Angust 13, 1896.]
CORR S M NC.
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents. ] MR. BELILIOS AND THE COLLEGE
OF MEDICINE.-
TO THE Editor of THE "DAILY PRESS.
Sra-At a moment when there is a tendency on the part of some to criticize the action of the Hon. E. B. Belilios, C.M.G., in declining to extend the offer he made to the College of Medicine for Chinese to the proposed Govern. ment Medical College, I think it is due to that gentleman to let it be more publicly known that he is permanently taking a large share in the medical educational work that is quietly in progress.
Out of Trust Funds established by Mr. Beli- lios some years ago seven students of the College hold scholarships amounting to $100 each, prac- tically maintaining them; and if the Belilios Fund in the Alice Memorial Hospital, of which the students in their clinical work reap the Indirect benefit, be taken into account, it will be seen that he is through his investments con- tributing now--and has done so for years close on a thousand dollars annually towards the spread of Western medical knowledge among the Chinese.-I am, air, yours truly,
JOHN C. THOMSON, Hon. Secretary, College of Medicine for Chinese. College of Medicine for Chinese,
Hongkong, 8th August, 1896.
BOYD AND COMPANY, LIMITED.
The fifth annual general meeting of the shareholders in this Company was held on the 28th July at the Shanghai Club. Mr. John Prentice presided, and there were present, Messrs. Charles W. Hay, James Johnston (Directors), R. Swain, W. H. Poate, J. D. Thorburn, J. Tulloch, A. H. Stewart, J. F. Marshall, A. Cushny, C. Thorne, E. O. Arbuth not, F. Gove, and J. Mackenzie (Secretary), representing in all 6,288 shares.
The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report, said he thought the shareholders would admit the result of the year's working had been remarkably good, but that had been due to exceptional circumstance, such as want of dockage accommodation in Japan-which he was sorry to say was not likely to last as they were constructing a good many docks there--and the expansion of local industries, which they hoped would continue. The net earnings of the year were Tls. 108,186.81 more than those of last year, showing an increase of 80 per cent. He thought that would be considered very satisfactory. It was due to the great demand which had kept the Company working almost night and day. The balance at credit of profit and loss account, after deducting directors and auditor's fees, was Tls. 257,567.24, which it was proposed to appropriate as follows :--
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
statement of accounts as presented be approved and passed
Mr. C. W. Hay seconded, and the resolution was carried uhanimously.
Proposed by Mr. Poate, and secon led by Captain Swain, Mr. C. W. Hay was re-elected a director; and, proposed by Mr. A. H. Stewart, and seconded by Mr. J. Tulloch, | Mr. J. D. Thorburn was re-elected auditor. The proceedings terminated with a
role of thanks to the directors, proposed by Mr. C Thorne and seconded by Captain Swain.-N. C. Daily News.
|
THE TAOTAL'S DESIGNS ON THE SHANGHAI BUND FORESHORE.
Shanghai, 30th July.
It is difficult to over-estimate the indignation that will be felt in Shanghai when it is learnt that the Taotai has instructed a foreign broker to sell the foreshors of the Bund. Emboldened, no doubt, by the success that has apparently attended the confiscation of the foreshore be longing to Mrs. Fergusson at Chefoo, the Tuotai sees in the confiscation and sale of our foreshore a simple and effective means of raising the wind. The upset price, we learn, is Tls. 7,000 per mors. The report seems hardly credible, but we believe there is no doubt about it. Whether the Taotai is acting under foreign advice or not, we do not yet know; this will, no doubt, come out in time, and if it is a foreigner who has suggested this expedient, we hope that we shall soon know who the would-be traitor is.
125
at Chefoo shows the importance of remember ing the maxim Obsta prin ipiis. The China Association have taken the matter up vigorously, and no doubt the Municipal Council will do so too; but the Taotai's proposal is a characteristic return for the voluntary protection given by the British Government to shanghai and the Yangtaze in the late war.
3rd August.
to C4
We must not attach too much importance to the attempt of energetic Chinese officialdom 'jump a claim" on the Bund foreshore. Such attempts have even been a recurring feature in the records of the Settlements. The history of the Public Garden and of the Soo- chow Creek foreshore, the Ince case and Browett incident, the records of the Bubbling Well, Woosung, and Sinza Roads, all tend to show clearly that few, if any, Chinese officials have ever realised the nature and rights of the foreign settlements
or the meaning of the Land Regulations; they cannot realise the existence of any form of honest local government, and only recognising: in the Municipal Council a body of merchants engaged in plundering for their own ends, they see no reason why they, the local officials, should not share in the plunder.
Their at tempts in the past, however, have usually been tentative and half-hearted, requiring only a little firmness for their defeat. That the present case (though possibly representing more money and more scientific tactics than have hitherto been brought to bear) will prove a serious one, we do not believe; for on the face of it, it has no locus standi whenever. But the booty apparently in sight is tempting enough to make any native official's month water.
well to remember that the difficulty of defining the Bund's status has hitherto been entirely with regard to the rights of the original lot holders vis-à-vis the public (or the Council) and concerning their respective rights. The position of the Chinese authorities in the matter presents no such difficulties.
