pearl fisheries is, so to speak, unknown, but they are known to be very rich, and much profit to the industries of the Philippines may be ex pected through the operations of the company.

THE authorities of the Catholic Church have announced that it has been decided to open a seminary in Manila for the instruction and consecration of native priests. The novices

will be chosen from those Filipinos evincing vocation for the priesthood, and the standard of requirements will be high. The collegiate course will be severe, and the theological studies the same as in the United States. The seminary will be under the supervision of American priests, and it is probable that the Sulpicians, the great French teaching order, which is exclusively devoted to the education of Catholic priests of the secular order, wül be the instructors,

THUS A New York wire of 5th inst, to be Cableners: England and Japan have sent an ultimatum to Russia on the Manchurian ques tion. The text of the dispatch cannot be learned. The feeling in Washington is that a war cloud is noming dark on the Oriental horizon. Hardly anything else is being dis Treading hard on the heels of the announce. cussed in Washington diplomatic circles, America for ment of Russia's displeasure President Roosevelt's petition in favour of the Tews, the people of the United States feel a rather personal interest in the alleged immin ence of hostilities.

Of all the nations of the East, the island Empire of Japan has alone answered effectively to the call of Western civilisation. She has done so because her people possess that which the swarming prople of China lack, a keen

sense of priotism; because she possessed in the Samarai class a proud and warlike clas that could not tolerate the thought of foreign tutelage and exploitation; and because she pos sessed in her ancient dynasty a rallying point and a capable centre for statesmanlike organi satinn. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay," sang the poet; but the couplet has been turned inside out, for the fifty years Japan has absorbed a cycle of Europe. The best testimony that the absorption has been well done is the treaty of alliance between the two island Empires," an alliance in which ex- treme Asia and extreme Europe maet" on an equal fonling. The treaty is a tribute to the excellence with which Japan has been served by her Emperor, bør statesmen, her sailors, and her soldiers.-Town and Country Journal (Australia),

THE barque G. H. Watsen, bound from) New York to Yokohama, was found by the Austra lian steamer Moresby lying at anchor of the coast of New Guinea, between Cape Suckling and Yule Island. She had about 100. fathoms of chain out, and was in a totally helpless condition. With the exception of the mizzen lower mast she had absolutely nothingstanding, even her rudder being gone. She had only her own crew aboard at the time, but the disabled vessel had been the means of rescuing part of the crew of the barque Edith, which was wrecked off the New Caledonian coast. gallons.The barque wasdismasted in the cyclone which Daily aggregate output of Crude

Petroleum

78,000 Crude Petroleum in Tanka at date ... 220,000

THE following telegraphic information, dated 1st inst, has been received from the Sumatra Director and Manager of the Maatschappij tot Mijn Bosch-en-Land-bouwexploitatie in Lang-

IT appears that some of the men employed in distributing rice in Kwang Si are not very enthusiastic over a telegram which was received from Canton,' A cargo of rice was sent up and a telegram followed stating that this rice was f In be distributed by "American citizens" only. Unfortunately the telegram met with the fate it deserved. There was no American citizen at WITH the object of testing the postal facilities hand to receive it, and it had to be consigned of the trans-Siberian route, the Nagasaki Post to the tender merries of some good British | kat, Ld.> officials recently sent reply postcards to St. subjects who notwithstaning the objectionable. Petersburg by the Siberian Railway und Port telegram took charge of the work of distribut Arthur, and also vid Canada. The communicafon. Perhaps the telegram was a joke, if so it tion sent by the trans-Siberian ronte got to its was a bad one, destination in twenty-three days, while that three days in transit-Kobe Chronicle.

visione have been shipped to Mazampo.-Ašaht. which travelled vid Vancouver occupied thirtyTHE repair, of the Teung Yang. Men (one of Kerosene made since the date of the

LIANG Lan Hsun, who has been in the service of the Imperial Chinese Railway administration and the Canton-Bankow Railway during the past two years and previous to that time for ten years a teacher in Queen's College, Hongkong, and Tientsin University, is promoted to the rank of Taotai.

A TELEGRAM was received at Harvard Obser vatory on May 28th from Professor Lowell, who has charge of the astronomical station at Flagstaff, Arizona, stating that a large projec tion on Mars was observed on May 26 at 3.35 a.m., Greenwich mean time. The position of the angle was 700 deg., and the projection the despatch under the heading, “Is Mars Signalling?"

the main gates of Peking, damaged by the allies on their entrance in the memomble August of 1900), had been confided by the Throne to Yuan Shih Kai, and Chen Pth the later civil Governor of Shengiienfu. The work had been repeatedly put off owing to the lack of funds, and the Empress Dowager expected the officials to make voluntary contribution to

Tls. 570,000 has been secured for this purpose, of which more than half the amount has already arrived at Peking.

cases.

70,000

preceding half-monthly telegram.. Kerosene shipped since the date of the

preceding half-monthly telegram., 72,000 Kerosene in Stock at Refinery at date. 35,000

A CHINESE clerk employed at the Post Office, ABOUT 12 o'clock on Wednesday fire broke out, lasted 35 minutes. Several newspapers print defray its cost. Up to the present a sum of proceed to Macao. On arriving on board be

has been charged for opening a newspaper, and the case was adjourned until next Friday.

