March 4, 1896.]
HONGKONG.
Plague in the colony is by no means so serious as some people imagine. Up to yester- day the total number of cases reported in Hong- kong since January 1st last was 179, or an average of not three a day, and of that number 154 proved fatal. The Sanitary Board, which met on Thursday, is doing all in its power to check the discase, and it is generally thought by the authorities that we shall not have an epidemic this year. The few sporadic cases which have cropped up need not cause any alarm. The shareholders in the Hongkong Fire Insurance Company, Limited, met on Thursday. At the City Hall Ovide Musin has been giving performances on the violin, of which instrument he is a most finished player; and the entertainments have been a great musical success.
There were 4,203 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 212 were Europeans.
The appointment of Mr. J. W. N. Kyshe to be Registrar of the Supreme Court is notified in Saturday's Gazette.
Several keepers of common lodging houses were fined at the Police Court on the 26th Feb. for failing to clean their premises at the proper period.
There were 33 in-patients treated in the Alice Memorial Hospital last month and the number of out-patient visits was 601. At the Nether- sole Hospital the numbers were 33 and 13 respectively.
Messrs. Dodwell, Carlill & Co. inform us that the N. P. S. Co.'s steamer Hankow arrived at Yokohama from Tacoma on the 25th Feb. with damage to machinery, and will be delayed there for some weeks.
The steamer Orono, which arrived on the 1st March from Moji, reports that on the 29th February she rescued three Chinese fishermen from a junk which was in a sinking condition. One man belonging to the junk was drowned.
At the Magistracy on the 20th Feb. before Mr. T. Sercombo Sunith, the master of the Chang Fat, a steam launch, was fined $25, with the alterna- tive of a month's imprisonment, for carrying fourteen passengers in excess of the number allowed by his licence.
At the Police Court on the 28th Feb. the master of the steamship Cass was fined $10 for blowing the vessel's whistle for an unnecessary length of time. On Sunday morning between eleven and twelve o'clock several long blasts were blown in order to hurry up passengers.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
It is notified in the Gazette that Mr. F. J. Badeley has been appointed Acting Assistant Colonial Secretary and Acting Clerk of further amend the Police Force Consolidation Her Majesty's approval of the Ordinance to Ordinance and the Ordinance to further amend the Cattle Diseases, Slaughter-houses, and Mar- kets Ordinance is notified in Saturday's Gazette. During the week ending 28th February there On the 21st there were two cases, on the 22nd were thirty-six cases of plague in the colony.
three, on the 23rd nine, on the 24th six, on the 25th four, on the 26th two, on the 27th three, and on the 28th seven.
197
The Institute of Engineers and Ship- builders gave another enjoyable smoking con- cert on Saturday night last. The talent dis- rendered with an amount of taste and finish played was exceptionally good, the songs being not too frequent at smokers. The programme occupied till twelve o'clock, when "Auld Lang Syne" was heartily given, led by Mr. Aitken. Mr. Tyndale-Lea played the accompaniments, The principal singers were Messrs. Gilchrist, and needless to say they were well played
Main, Crispin, Murphy, Fenwick, Kinghorn, J. B. Duncan, and Bridger. The Institute has just purchased a fine transposing piano We understand that, in order to give effect for use at these concerts, which are more and to the wishes expressed in a recent despatch more enjoyable on each occasion. The piano from Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the is one of Russell's (London) and was supplied following gentlemen as the British Trade Com-selection was made on Saturday night, when The final Colonies, H.E. the Governor has appointed the by Messrs. W. Robinson & Co.
mittee:Hon. J. H. Stewart Lockhart (Chair- the instrument was tested in competition with man), Hon. W. C. H. Hastings, R.N., Messrs. a Collard and Collard.. N. J. Ede and Chantrey Inchbald,
On Saturday Mr. T. Sercombe Smith held the enquiry respecting the death of a coolie who was found strangled to death on the hill. side on the Wanchai Road. Dr. Marques, who held a post-mortem examination of the body, stated that deceased might have committed suicide. The verdict was that deceased had died from usphyxia caused by strangulation.
The Edgar Relief Fund has been closed, so far as Hongkong is concerned. The account, which has been audited by Rev. St. Aidan Baylee and Mr. R. T. Wright, shows that the total amount of the subscriptions, together with the interest, is $1,190.89, which realizes in sterling £130 48. The draft for this sum will be forwarded to the London and South Western Bank. Mr. F. F. Raper, the Hon. Treasurer, desires to thank the subscribers for their donatious.
A boy in the employ of Mr. G. J. B. Sayer, 2, Kimberley Terrace, Kowloon, was charged at the Police Court on the 27th Feb. with wilfully disobeying the reasonable orders of his master and with being insolent. On Wednesday even- ing the prisoner was told twice to give the coolie some spoons and forks to clean, but he refused to carry out the order and was very impertinent. He was put outside the back door and touched with the foot," but he burst open the door, and he was then given into custody. He was fined $5 or fourteen days.
