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THE "PEKIN-NORMANDIE" COLLISION AT SHANGHAI.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
There were 1,602 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 130 were Europeans. Mr. H. A. Ritchie, who has been appointed Superintendent of the P. & O. Company's business at this port, assumed charge on the 9th April. Mr. Alf. Woolley goes to Yokohama as Agent there.
In future grocers' licences under the Spirit Licences Ordinance are to contain the following condition-No liquor shall be sold under this licence between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The real reason of Li Hung-chang's not land- ing at Hongkong has at last transpired. His Excellency is an Imuris shareholder and was afraid of the liquidator's attorney. Such, at least, is the latest joke.
H.M.S. Swift left on Saturday for Yokohama, whence she will proceed to the Behring Sea as one of the patrol boats in connection with the seal fishery. She will be followed later on by the Pigmy, at present at Canton.
The Douglas Steamship Company's new steamer Haimun, Captain Goddard, arrived from home on Wednesday night. A full description | of the Haimun appeared in our issue of the 24th March. She left for Swatow, Amoy, Kelung, and Tamsui on Friday.
The Russian cruisers Dimitri Donskoi and Rurik arrived at Singapore on the 9th April from Colombo. The Dimitri Donskoi is bound for Hongkong, and was to leave on the 11th. The Rurik is bound for Vladivostock, but the date of her departure from Singapore was un- certain.
Shanghai, 4th April. People were somewhat surprised yesterday morning to see the C. N. Co.'s steam Pekin (1,274 tons) partly alongside the Ewo Jetty and her stern high and dry on the Public Garden frontage, her fore-part being pretty well submerged. After seeing this they were not much astonished, on boarding her from the Jetty, to find a large hole on the about fifty feet from the stem port side about fifteen feet wide reaching per- pendicularly from her upper works down to within a few plates from her keel. The fore- hold was full of water, and the cargo in that part of the ship was completely submerged. The pontoon of the Ewo Jetty had been caught under the ship's guard and was damaged, while a large cargo-boat was imprisoned between the hull of the Pekin and the shore. The cause of the Pekin being in this awkward and unfor- tunate position was that a collision had taken place between her and the Norwegian steamer Normandie, Capt. Berg. She is a vessel of 628 tons, and her agents are Messrs. Melchers & Co. According to what we can glean, the collision occurred about 5.45 a.m. The Pekin was in- ward bound from Ningpo, while the Normandie was outward bound, and just after the latter steamer had rounded the Pootung Point she found herself approaching the steamer Pekin, so she blew two blasts of her whistle; it means "I am directing my course to port." She ported her helm, which took her into the 'chow- chow"
water, when the cross tide suddenly turned her head and the collision followed. The Pekin commenced to fill rapidly and Capt. Downie, with all his wits about him, beached her where we found her yesterday morning. It is well she was put on shore, for had she sunk in deep water the loss of life would have been ter rible, as she had ou board 418 native passengers, besides her crew. The Normandic proceeded as far as the Old Dock Wharf, at which place she went alongside. This vessel was not severely damaged, only two or three plates are bulged in on her port bow. The work of patching up the gap in the Pekin and floating her was given Shortly after four o'clock on the morning of to the Old Dock, whose people, with praise the 8th April a fire broke out on the first worthy promptitude, commenced operations floor of 13, Wing Wo Street, a three immediately. Mr. Morton, the diver, belonging storey building. The firemen were quickly to the Tug Boat Company, was soon at work, in attendance and succeeded in keeping the while the cargo was taken from the vessel into flames within the first and second floors, lighters, the greater part being undamaged. both of which are family houses. These floors The pontoon of the Ewo Jetty has since sunk. were gutted, but the ground floor. used as They hope to get the Pekin afloat and into
su oil store, suffered no damage. The fire ori- dock in a day or two. It is a singular coinci-ginated through a lamp falling from a nail in a dence that it was on Good Friday ast that the partition. The master of the first floor was Nora was sunk at Woosing. Old sailors used formerly an interpreter at the Police Court. He to say it was very unlucky to sail on Friday, says his place is insured, but he does not know especially on Good Friday-Mercury.
in what office, as the policy is at Kowloon city, where he was at the time of the outbreak.
HONGKONG.
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At the Magistracy on the 13th April before Commander W. C. H. Hastings, a Chinese building contractor was charged with
of causing the death
B Chinese doctor. About a fortnight ago the prisoner was sent to gaol for three months for biting one of the doctor's fingers off during a quarrel in a house in Graham Street. The doctor was afterwards taken seriously ill and died on Saturday from blood poisoning, the result, it is supposed, of the bite. The prisoner was consequently taken out of gaol and charged with causing the death of the doctor and he was committed for trial.
Some
thrill of
A "ghost" made its appearance at West Point about midnight on Wednesday. time ago a man living in that district contracted Plague has taken a decided upward tendency plague and he went to Canton, where it was lately, and the total for the year now reaches thought by all his friends he had died. On Wednes 183. On Thursday the Sanitary Board met, day night he revisited his Hongkong home when a sub-committee was appointed to deal and his unexpected appearance sent directly with matters concerning the disease. terror through all who saw him. They declared Two steamers, the Ocampo and the Exe, have the visitor to be a ghost and so imbued were been ashore near Hongkong this week, but some of the people with this idea that they almost fortunately both have been got off the rocks swooned with fright. Then the apparition spoke and docked. The Activ also went ashore thirty-soothing words, but for a time his remarks were six miles from Hoihow and it is feared she will become a total wreck. An interesting lecture on Criminal Poisoning in Hongkong was given by Mr. Crow, Government Analyst, on Friday at the Odd Volumes Society's rooms. Saturday the first meeting of the shareholders in Olivers Freehold Mines, Limited, was held.