TWENTY-ONE hundred cartridges have been discovered by secret service men in the house of a prominent Filipino contractor in the Philippines.

THE Japanese Government made Mr. de Rijke on his departure for home a present of Y 32,000 in recognition of his services to Japan since 1868.

THE Merchant Shipping Amendment Or dinance (No. 31 of 1901) and the Stowaways Ordinance, 1903, have b-en assented to by the Governor.

FIRST Lieutenant W. K. McCuca, well-known officer of the 1st Infantry and recently stationed at Manila, has been arrested in Chicago for alleged bigamy.

THE Manila Medical Society has been re- cognized by the American Medical Association and in future will affiliate with that important professional organization.

WHILE painting the walls of a house in Des Voeux Road Central on Saturday a native lost his balance and fell. He was picked up dead and carried to the Central Police Station.

THE N. Y. K. has placed an order with the M. B. K. at Nagasaki for a reserve steamer of 7,200 tons grou for its american in The materials as usual will come from England.

F

HAWKERS of peanuts and cakes desiring to sell their wares in the streets of Newchwang have to pay one rouble per month for the privilege of doing so, or be chased out of the

town.

THE Admiralty have ordered his Majesty's gunboats Britomart and Bramble to be recommissioned at Hongkong with new crews, for a further service of three years in the Far

through the heating of coal, in the bunker of the steam launch itsut, the property of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha. The Fire Brigade, under Inspector Baker, left for the scene, but their services were not required the fre was extinguished before their arrival.

THE Government has failed in their nege- tiations to secure the Hotel Oriente as a post office building. The majority of Manilaites are glad, says the Sunday Sun, that negotiations are off, for the reason that the site of the Hote! Oriente is not considered either a desirable or -a central one.

ON Wednesday & Chinaman with a bundle con- laining clothing and money to the value of $240.00 made his way to the ss. Heungshan to place 1 the bundle near him, and started a con versation with a friend, but when he went to open his bundle, be found that it was substituted for one containing old rags. Be at once made his way to the station and reported the matter." VERY reat importance is being attached in the In the meanwhile a Chinese P.C. seeing another official and diplomatic world to the recall of Chinasian carrying a bundle in a rather Count Cassini, the Russian Ambassador In Washington--for that he has been called suspicious manner arrested him, and on arrival atthestation, the traveller recognised bis bundle. there is little ground for doubt. His Excell- The thief was sentenced to three months' hard

the United States, labour. enc's relations with Government have, it is known, been for some unreliability of the assurances and denials regarding China which he has given to the American Government on various ocasions, The Manchester Dispatch observes that official folk are now wondering whether he is to be again sent to Pekin.

A MOST extensive robbery has been perpetrated at the Osaka Exhibition, thieves having broken through one of the ventilators in the roof and got away with exhibits to the value of about Yen 17,88385. Among the articles stolen was a okimane-gold and silver inlay work valued at Yen 1,500 besides a large quantity of precious stones, silk, etc. The Osaka Police authorities have offered a reward of yen 100 for informatime very strained, chiefly because of the MR. F. B. L. Bowley, secretary and librarian tion leading to the arrest of the offenders..

THE master of the 3.8. Knight Errant reports THE grant-in-aid of Yen 100,000 a year that his passage round the Cape of Good Hope, bestowed by the Government on the Central Sunds Straits, etc., from Barry, was completed Tea Association as a fund for expanding the without a single stoppage.

The distance sale of tea in foreign markets will cease with covered was 13,089 miles and the time taken, this year, according to the original contract 57 days to hours and 3 minutes. After (reports the Japan Times). The Association has applied for the renewal of this favour, and bunkering the steamer will proceed to Port

the authorities have decided, the Shogy Chugas learns, to grant it Yen.y70,000 a year for five years, subject of course to the approval of the Diet...

Arthur,

ACCORDING to the Japan Herald, the Yoko

hama Municipality is now spending £750 daily in the disinfection and general cleansing of the town against plague, in addition to the special allowance to the police and municipal officials concerned. The daily expenditure, therefore, aggregates between eight and nine hundred yen.

DURING the recent rainstorm, the district of Bock-sban, situated about 85 miles from Canton, was completely fooded and 600 houses damaged. The number of liver lost is not recorded, but we are informed they are not many, for the villagers were all warded by the beating of gongs, and so had time to make for the mountains.

