AUDIT.
The accounts have been audited by Messrs, WH Gaskell, who are recommended for
re-election.
EDWARD OSBORNE,
Hongkong, 23rd February,
Capital
Chairman,
1897.
BALANCE SHEET, 31FT DECEMBER, 1896. LIABILITIES.
£8,879 shares at $50 ssch (fully paid up) 443,950.00
Mortgage to Hongkong Land Investment
and Agency Co., Limited...
Accounts payable
Profit and loss account
ASSETS.
}
500,000,00
22,831.30
7,447.38
$974,228.68
Value of land and buildings as per last roport|----
Marine Lot No. 5, and remain-
Ing portion of Marine Lot
No. 3
...$412,623.04
Remaining portion of Marine
Lot No. 7
408,157.28
Praya reclamation
18,036.42
Value of furniture and fixturga
'as per last report
$82,948.14
Less written off as recommended
in last report
22,000.00
$60,948.14
Bince added
13,988.83
Stock of wines and provisions
Steam launch
Cash....
Shares ia public companies..
Licences attaching to 1897
Fire insurance, 1897
Accounts receivable
Suspense account
838,716.72
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The CHAIRMAN There being no questions, I beg to propose that the report and stat of accounts be adopted.
Capt. CLEMENT seconded. Carried.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed the re-election of Mr. Fullarton Henderson as anditor.
Mr. W. H. MANCELL seconded. Carried.
The CHAIRMAN-That is all the business, gentlemen. Dividend warrants will be ready to-morrow.
CORRESPONDENCE
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
о
MR. SHARP'S SPEECH AT THE CHINA FIRE INSURANCE CO.'S MEETING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.
DEAR SIR,-In my remarks at the meeting of the China Fire Insurance Company yester- day, I referred to a sum of about $5.000 ap. pearing in the Hongkong Fire Insurance Com- pany's last report as the amount paid during 1895 for re-insurances. I am reminded to-day by the Secretary that the $4,847.74 represents only a very small portion of the re-insurance payments for that year, which had been previously deducted from the gross premia, 2,500.00 leaving the net sum of $250,085.06, as shown
354.16 in the report of 4th February, 1896. 7,019.19-
570.00 2,879.45
74,936.97 21,913.67
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 13,595.56
11,492.21 250.05
$974,228.68
PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT, FOR THE SIX MONTHS
ENDING 31ST DECEMBER, 1896.
Dr.
To directors' and auditors' fees
To Crown rent
To rates and taxes...
To fire insurance
To repairs and renewals
To interest account .....
To bad debts and refunds attaching to year
1895-1898
To balance
Cr.
By balance from 30th June, 1896. $22,024.45 By less written off furniture and
fixtures as recommended in last report...
By rents of shops and offices
By dividends on shares
22,000.00
By profit on working account for six months
ending S1st December, 1896
$
0.
365.89 1,650.00 2,840.50 1,101.00 4,984.22
198.96
7,447.38
$34,872.06
HUMPHREYS ESTATE AND
24.45
180.00
Will you kindly allow the publication of this correction, with my apology for the oversight. Yours faithfully,
GRANVILLE SHARP, Hongkong, 16th February, 1897.
"KISSING THE BOOK.”