Into the history of all the slow steps by which the refuse-strewn foreshore of former days became the lawu promenade of the present, we have not space to go. All we can do is to recall a few points which bear clearly on the case in hand. And first of all we would refer our readers to the remarks addressed by Consul Winchester to the Landrenters' Meeting of March, 1866, in which he clearly states that the surrender of the lots by the original holders "for the public use means a right of way along the river-bank for ever. foreshore were made by the public, and im- proved at the public expense and the then Taotai himself contributed Tls. 20,000 towards the work as a gift to the Community,
**
We have referred before now to the letter written many years ago by the late Mr. E. Cun- ningbain of Messrs. Russell & Co., in which he The present therefore appears to be a fitting. pointed out that the Bund foreshore would never moment to recall briefly so much of the history be diverted from public use, because it was pro- of the Bund foreshore as bears on the case. tected by a triple ownership, that ownership That history, like most public matters in being claimed by the Municipal Council on Shanghai, has suffered from lack of continuity behalf of the public, the Bund lot-holders, and the absence of a clearly defined policy, and and the Chinese Government; and if one the final definition of foreshore rights under all of them, he said, should attempt to make use their aspects has always been postponed on the of the foreshore for private purposes, the other let sleeping dogs lie principle. It is pro- two will join in resisting the usurpation. The bably this fact that has given rise to the present time has come apparently for the Bund lot-laudable scheme; but its promoters would do holders and the Council. to unite in resisting this intended usurpation by the Taotai. From a legal point of view the Taotai's claim is worth- less. In the original Land Regulations of 1854, accepted by the then Taotai Kung Moo-ken, the eastern boundary of the Settlement is stated to be "the river Hwangpoo;" and it was provided by Article V. that land hereto- fore surrendered by the various foreigh renters to public use, such as roads and the beach grounds of the rivers within the aforesaid limits, shall remain henceforth dedicated to the same uses, and this provision was repeated in the Land Regulations of 1869. The Chinese Government through its Taotai here was a consenting party to the permanent dedica- tion of the Bund foreshore to public uses, and of nothing has the public in Shanghai been more jealous, and more properly jealous, than of the maintenance of its right to keep that foreshore an open space for public use. The 60,000.00 validity of the Land Regulations, on which doubt has been thrown more than once, was 20,000.00 | distinctly upheld by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the Ince v. Thorburn 117,000.00 appeal case in 1886, and that is good enough
for us.
When it was decided, at the Rate 23.400.00 payers' Meeting in 1879, to clear away the To carry forward to new account 37,167.24 sheds and material that di-figured the The present was the urst dividend_the| Bund foreshore, it was provided that nothing founders had got out of the Company. They in this resolution shall be construed to prejudice might have had something before, but the the existing rights, if any, of the Bund lot directors thought it better in the interest of holders," but nothing was said about the rights the Company to declare a small dividend and of the Chinese Government. We do not recog- work up a reserve fand. The reserve fund nise that the Taotai has any rights whatever would now stand at Tls. 160,000, part of which over the Bund foreshore. All that the foreign- was invested in local stocks and part on fixed ers undertook to do, vis-à-vis the hinese deposit in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. Government, when the Settlement was planned. As to the amount invested in local stocks, its
was to keep a road along the river from the present value was Tls. 27,000 more than the Yangkingpang northwards not less than twenty amount stated in the accounts, so that in five five Chinese feet in width, and the foreign years the Company had built up a reserve fund merchants were authorised to make jetties, and of Tis, 187,000 and had paid dividends of 10 per erect gateways or railings on these jetties, for cent, the first year, 12 per cent, the three follow- the purpose of opening and shutting at pleasure. ing years, and nrw 15 per cent. Mr. C. W. Hay, It is of course a "try-on" on the part of the one of the directors, and Mr. Thorburn, the Taotai, and Shanghai would never allow its suditor retired, but offered themselves for re- Bund lawns to be confiscated, but this conse election. He proposed :-That the report and quence of the apparent success of the Taotai
To add to reserve fund To place to maintenance and depre-
ciation account
To pay a dividend of 15 per cent. on ordinary shares, amounting to To pay a dividend to founders of
Tis. 117 per share...
Tls.
"
The Bund and its
This aspect of the case was, however, soon forgotten. Officials and Councils changed, and in 1871 and 1873 we find this very question of the ownership of the foreshore raised by the Taotai who advanced certain pretentions to it only to abandon them later on. Again in 1877 we find Lin Taotai asking that the Municipal Council be enjoined from taking unauthorised possession of a river's bank and we cannot do better than to quote from the very able despatch of U.S. Consul Bradford, dated the 21st-of- June, 1877, in reply
"The southern or river boundary of the land is the Whampoo river,' and the mouth of the Soochow Creek, which, as I understand the law of your honourable country in this point, clearly permits the foreshore to attach to the land in the rear, for is it not an old established rule that land on a river's bank follows the course of the stream i its shiftings. and only the landholder has.the benefit of any. accretion, he, however, paying to the Govern ment the tax thereon. In the case in point it is possible that the accretion has not been added to the area called for in the title deed, but that
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