September 10, 1896.]
itations of their product, which he found were being made in Great Britain and covered with American labels."
66
LONDINIENSIS.
Amoy, 31st August, 1896.
TYPHOON SIGNALS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS,'
Sir.-In your paper of 28th August I have read a letter from a person signing himself "Meteorologist," wherein he states he does not think that I can in any way improve the present system of signalling as regards notifying the approach of typhoons. This statement of Meteorologist's" I dissent from entirely, and I will endeavour to explain why. But in the first place I think, considering the importance of the subject, that it would serve the public interest much better for people when writing on such a subject to sign their own names and not hide themselves under a nom-de- plume.'
Dr.
As I have already pointed out in my letter to the China Mail of 18th August, I do not agree with the suggestions of "Ariel," and gave him at the time my reasons for differing from him; but I do maintain, firstly, that Dr. Doberck's notice of signals is very misleading; and, secondly, that the present method of signalling can be very materially improved upon with hardly any extra expense. Doberck's card of signals says distinctly that when a cone is hoisted with the point upwards it signifies & typhoon north of the colony; and when a cone is hoisted with the point downwards it signifies a typhoon south of the colony. I hardly think Dr. Doberck intended this to be understood literally, and that what he really does mean is, as I have put it, that it is either in the north east or south-east quadrant, and that a mistake has been made by his being a foreigner and having an imperfect knowledge of English; but this I do know, that though personally I have always read these cone signals to represent the north-east and south-east quadrants, there are very many people who do not do so, and read the card literally as it is printed.
**Meteorologist" has evidently failed to grasp the point of my argument, and here I may say that writing in a cosmopolitan place like Hongkong and reading over my letter again, I think I might perhaps with advantage have made my meaning a little clearer. The point is this, that when using symbols for signalling purposes, difference in colour should be eliminated, and that they should be looked upon as symbol signals entirely, as at a very short distance it is very difficult, and at times quite impossible, to distinguish, under various states of atmosphere and light, between the blacks and reds. My suggestion of doubling the signals entirely gets over this difficulty; all the cones and drums can be kept black, so that we shall not be called upon to provide for
"
extra symbols or means of hoisting them, and surely it must be patent to anybody, nautical or otherwise, that it must be far easier and simpler to distinguish a double cone or drum signal than from a single one that may be either red or black.
"Meteorologist" goes on to say that whether one gun is fired or two guns, as I have sug- gested, in rapid succession, makes no difference. This I dissent from, for this reason, that people cannot be expected to always know where the gun is-fired from, and as guns are so frequently fired in the harbour of Hongkong for signalling mails, sunrise, noon, nine o'clock gun, &c., the two guns fired in rapid succession emphasises the signal in such a way that it could not be mistaken for anything else.
With respect to the two concluding para- graphs of Meteorologist's" letter, I may first of all observe that meteorology was not the subject under discussion at all, but signal- ling, and whether or not the present system could be improved upon. His remark that all the severe typhoons in Hongkong pass south of the colony, and that the more violent winds are from the north-east round by east to south. east should be well understood by experienced nautical people, as it means that we are in the advancing quadrant of the righthand semicircle, which we all know is the most dangerous situa- tión.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REFURÏ.
Meteorologist" then goes on to say that what we want is a number of reliable stations in the neighbourhood for the purpose of warn- ing the colony alone, and suggests occupying the Pratas Island and shoal, having a direct telegraph there, and also for the South Cape of Formosa. I do not intend to discuss this subject with him; he evidently has failed to grasp what the expense of all this means, and I think it is quite unreasonable to expect that any Government for many years to come will entertain these projects. With the assistance that the Hongkong Observatory could obtain from Manila and the Phillippines, the colony should be able to be warned in ample time of typhoons approaching us. I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hongkong, 4th September.
A. TILLETT.
1 ELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION. IN
HUNAN.
