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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
licence may be forfeited on the conviction of the holder thereof for any offence if the "officer who issued the licence shall think "fit." All this seems very absurd, as ap- plied to private carriages. A person owning a carriage is of course liable to be sued civilly should he carelessly run over any one or do other damage, but this attempt to bring him immediately under police control like the jinricksha and chair coolies, is quite a new departure. As to requiring the owner of a perambulator to take out a licence, the idea is ridiculous. It might not be so bad if a licence were required for the baby, but if babies are allowed to be kept without a licence surely we might tolerate the perambulator, too.
the strike just concluded or were themselves acting in obedience to orders received from" a class above them will probably never be ascertained, but it is certain the coolies themselves did not originate the strike and that they would have been glad at any time to have returned to work, as also would some of the stevedores, but they said they were afraid that they would be killed or beaten if they did so. What was the power that thus completely terrorised them and brought the business of the colony almost to a standstill for over a week? No one seems to know. The registration of the common lodging houses, however, will probably throw some light on the conditions under which the coolie class live and work in this colony and will enable the Government to take steps for the improvement of those conditions where improvement appears necessary Cor desirable.
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We are told, however, that the Bill is designed more particularly with regard to trucks, carts, and trollies, which are daily becoming a growing nuisance.'
"The Bill has been introduced at a time when peo- PROPOSED LICENSING OF PRIVATE ple's minds are chiefly occupied with the
VEHICLES.
(14th April.)
"to
d
[April 11, 1895,
should be looked upon as a legitimate form of business open to any one who chooses to engage in it. Then, again, the Bill as it stands would not only affect the Chinese, but various European concerns as well. The Hongkong and Kowloon Godown Company would have to take out a licence for each of the trucks running on the tramway in con- nection with its godowns at Kowloon, the soda water trucks that we see about the treets, the Ice Company's cart, and thes trollies used in connection with the various machine shops and shipbuilding establish ments would all have to be licensed, and the licences would all be subject to forfeiture if the officer who issued the licence should think fit. The Ordinance seems to us alto- gether inadvisable both as regards its prin- ciple and its details, and we trust the motion for its second reading at this after. noon's meeting of Council will be negatived. [The Bill was not proceeded with at the meeting of the Legislative Council.]
A WEAK CHARGE OF PLAGIARISM
+
strike, and it has probably not received much attention from either the unofficial members of the Legislative Council or the At the meeting of the Legislative Council parties who would be immediately affected The Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD is accused on the 28th ult. Bill was read a first find by it. We trust, however, it will not be by the N. C. Daily News of having in his entitled "An Ordinance for regulating the allowed to pass into law without some con- recent paper on the "Critical condition of Licensing of Private Vehicles." According sideration of the principle involved. If there British Trade with Oriental Countries to the Acting Attorney-General's remarks in is a tendency on the part of the Chinese to plagiarised the publications of the Eastern introducing it, the object of the Bill is take to the carriage of goods on wheels rather Binetallic League. It appears that Mr. "provide for the due regulation of tallic in than on their shoulders it does not strike us WHITEHEAD in giving certain extracts from the public streets in regarl specially to a thing to be specially legislated against. It the Chinese Customs Reports has included private vehicles, and more particularly should rather be taken as a sign of progress. some explanatory notes given in paren- with regard to trucks, carts, and trollies, That carts, trucks, and trollies are from thesis in connection with the same extracts "which are daily becoming a growing nui- certain points of view a nuisance is un-in a paper by Mr. TALBOT. A ready ex- "sance."
