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only by deputy, and also that the President of the Leal Senado will resign his place to the Vice-President. If this be true chaos will be introduced into the administration and those who form a party against the new Governor will be deserving of severe censure.
HONGKONG.
Residents have had an opportunity of perus- ing the address of congratulation to be pre- sented to Her Majesty the Queen. The address was drawn up by a sub-Committee appointed for the purpose and the general opinion is that it is a poor composition, lacking warmth of expression. The arrangements for the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee have been decided upon and they have met with general approval. The principal events will be the laying of the foundation stone of a women and children's hospital and nursing institute, the laying of the stone to mark the commencement of the new road round the island, and a grand naval and military review to be held at the Happy Valley. The Legislative Council met last Monday, the chief business being the con- sideration of new by-laws framed by the Sani- tary Board for the maintenance of sanitary dwellings in the colony. At a meeting of the Sanitary Board held on the 6th inst. a resoln- tion was passed thanking Dr. Ayres, the late Colonial Surgeon, for his valuable services to the colony. On Friday the Fire Insurance Association of Hongkong held its annual meet ing. The annual carbine competition promoted by the Hongkong Volunteer Corps concluded on Saturday after a most successful meeting.
We are sorry to say than Consul Hunt has not yet completely recovered from the effects of the fall he had from his horse a fortnight ago. The Consul is able to get about his room, but it will probably be a fortnight before he resumes work.
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The Tonkin papers continue to harp on the alleged ill-treatment Dr. Yersin received from the medical establishment in Hongkong. has never been stated, so far as we are aware, what the nature of this ill-treatment was, but, on the other hand, it has been stated that the instructions given by the Hongkong Govern- ment were that the young savant was to be accorded every facility in the prosecu- tion of his researches. As the matter is being continually used to stir up ill-feeling n Tonkin it might perhaps not he amiss if Dr. Yersin were officially or semi-officially asked if he has any complaint to make and, if so, to state its nature; though it is perhaps not very likely that direct statement by Dr. Yersin himself would satisfy the Anglophobist writers of the Tonkin press. The Avenir in its last issue to hand quotes a statement made by the Hongkong Telegraph to the effect that Dr. Wilm was shabbily treated by the Hongkong Govern- ment a statement which we would also like to see verified or contradicted-and goes on to Bay We see in this a similar treatment to that which was inflicted on Dr. Yersin when he was in Hongkong; the manner in which he was received and the light style in which his offers of service were rejected. We were ac- oused at the time of exaggerating the matter and seeking to envenom the question; unfor- tunately we see to-day that we were in the right and that we correctly appraised the false situa- tion in which our compatriot was placed. In no branch, in no science, in no art can a true Englishman ever be induced to admit that there can be in the whole world anything superior to that which is English. Thus, while our con- frères of the local press know that Dr. Yersin has achieved great success at Bombay with his serum the English practitioners pretend quite the contrary and the China Mail makes a plea- sure of reproducing the criticisms of certain doctors, English naturally, of Bombay." The Avenir then refers to an article by Dr. Cabe Dallas, "who is not at all satisfied, because Dr. Yersin has obstinately refused to make known the scientific composition of his discovery. Tiens! He knows them, these brave sons of Old England. No sooner would he have divulged his secret than he would have found half-a. dozen "Albionists, claiming to have discovered it before him.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
There were 2,532 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 230 were Europeans. Ten gamblers were charged at the Police Court on Saturday for keeping a gambling house in Taikoktsui. Three of them were fined $25 each and each of the remainder was fined $3.
It is notified in the Gazette that H.E. the Governor has been pleased to appoint Captain George Fraser Phillips, 1st Battn. West Yorkshire Regiment, to be His Excellency's Aide-de-Camp
Mrs. Lewis, the matron of Victoria Gaol, prosecuted a coolie on Saturday for stealing jewellery of the value of about $40 from her house in First Street. The prisoner was sent to gaol for six months with hard labour.