17
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS. SIB,-I find from recent home papers that the English form of oath has again been dis- cussed and, as in the past, the same objection is raised by witnesses, supported by medical men, to kissing the book" as a possible means of contagion to disease of some form or 16,084.11 another. From The Times it appears that Mr. Francis A. Stringer has returned to the subject and has made certain, suggestions to do away with the necessity [sic] for kissing the Bible. The Australian Medical Gazette of 20th No- vember, quoted by The Times, calls attention to the difficulty which has arisen in the Courts of New South Wales in consequence of the refusal of medical men to "kiss the hook." The periodical discussions which arise upon this interesting point are undoubtedly due, to 10,356.85 my mind, to many not knowing that the kissing of the Bible attendant upon the administering of an oath is not a component part of the oath, 24,110.76 | and therefore not at all obligatory. It was so decided of old by eminent judges, and at a time $34,672.06 when Courts of Justice were by no means free from the influence of the Church, with which our legal institutions are so intimately bound up. A perusal of the "State Trials," which contain the origin of most of the customs of the Courts of England, apart from affording much food for reflection to the modern student in regard to the dark ages as compared with our present admirable Constitution, affords also much that is useful to the legal mind, and it is due, I think, to the neglect to search the old books that must be attributed Mr. JUPP read the notice calling the meeting. the continual raising of a point which does not The CHAIRMAN said Gentlemen, I have exist except as a mere ceremony now converted not much to add to the report which has been into a custom which the Judges of the Superior in your hands for some days, and which, with Courts at home, to their credit be it said, are permission, I will take as read. The loth to do away with as a custom, however much the first two months of this year it may be open to a witness or any other modern altogether to $4,400, which is equivalent faddist "to rush in where angels fear to tread," increase in your rent-roll on last a matter which I have had the honour to dis- of nearly $6,000. Fire insurance cuss in the press elsewhere. Any witness or be heavier this year, but we anticipate juryman, say, objecting to keep up the old be paid for repairs will be less, custom by refusing to kiss the book, for any that one can be taken as a set-off against the particular reason, cannot be compelled to do Interest account will be very little so-the holding of the Bible, in such cases, last so that unless some- by the right hand and repeating the oath, or oreseen occurs no further with-repeating it with uplifted hand according
qualisat of dividends fund the Scotch and French methods [evidently, hareholder has any based upon the Roman system], being in my to ask I shall be pleased to answer opinion, all that is necessary. In 4," Howell's State Trials,” 1255 [Morris Case, is to be
FINANCE CO., LIMITED. The eleventh annual general meeting of shareholders in the above Company was held at the offices at noon on the 22nd Feb. Mr. Henry Humphreys presided and there were also pre- sent Capt. Clement, Messrs. W. H. Mancell, C. Ewens, W.D. Sutton, and J. A. Jupp.
to
the
prosecution because he ha sion dates from
Februar 125, 1897
more remarkable as it was portant point taken by a those days, was denied the assistan
an im who as in
counse
The following is the conversation decisive. the point —
Morris, My Lords, except against this
Brooke.
Court.-Sir, he is sworn, and you speak too
late.
Morris. My Lords, I appeal to him whether
he be sworn or no.
Brooke Sir, I am not to answer you, but the Court. My Lords, I did not kiss the book.
Court. Sir, that is no matter, it's but a
ceremony.
Undoubtedly this kissing of the Bible as part of an oath is a custom introduced by ecclesiastics at the time when they administer our laws and as to which custom the mem of man runneth not to the contrary; and cannot do better than conclude in the words of that great Judge Lord Keble as reported in Christopher Love's Case [A.D. 1651], 5 How. St. Tr. 238:-"We have no law practised in this land, but is the law of God: and so did the lawyers maintain it before the king in Henry the Sth's time, the pope's legates, and chief archbishops and bishops of England; and did theú prove it to them, that there was no law practised in England but the law of God, which our ministers are loth to touch, and busy themselves to study." So long, therefore, as the law of God shall be the law of the land, so long I hope will the custom of kissing the Bible be maintained.—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. W. NORTON KYSHE, Hongkong, 22nd February, 1897.
THE ACQUITTAL OF MISS JACOB.
The case against Miss Jacob, charged by Mr. Lowder with the murder of the late Mr. Carew, came on again in H.B.M. Court for Japan at Yokohama on the 5th February, on an application by the prosecutor for a with drawal of the charge.
The Court-room, we read in the Japan Mail, was filled by an eager, expectant orowd of spectators some time before proceedings com- menced. Miss Jacob, who was accompanied by a lady friend, took a seat just behind her counsel, Mr. G. H. Scidmore. She looked bright and composed, and had smiles for those of her friends whose faces she encountered among the crowd. Mr. J. F. Lowder, the pro- secuting witness, was early in the Court, and when the Assistant Judge entered rose at once to make application to withdraw the charge.
-
Mr. Lowder said-Since the institution of these proceedings, another person has been con- victed of the crime charged against Mary Jacob, and I shall, therefore, of course, offer no further evidence against her. It is right to add that I had taken this decision before the conclusion of the recent trial, in consequence of the with drawal of his evidence by one witness, and the failure of another under cross-examination, thus leaving me with the statements of two Japanese maid-servants only, who turn out to be and who were in the pay of Mrs. Carew establish a point which I considered of vi importance to the success of the namely, that the relations that had tween the accused and the deces as to make it probable that she Luke. By the weakening of of evidence connecting the charge became so attenuated to proceed no farther with it, and to that effect to Mr. Scidmore, municated to Miss Jacob. With lion, and with your Honour's permis now withdraw from the prosecut
Mr. Soidmore ap should be furnished with the certifying the nature of the dismissa
that
ter some discussion between Mr. Beidmore and Honour ruled the
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