1: L'ར་མ་ན་བགས། { "%—=bb- ནོསi
November 21, 1895.]
however, for it is a model, weapon for close fighting and is an ideal bushwhacker. Being noiseless, smokeless, and invisible, it is irresis- tible in the darkness. If a inan could slip up close to a camp of soldiers he could kill or rout the entire body without their being able to find out where the shots came from. All they would know would be that dyna mite bombs were falling from the sky and exploding in their midst. There is not a suspicion of a jar in the action of the bow string, hence pure nitro-glycerine could be fired with impunity if the arrows are properly made to hold the explosive. Shake- speare may have meant more than we suppose when he talked of "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," for Spanish soldiers are very liable to consider it most outrageous for tune to be compelled to face dynamite slings and arrows. The vast power of the bow is usually underestimated. England maintains an archery company to this day and when these
Queen's Archers
shoot for their annual prizes the targets are set 'twenty score yards distant.
66
Besides, if history be true, the Romans ased to discharge stones weighing 300 pounds for a distance exceeding one half a mile with a modified form of cross-bow. It was a huge machine worked with levers and screws. but was not a more powerful bow than could be made in this century. Since the introduction of gunpowder the bow and arrow have generally been considered toys, but it would be a dan gerous toy which would hurl 300 rounds of nitro-glycerine half a mile into the crowded ranks of a modern army. It is possible that the bow will yet outrank the rifle in deadly work on many a battlefield, now that men know how to tip their arrows.
The Chinese were ridiculed during the late war because so many thousands of their soldiers were armed with these primitive weapons. Had they possessed a dynamite factory and a few million homeopathic vials to fill with nitro-glycerine and slip over the ends of their arrows, these same barbarian hordes would have driven the Japanese and their modern firearms into the ocean."
I
CITINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
ILLEGAL REMOVAL OF OPIUM.
LIABILITY OF THE OPIUM FARMERS.
on business
HEAVY FINES.
the Man
At the Magistracy on Tuesday Mr. T. Sercom- he Smith gave judgment in the opium case which has now been before both the Police and Appeal Court on two or three occasions. The de- fendants were the two Chinamen who carry (Opium Farmers), and they were charged with Fook Company
removing four chests of opium after seven o'clock at night without a permit When the case was last before the Appeal Court it was sent back for hearing before the Magistrate.
His Worship said-In this case the facts proved or admitted are(1) That on the 15th June last the defendants, who together con- stitute the Man Fook Co. and are known as the
no
Opium Farmers, applied for and received a per- mit to move four chests of opium from Wing Lok Street to the factory in Morrison Hill Red. (2) That the said permit limited the tie of moving to not after 7 p.m. on the 16th June. (3) That the said chests were found being moved at 7.40 pm. on 16th June: (4) That the removal permit originally issued was in the possession of a person on board the boat in which the opium Was found being mored. (65) That special permit allowing moving between the prohibited hours of 7 p.. and 5.a.m. was either applied for or issued. That the Man Fook Co.. by a letter dated 16th September. 1895, and addressed to the Colonial Secretary, claimed the property in the opium seized at 7.40 p.m. on 16th June. The Court of Appeal in this colony has already interpreted the words every person moving in section 11 of Ordinance XXII. of 1887 to mean every person procuring the moving. Therefore every infringement of the law prohibiting moring can be committed only by the party the words "
procuring the moting." Now, procuring the moving
i
impart ther direct personal accomplishment of the moving or the obtaining of the moving by some other person. If. therefore, it can be shown who was the party "procuring the moving it does not matter whether such "Yes," replied the Colonel, laughing. "I party either personally conducted the moving once visited the Chinese Vice-Consul in Sanior effected the moving by means of an Francisco and tried to get him to employ 100 Truckseites to go to China and show his bar- barian soldiers how to shoot dynamite with the weapons they possessed. The Truckee boys know what the bow and arrow could do, and in the best of faith had agreed to go with me and not charge one cent if they did not drive out of China the last Japanese soldier. The Consul was slow, however, or else be held a grudge against the Truckee boys for driving 2,000 Chinese out of Truckee ten years ago, or perhaps he forgot that Truckee does not love the Japanese any better than the Chinese. At all events, the negotiations amounted to nothing, although at one time the affair had quite a business-like appearance, especially at this end of the routé.“ Did the Truckee boys have faith in the enterprise ?
Was not some suggestion made to the Chinese on this subject:
44
Perfect faith. Indeed, that would have been the only objection to the project. Why, they began to plan from the very outset to drive the Japanese out by means of Chinese bows and arrows, and then to turn around and make me give them the improved machines with which to drive the Chinese out of China. A bad set- to handle these Truckee boys would be if you gave them perfected machines and turned them loose in China. I was glad the expedition
failed."
If the Canton rebels had once begun to hurl dynamite amongst the Imperial forces they would have had the game entirely in their own hands.