We shall refer later on to the deniable! In the same way the owner of a planation might be found for that. Probably question of trucks, carts, and trollies, but smart turn-out in England may deem it a Mr. WHITEHEAD, not wishing to mutilate propose in the first instance to notice the nuisance that the road on which he happen s his copy of the Customs report, cut out the effect of the Bill with regard to other to be driving should be also occupied by extracts from a print of Mr. TALBOT's paper vehicles. It is provided that in the construc, coal carts, furniture vans, market waggons, and allowed the explanatory notes to remain. tion of the Ordinance "private vehicle" is and so on, but no one would think of pro- For the latter Mr. TALBOT, if he chose to to include all carriages, carts, waggons-hibiting vehicles of that kind or of dealing insist upon it, might be held entitled to an trucks, and all other vehicles which do not with them as nuisances in the legal sense of acknowledgment, but it would be carrying require to be licensed under Ordinance 21 the term. So in this colony it is much more the principle of literary copyright rather to of 1887 except private jinrickshas, private important for business generally that no re, an extreme. Another instance given is the chairs, and bicycles. It will be observed strictions should be placed on the carriage following. Mr. WETMORE wrote:- Prior that although bicycles are exempted tricycles of goods and merchandise than that the d "to the braking up of the Latin Union are not, neither are perambulators, and for should be kept clear for the driver ofa 28g the currencies of the West and the East these vehicles, if the Bill passes, a licenca cart or for pedestrians who prefer to walk "were welded together by a fixed ratio. will have to be taken out. Private carriages in the middle of the street instead of on the "This ratio had been established and held are expressly included in the Bill, so that the footpaths. A business thoroughfare cannot" good all over the world, so to speak, from owner of a private carriage will have to take be kept quite the same as a drive in a gen- "time out of mind; and thus it came about out a licence just like the owner of a public tleman's park, and the legislature should "that the wages of labour in gold coun jinricksha or street chair and under certain pause before it imposes restrictions on busi. "tries had gradually adjusted themselves to circumstances the licence will be forfeitable.ness merely to consult the comfort of a few- "the gold standard, in the silver countries It has usually been considered that every Eng-As to the accidents that occasionally happen "to the silver standard; and a relationship lishman was at liberty to keep a carriage as with trollies and trucks, they hre regrettable "betwen the wages of the two coun- of right if he could afford to do so, but the of course, but wherever there is wheeled. tries had become established. This re- Hongkong Government, in its overflowing traffic there always will be accidents. Peo- lationship lasted so long as the above sapience, is going to do away with any ple are run over every day in London. ratio was maintained, and the acts which foolish idea of that kind. If any of our but no one would propose to do away "destroyed the bond existing between gold inerchant princes or festive public servants with vehicular traffic on that account and" and silver broke up the connection existing revelling in a three shilling dollar wants to enact that all goods that have to be conveyed "between the labour of the West and that keep a dog cart or a carriage and pair he from one place to another must be borne on" of the East." Mr. WHITEHEAD writes :-- must take out a licence and be brought under men's shoulders. The owners of trucks and due control. Which would seem to show trollies, like the owners of carriages, are that the framer of the Bill did not know liable to be sued at law for any damage they what he was doing, for he could never have may do, and it seems inexpedient that their intended to subject members of the service to liability should be increased by the risk of any such indignity--just after getting three being driven out of business by "the officer shillings to the dollar, too, In England who issued the licence thinking, fit to carriages are taxed, but their possession forfeit it. The regulation of street traffic is not subject to a forfeitable licence. is of course a necessity, and in Hongkong it In Hongkong we will have the Govern- is very badly done, but the Bill now under" ment proposing next that a inan must consideration is not the way to deal with take out a licence before he can occupy the matter. It might be well to require the a house. As regards the proposed carriage licence, it is provided in the Bill that "the granting of all such licences shall be in the "discretion of the officer appointed to issue "the same," subject to a right of appeal to the Governor, and if the holder offends against the Ordinance or against any regulation made thereunder he is to be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five dollars. “ Any
""
owners of carts, trucks, and trollies to have their names on their vehicles, as is the case. with carts at home, so that in case of any offence being committed or damage done the owner could be readily got at, but there ought to be no question of making it de- pondent on the will of an individual officer whether a man may or may not carry on the business of carrying goods on trucks. That
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,
"During the period when the standard was "in force it gave to the world a common mea- "sure of value in gold and silver. Under this
system the wages of labour in gold coun- "tries, and in silver countries, were adjusted; "in fact, a relationship was established be "tween the wages of labour in the East and "the West, according to the ratio then "existing between gold and silver, and they adjusted themselves thereunder to each "other. In 1873 the international bond connecting gold and silver, which had “ justly given an equality to European and "Asiatic labour and to all trading relations, "was broken."
No originality can be claimed for the view expressed in the above extracts, which is the common property of bimetallists, and it does not seem that there is sufficient resemblance in the form of expression to justify a charge of appropriating another man's literary pro
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