It is notified in the Gazette that Mr. W. M. B. Arthur has been appointed a Justice of the Peace.
On
The appointment of Mr. D. Macdonald to be a Lieutenant in the Field Battery of the Hong: kong Volunteer Corps is gazetted.
The stamp revenue for the first quarter of the present year amounted to $62,281, being an increase of $7.579 on the amount collected in the corresponding quarter of 1895.
The Supplementary Convention entered into between Great Britain and Japan respecting the duties to be charged on British goods im- ported into Japan is published in the Gazette.
in vain.
At length one of the company ventured to touch this being that came in questionable shape and finding that without doubt the form had a chin and therefore was no goblin proclaimed the result to the house- hold, and the man was once more received into the bosom of his family.
A Hankow correspondent of the Peking and Tientsin Times writes:-The Viceroy's cotton mills keep working on steadily and, it is said, successfully. At first they need to stop on Sundays; then on every alternate Sunday. Next it was discovered they were paying too great a deference to the foreigner's religion, so now they shut down on the 1st and 15th of the native month. The next step in the process of naturalising this institution will probably be to discontinue stopping altogether, save at China New Year.
j
Aril 15. 13).
MISCELLANEOUS:
We (Siam Free Press) hear that an Austriáñ General has been engaged by the. Siamese Government to organise the land forces of the kingdom, and that this military gentleman is shortly expected in the capital.
The Hyogo News says:--Just a year ago the Tenshin-maru took passengers to Formosa at 20 yen each and cargo at 17 yen per ton. Now.. there are eleven steamers on this service and the rates have fallen to 12 yen and 8 yen re- spectively.
On the Shanghai racecourse on the morn- ing of the 4th April, according to previous announcement, Mr. George Dallas sent out á handsome black pony for a trial gallop of a mile and a half. The incident attracted a good deal of notice, and after covering the distance in 4 3mins. 19secs., the last half-mile being done in Imin. 2secs., and the last quarter in 31secs., the pony was bought at auction by Mr. Ring for Tls. 1,075. He has since been named Ironside, and is entered for the forthcoming Spring Meeting.-N. C. Daily News.
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The N. C. Daily News of the 6th April says: A griffin, whose entries were all paid on Saturday, was being trotted round the course yesterday morning when, catching sight of his stables at the Horse Bazaar, he bucked, threw the jockey who was riding him, and jumped the ditch. In doing this he broke his back and had to be shot; but though only measuring 12 hands 2 ins. he made what is believed to be the "record" jump for a China pony, 23 feet 4 inches by actual measurement.
About the same time that it was reported by the Times correspondent in Odessa that "the despatch of Russian troops to the East continues actively, although their forces there already exceed ninety thousand men," we heard from a friend in Manchuria to the effect that
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Russians in bands are scouring over Man- charia, armed, and professing nothing, only com- monly believed to have connection with railroads and map-making. They are received with extraor- dinary distinction at every point. The magistrate who will revile the Englishman to his face will shortly after get into his cart and run miles out of town to meet Russians."-Recorder.
In
The Chinkiang correspondent of the N. C.. Daily News writes:-In the neighbouring large cities there is a great desire' to learn the Eng. lish language and to become acquainted with foreign ways. We are glad to see many of the upper classes reading good sound literature translated into Chinese by Christian men. a certain large fu city where no foreigners reside, we saw Dr. Y. J. Allen's Review of the Times in the home of a wealthy native not a Christian. The Press is destined to be a mighty agent in removing false ideas from the native mind and implanting the truth where gross darkness and crass ignorance now prevail The Singapore Free Press of the 31st March saysWhile near Labuan, as is already known, H.M.S. Undaunted grazed a pinnacle rock, hitherto undiscovered, at a point where the lead gave eight fathoms on each side of the ship.* The material appears to have been coral and the top of the pinnacle has been crushed off, doing little damage to the Undaunted's bottom, save opening out a seam between her plates and letting into one of the double bottom compart ments a matter of twelve tons of water. This makes no difference to speak of, and the Un- daunted (which cannot get into dock here) will not dock till her return to Hongkong, on the arrival of her relief the Narcissus, which may
be down here in three or four weeks.
A. correspondent writes to the Foochow Echo:
A sign of the times is the appointment of Mr. Minchin to the Interpretership of the Board. of Foreign trade in Fooohow-foo. In former days a man in the East who made himself un- pleasant to his Government had his head whipped off; while now a practice of the West is be ing adopted-well, if not actually a practice of the West, a plan more tham once resorted to be the British Government-namely, the find- ing of a post for a troublesome subject, even if it was only the Governorship of a remote colony. And so it happens that Minchin has become-in- terpreter to the Foreign Board His good for- tune is due no doubt to the fact of his being a British subject and he may thank his stars that he was born in Singapore.
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