The Peking and Tientsin Times says it is reported that the railway is to be continued to Peking immediately, and that it is to cross the river by a bridge to the north of the property owned at one time by Messrs. Maclay & Co. A. station is to be constructed near the Viceroy's hospital. The projected line is to pass to the North of Hai-kuan-su. The terminus at Peking is to be at Sha-ko-men.
on June 16th:
14 procur-
instrument. Accordingly, the question here is who is the party procuring the mor. ing" of the opium, seized at 7.10 p.m. s the permit states that the opium was to be moved from Wing Lok Street and the opium covered by the permit was found in a place other than Wing Lok Street, it be comes a fact that the opium had been moved from Wing Lok Street. The distance from Wing Lok Street to the point where the opium was found being moved creates the fact that the moving from Wing Lok Street began before 7 p.m. on 16th June. The permit also shows as fact that the party ing the moving" of the opium from Wing Lok Street was the Man Fook Co. Putting together these three facts. it becomes estab. lished that the Man Fook Co. was the party procuring the moving" of the opinm from Wing Lok Street at some time prior to 7p.m. on 16th June! Bearing this conclusion in mind and remembering that the Man Fook Co. was the only party authorised by the permit to move the opium under any circumstances, and that the permit authorising the moving up to 7 p.m. on 16th June and covering the opium found being moved was prod by a person on board the boat on which the opium was found being moved at 7.40 p.m. on 16th June, and there being no reason to judge that the circumstances attending the moving at 740
p.m. differed from those which attended the moving prior to 7 p.m., it becomes an irresistible conclusion, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the party "pro- curing the moving" of the opium up to 7 p.m. was also the party procuring the moving of the opium at 7:40 pm. on the same day. Tonching the measure of the penalty to be exacted for the offence of which defendants stand convicted, it is common knowledge that Oflinance XXII. of 1887 for the better regulation of raw opium was enacted in consequence of the Convention of September, 1886, entered into between the Government and the Chinese Government and
•
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for the purpose of facilitating the tracing of the destination of raw opium. The Ordin- ance was not enacted in the interests of the Opium Farmers in whose favour no excep tion is made sare as regards the possession of raw opium in quantities less than one chest. Reflecting that the Ordinance sprang out of a friendly Convention with a foreign power and was framed to assist that power, and that the Opium Farmers, as much as any one else, were to the large quantity of raw opium required by aimed at by this legislation, and having regard the Farmers for boiling purposes and therefore the greater ease with which the absence of a few chests may be procured or accounted for, it is incumbent on me to impose a fine of $250 on each defendant, and to order the forfeiture of he opium seized.
SELAMA TIN MINING COMPANY, LIMITED, IN LIQUIDATION.
A general meeting of shareholders in the Selama Tin Mining Company. Limited, in Liquidation, was held on Saturday, at noon, at the offices. 9 Praya Central. Mr. W. H. Potts (Liquidator) presided, and there was also present Mr. E. C. Ellis (solicitor to the Company), Messrs H. E. Pollock, G. Stewart, W. H. Ray, J. Orange, E. J. Hughes, J. Macle- hose, T. I. Rose G. H. Potts, R. K. Leigh, E. W. Maitland, and J. B. Coughtrie.
The LIQUIDATOR said-Gentlemen, the report and accounts having been in your hands for over three weeks, I will, unless you wish otherwise, take them as read. From the inquiries received- since the report was issued, many shareholders seem to have no idea as to whether their shares are fully paid or not, and keep sending in their partially paid scrip for the return of 22 cents, stating they had not received my circular of the 0th August 1894. I wish now to state that my circular was only sent to the fully paid shareholders, and had they not accepted my proposition to pay 22 cents I should have had to make further calls on the holders of all those shares on which only 40 or 50 cents had been paid. All the marketable assets of the Company taken over at their original cost have been realised, with the excep- tion of the head office furniture. valued by Mr. Lamment at $138, which I wish to keep, but did not care to do so without first obtaining your consent.
You will have seen from the accounts that I had in hand on the 30th September $1,153.05 with which to pay $72282 still due to the fully-paid shareholders; from whom I have received no answer to my numerous applications. I now propose to close the liquidation, paying this $792.82 into court, leaving 8430.23 on hand. This, less $95.88 for legal, printing, and advertising charges since the annual meeting, leaves a balance of $334.35, or plus the furniture, of 8472.35, and you have now to decide how this amount has to be dealt with.
Mr. POLLOCK.Gentlemen, as you have just heard from Mr. Potts, there will be a balance in hand which is estimated at $472 odd, after depositing money in the bank to pay off the 22 cents a share to fully-paid shareholders. Mr. Potts, when he was appointed liquidator some two years and a half ago had voted to him the sum of $1,250, I believe, as liquidator's remunera- tion, and it was anticipated at that time that the liquidation would be finished off in a few months. -I think nine months or so; and I think we all know that Mr. Potts has during the last two years and a half had a good deal of hard work in connection with the liquidation, and I beg to move that this $472, or whatever sum is ultimately found to be in hand, be paid over to Mr. Potts for his services as liquidator. I feel sure that in view of the protracted nature of the liquidation you will agree with me that Mr. Potts has fully earned this additional sum, and it is no
use at all distributing the money to shareholders, because there is so little of it and they are so numerous that it would only amount to a few. cents a share. I think I am right in saying it was originally expected that the liquidation would be closed within nine months, and it has now dragged out for two years and a half and it has involved a good deal of correspondence on the part of Mr. Potts I therefore move
that the
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