THE publishes & Tientsin dispatch, stating that the Russian authorities have engaged three thousand more Chinese coolies In Tientais to be sent to Manchuria. Two thousand coolies were sent towards the and of May. The Chinese coolies now employed by the Russian authorities in Manchuria are estimated to number no fewas than 230,000, -

THE Sultan of Johore was defendant in the Sydney District Court the other day when Al- fred Ritchard Morris, sporting editor of Punch, sought to recover £11, alleged to be the balance due for work done by him for the Sultan in 1897. It was stated for the prosecution that a man named Campbell sold a mare called Dis Tis two shallow-draught steamers which the figured to the Sultan, and arranged with com- Hunan Steamship Company are having complainant to prepare anilluminated pedigree. The sum of i was given to Morris to bind the structed at the Osaka Iron Works, will be ready for sea by the 15th of September next contract, but payment for the work had never These vessels will then be taken to Hankow, been received. The defence was that the money where they are to be transferred to the dwners was paid to Campbell. The case was adjourned. on October 1st. Under these circumstances, the Japanese steamship company, established for coasting service in Hunan province, Chigt, will start business about the middle of October

ONE of the latest proclamations issued by the new Viceroy of the Kwang Provinces is made with a view to preventing the export of water buffaloes from Kwangsi, When the owner of one of these animals is short of ready money, and his only available asset is this lover of mud and water he is to lead it to the district magistrate who will give him 5 tacls for the beast and when the proceeds of the harvest come to hand the temporary loan is to be re-paid,

THE number of exhibits lately received for the Philippines exhibit at St. Louis World's Fair reaches the figure of 4,0-0, consisting however, so far only of collections of no more than ten provinces. A few provinces, like Ilocos Norte, Lopte; Marinduque, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija, have according to notice prepared a pre- liminary exposition in their respective capitals. The number of exhibitors has passed 1,000, while the number of exhibits is now over 15,000. The Exposition Board is confident that the public and public officials will respond to iu esrast appeal and help to make the Philippine Exhibition in St, Louis, the much

of the City Hall Library, has forwarded to us a copy of the latest catalogue and rules of the free lending collection. We were not aware that our local "treasure house of knowledge' contained so many volumes as are now classified in this work, and hope that the publication of the catalogue will be the means of bringing the lending library into more prominence that it has been for some time past. Readers will fed fiction, travel, politics, history, biography, sound investment by paying a dollar and poetry and drama galore, and will make a securing a copy of the catalogue from Messrs. Kelly and Walsh. The thanks of the community are due to those responsible for the compilation of the work.

RAMEES David, book-keeper at the Kowloon Hotel, and Abdul Kareem, ice cream vendor, residing with him at No. 8, Austin Road, Kow- toon, related at the Magistracy this morning, that at about 3.30 am. yesterday be heard a noise in his room, and on getting up saw a Chinaman trying to break open his trunk. He immediately rushed at him, but the intruder made for the balcony, and ere long was out in the street. He gave chase, and directed his lod. ger to report the matter at the station, which he did. At 4.30 he returned home after a fruitless. chase, and, making a search found that threa watches, an umbrella, a pair of silk slippers, and penknife were gone. An hour or two later the thief was caught at Yaumati with the articles in his possession, and was sentenced by Mr Kemp this morning to four months bard labour...

played such great havoc at Townsville, and sho had drifted helplessly for 900 miles before being picked up by the Moresby, The C. H. Watsen had a car o consisting of kerosens oil. She had made a protracted voyage, having sailed from New York as far back as October 29 last. She was in a bad way when picked up by the forerdy, and the timely arrival of the Jatter doubtless saved the vessel from total loss.

Ar the Magistracy on Monday afternoon George Pickering, of No118 Wanchai Road, had to answer a summonsissued by A Yook, opium hoiler, residing at the same address for care lessly washing his verandah and damaging hi furniture, Mr. Looker appeared on behalf of the complainant, who stated that at 6 p.m. on th a6th ult, defendant washed his verandah in such a careless manner as to cause water to penetrat below thereby damaging his bed and variou pots of opium. He made a complaint to th tenants of the third flat, but soon after defendan entered his flat and assaulted him.. Defendan stated that they complained many times abor him washing the verandah and even told bir to stop doing so. On the evening of the a6t ajar containing water capsized and the wate randown. Complainant then began hammerin with a long bamboo at the ceilings and raise part of the flooring. He then proceeded be law and got complainant by his queue. N sooner did he do so, than another loki joine in, so he bad to struggle with both. Afte evidence had been heard the defendant wa fined $10,-

attention of the British Court at Bangkok, th Judge Mr. W. J. Archer having before him a action brought by the Chartered Bank India, Australia and China against Kwang Sen Long and Kwang Lee Hua. The plaintif claimed Ticals 101,863 and interest at the ra of 7 per cont per annum being money lont o promissory notes. The first defendant fir had an account claimed current with the plai tiffs and gave a promissory note for the amou claimed which was, it is alleged, guaranteed i the second detendant firm. The answer of th fint firm was that it was not subject to jurisdiction of the British Court only or. D of three partners being a British subject... Ti answer, of Khoo Yi Seng, manager, was th while he admitted personal liability, he denie that he bound or intended to bind his partnes After considerable aument judgments w given dismissing with costs the claims again the firms, Kwang, Seng Long and Kwangal Hua, in 10. far as the partners who are a British subjects were, concerned. The o partner found llable was Khoo Yi Seng, wi had previously admitted his liability and cepted judgment against himrait,

An interesting case bas recently engaged th