The following is a translation of a proclama- Hunan, dwelling upon the advantages to be tion by H.E. Ch'en Pao-chen, Governor of derived from the construction of telegraph lines in the province, and exhorting the people not to be wrongfully influenced and destroy the telegraph lines and poles now being erected connecting Changsha, the capital, with Wachang, the capital of the sister province of Changsha, dated the 8th August, it is reported Hupeh. According to a private letter from that apparently acknowledging the value of telegraphs and that they will not be made to interfere with the people's graves and private property of the gentry and literati, the construction of the line had been going on apace, without the slightest bindrance on the part of the inhabitants where the new line is to pass; whereas, when in 1891 an attempt was made by the Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration at the request of the Governor, Wu Ta-cheng, to erect telegraph poles within the borders of the frontier town of Lichon, the inhabitants of the place rose en masse and so badly injured the working party and military escort that they had to flee for their lives, abandoning many thousand raels' worth of telegraph material to the tender mercies of the infuriated mob. Several lives were lost in this affair and a certain local provincial gra. duate, or chujen, who was accused of having given countenance to the innovation, was also sacrificed to the fury of the bloodthirsty mob, led by the bigoted gentry and literati of Lichou We now give the translation of the Governor's proclamation
A
A Proclamation for the information of all concerned, issued by Ch'en, officer of the Premier button, ex officio Vice-President of the Board of War and of the Court of Censors, Governor of Hnnan, Commander- in-chief of the territorial forces under the command of the Brigadier-Generals, etc., and Chief Comptroller of the Tribute Grain and Army Pay Departments of Hunan. The telegraph has been in operation, under the auspices of the Throne, throughout all the pro- vinces of this empire for many years. Every one who has used it acknowledges the benefits In accruing from this triumph of scicuce. former times it took days, and even months together, to transmit a letter and message from one place to another; but with the introduction of the telegraph such things can now be sent to
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for
capital of Changsha. There was another way of doing so and this was by making a submarine cable, but the land line was cheaper and f reasons of economy the latter modo was selected by the government. But the ignorant inhabi tants of the sub-prefecture, in their apprehen- sion that the construction of the land line over their territory would be productive of harm to their cultivated fields, ancestral graves, and their own domiciles, arose en masse against the innovation and obstructed the further pro- gress of the line. Hence the venture was per- force made to halt midway. We have been compelled to acknowledge that while communi- cation is rapid in the other provinces, Hunan alone has to endure slow transmission of letters and messages. Hence when matters of vital importance, such as warlike operations or famine relief, happen, or that the provincial government or gentry of Hunan have matters of vast importance at stake, even although use is made of the telegraph lines in the sister pro- vince of Hupeh, the time lost in travelling
when the province was visited by famine last through Hunan is already very great, to the de- triment of the interests involved. For instance, winter and the sufferers were in utmost distress and in urgent need of food and assistance, owing. to the lack of funds in the provincial exchequer, it was necessary to send special messengers overland to Hankow, and from thence despatch messages to the various provinces appealing for the despatch of the above messages money came aid to relieve the distress. Within ten days of
flowing in by telegraph from all parts of the orders had to stop. From Hankow to Chang- country as far as Hankow, but here the money sha and back occupied another half a month, so that when the charity reliefs arrived at last at Changsha more than a whole month had been uselessly lost, and the sufferings of the famine-stricken people augmented by this great delay can better be imagined than described! If, therefore, Hunan has suffered in a single in- stance like the above, one can picture from this the result in similar cases of national emergency. harm accruing therefrom to this province, seek I, the Governor, being much influenced by the
to remedy it at once, and after due deliberation and consultation with my colleagues and the gentry and notables of the province, intend to world vid the districts of Hsiangyin and construct a telegraph line with the outside Linghsiang and the prefecture of Youhou, the tine to pass through the Imperial highway travelled by the Imperial government couriers, line is to be confided to the care of the most and connect with Hupeh province. The new influential member of the gentry of each district ‹ »
ad city through which the line must pass, and it shall be his special duty to preserve and protect the telegraph in his district. The building of the line will be divided into dis- tricts, and the government will purchase the poles and employ the labour from each distriot where the line will have to pass, through the
agency of the gentry selected by government. There will only be one or two native experts appointed to each district to superintend the laying of the line and attend to technicalities. The line will be laid over the Imperial highway and Imperial courier route and these do not interfere in any way with the cultivated fields and ancestral graves of the inhabitants. Even though a case should happen where a house should stand in the way of a straight line this can easily be remedied by the line being made to circumvent the obstacle and thus avoid the
house or domicile. It will thus be seen that the construction of the new telegraph line will in no way interfere with, or cause harm to, the people. After the line shall have been con- structed the care of the line will be, as before, confided to the gentry of each special district through which it passes, who will engage native watchmen to look after the telegraph poles. There will thus be no need of apprehension of the line causing future harm, as it is confided wholly to the natives of each district.
their destination within a few quarters of an hour, or a few hours at most. Of late years all the provinces of the empire and such prefectural or district cities as possessed commercial importance, etc., are con- nected with each other by the telegraph, which is a clear proof that did it not confer the great est benefits and facilities on the people, the use of it bringing advantage instead of harm to the users, the telegraph would not have spread over the whole country in this manner. All possess the telegraph line with the sole exception of Hu- nan, In the 17th year of the reign of H.I.M.
The above having been decided upon by my Kung Hsu (1891) an attempt was made to in- augurate the telegraph within the province of colleagues, the Provincial Treasurer, and Judge, Hunan also. The route chosen was through it was jointly reported to me, and as I am of
of Lichou on the sub-prefecture
ao- the opinion that the plan to be adopted in secluded count of the
nature of the constructing the telegraph line is most ão- place. Telegraph poles were erected and ceptable, I have given my approval to the connected by wire as the work proceeded, with scheme and hence issue this proclamation fo the object of connecting with the provincial the information of all my people belonging
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