Croakers who predict that plague fill again be epidemic amongst us this year will be in
terested to know that the disease. which existed to a slight extent at Canton a few weeks ago, has now entirely disappeared from that
The returns of the Portuguese population of Hongkong collected by the Consul General, in connection with the census of Portuguese subjects in the Far East now being taken by the Macao Government, show, we learn from the Extremo Oriente, a falling off as compared with the general census of the colony in 1890. According to the latter the number of Porta- guese residents in Hongkong was four thousand odd, while now, when an increase ought to have been shown, the returns are short of that number by no less than eight hundred. Two explanations of this suggest themselves to our contemporary: either in 1890 many persons who were not Portuguese re- turned themselves as such, or on the present occasion they have forsaken their nationality, the latter being an explanation which the Oriente would regret jou grounds of patriotism. An appeal is made to those who have not yet sent in returns to do so.
At the Magistracy on the afternoon of the 27th February Mr. T. Sercombe Smith held an inquiry respecting the death of a woman uhmed Wong Yung. On Wednesday even- ing Mr. H. P. White, of Tamsui, was riding a pouy on the Wanchai Road, and just after Passing the Sugar Works the animal went off at a gallop and then got out of control. The deceased and a man and a woman were in the middle of the road and walking in the same direction as Mr. White, who was with a friend. He shouted, but probably owing to a high wind which was blowing at the time, the people did not hear him. They heard his second shout, and then separated, but the woman after going to the right suddenly changed her mind and went back again. If she had remained where
Auguste Martin, a seaman at the Sailors' city, 'so far as can be ascertained. Possibly he first went the pony could have passed, but
Home, was sent to gaol for three months by
Mr. T. Sercombe Smith on the 28th Feb. for
stealing a shipping federation book containing three discharges and two $5 notes belonging to another seaman in the home named Crossman.
At Canton on Friday evening a dance was given by a number of the Shameen residents as a farewell to four ladies who are leaving for home by the next French mail. The attendance of the officers from the English and German gunboats Archer and Iltis added to the brilliancy
of the occasion.
Two German seamen belonging to the Prinz Heinrich were found trespassing near the field works of the Kowloon Fort Battery on Sunday night and they were promptly arrested. At the Police Court on Monday they said they could not read English and therefore the notices were unintelligible to them. A fine of $3 was imposed upon each defendant.
A private meeting of the shareholders of the Hongkong Rope Manufacturing Co., Limited, was held on Saturday, at which the recom. mendation of the General Managers (Messrs. Shewan and Co.) to raise the capital of the Company to $250,000 by adding $60,000 taken from the profit and loss account and $10,000 from the reserve fund was approved. Share- holders will receive new serip in the proportion of two new shares for three old ones, and out of the balance of $18,000 remaining in hand a dividend of ten per cent., or $5 per share, is to be paid.
The remuneration of the General Managers was increased, but a proposal to raise the fees of the Consulting Committee did not meet with the support of the meeting.
there may be occasional cases, but if so they are not sufficiently numerous to appreciably in- crease the ordinary mortality, and there is no panic or apprehension amongst the public on the subject. In the villages surrounding Can- tou sporadic cases continue to occur, but not in any great number.
as it was she was knocked down by the animal and the base of her skull was fractured. She fras taken to the Government Civil Hospital, but she died before arriving there. His Wor- ship returned the following verdict:“That
the deceased died from fracture of the base of the skull caused by being knocked down by a pony ridden by Henry Percy White, who had lost control of the pony."
Joseph Liddy, a seaman on the Empress of Japan, was charged at the Police Court on the 27th Feb. with assaulting Charles Sulith, a sea- man, and Alexander Brown, the boatswain. The 26th February a policeman saw smoke pro- About four o'clock on the morning of the prisoner admitted the first offence. In the case ceeding from the first floor of 309, Queen's of Brown the complainant said that the de-Road Central. He at once raised an alarm fendant knocked him down and threatened to and the Fire Brigade, under Hon. Commander kill him simply because he expressed sympathy W. C. H. Hastings and Mr. Badeley, turned with Smith, who was a smaller man than the out, but owing to the absence of fresh water defendant, who had fought with him. De- and to some difficulty in obtaining a supply fendant also threatened to kill anyone who took from the sea, there was some delay before Smith's part. The Magistrate sent the prisoner the flames, which soon enveloped the whole to gaol for one month on each charge, the premises, could be played upon. The fire second sentence to take effect after the expira-spread to 311, Queen's Road Central, and it tion of the first.
was not until about seven o'clock that the It is rumoured at Canton that the presence fames woro extinguished. The whole of No. of the British gunboat Archer and Gorman 309 was destroyed, while only the top floor gunboat Iltis at that port is in connection with of 311 was burnt, the ground and first floors the prospective opening of the West River. being damaged by water. The first floor of Another report is that the Archer is kept there 309 is insured in the Hongkong Fire Insurance 08 a precautionary measure in case of any Company for $10,000, and the ground floor, riotous outbreak arising from the clearing out which is occupied by a broker, with a of the canal separating Shameen from the city. German company for $2,400, and also in the As already reported, the English and French Meiji Fire Insurance Company for $2,000. The Consuls notified the native authorities that the top floor of No. 311 was occupied by & dentist boats occupying the canal must be cleared away and was not insured. About six o'clock the and the canal dug out and cleaned. It is said the roof of 309 fell in and it was at first feared that officials expressed some apprehension of a riot if some firemen were under it at the time, but the boats were disturbed, and hence the pre-happily it turned out that no one had been sence of the Archer.
injured.
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