The appointment of Mr. W. Chatham to be Aoting Director of Public Works is gazetted. Communications relating to the Prays Reclama- tion Works are to be addressed to Mr. E. Bowd- ler, the special engineer in charge of the works. The Hon. Treasurer of the Alice, Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals begs to acknowledge with thanks the following donation to the funds of the Hospitals:-
Lane, Crawford & Co........... $50 The Hongkong branch of the Navy League is offering prizes for competition in Queen's College, the Victoria English School, and the Diocesan School for the best essays upon "The Command of the Sea" and "The Use of the British Navy."
The Secretary of the Punjom Mining Co., Limited, informs us that he has received the following telegram giving the result of the April cyanide clean-up: "The cyanide plant worked 14 days treating 360 tons of tailings for a yield of 102 ozs. of bullion of an assay value of £1 14s. 9d. per ounce.'
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May 12, 1897. The stamp revenue last month amounted to $20,040, being an increase of $1,274 on the amount collected in April, 1896,
Captain Rumsey has been appointed a mem ber of the Executive Council and Mr. W. Chatham a member of the Legislative Council,
Another ear-ring snatcher was brought before the Magistrate on Saturday and sent to gaol for six months with a birching in addition. A Court of Enquiry was to assemble at Sin- gapore on the 30th April, for the purpose of reporting on the damage sustained by the Lee- Metford rifles of the 1st Batta, Rifle Brigade, through the want of rifle oil for cleaning pur- poses, and of stating upon, whom the cost of repairing or replacing the rifles should fall.
-MISCELLANEOUS.
Some of the local vernacular papers report that the Tsungli Yamên has recommended recently to the Throne an expectant Taotai named Yang Chao-chun, who is also decorated with the peacock's feather and the brevet but- ton of the second rank, for the post of Minister to Germany. From other sources we also learn that Lü Taoṭai of Chinkiang and acting Taotsi at Shanghai last winter has lately received telegraphic instructions from Peking to vacate his post and proceed at once to the capital, special promotion." The choice of Minister to Germany will therefore lie between these two officials.-N. C. Daily News.
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It is said that when Mr. Huang, the Shang- hai Magistrate, recently called the headmen of the wheelbarrow coolies to inform them that the French Municipal Council had also in- creased the tax to 600 cash, to be levied in July next, and to tell them that they were expected to pay that tax also without any demur, the headmen replied that from a canvas amongst their comrades they had found only a dozen or fifteen had signified their willingness to conform to the new tax of the French Council while the rest of them "were obstinate:' hence the headmen prayed His Worship to find a way "to exhort these back-sliders to a proper sense of law and order." It appears that there baş still been some delay in drafting the constitu $1,000,000 |tion of the new wheelbarrow guild, while those who were at first willing to become the mana- ging Committee have all thrown up the job since the French raised their taxes.-N. C. Daily News.
The following returns of the average amount of Bank notes in circulation and of specie in reserve in Hongkong during the month ended 30th April, 1897, as certified by the Managers of the respective Banks, are published:-
Average Specie in Amount. Reserve,
$1,862,008
Banks.
Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China Hongkong and Shanghai Bank- ing Corporation $5,832,437 National Bank of China, Limited,
$ 343,739
$2,500,000
$ 205,000
Total $8,038,184 $3,705,000 The Hon. F. A. Cooper left on the 6th May by the Mirzapore to take up his new appointment of Director of Public Works in Ceylon. The regard in which Mr. Cooper is held by those who know him best, namely, the officers of his own department and the members of the Service generally, was recently shown at the dinner given to him at the City Hall; and his colleagues on the Sanitary Board, including the sole remaining unofficial member, Mr. N. J. Ede, paid a high tribute to him at the last meeting of the Board. The community generally have not yet become thoroughly reconciled to the new drainage system intro duced by Mr. Cooper and the feelings excited by that and other matters have perhaps still left some soreness behind, but the value of his work is becoming increasingly recognised In its new Director of Public Works Ceylon bas secured an official of ability and energy.
We have received from Mr. Claude Ley Kum a photograph of an oil painting of Hongkong harbour with the fleet as he would like to see it, presented to the Navy League. The original painting has been for warded to the head office of the League in London, and Mr. H. E. Pollock, the Hon. Secretary of the Hongkong Branch, in ac knowledging the gift says that Mr. Ley additional ships Kum's suggestions for to be sent out for the China squadron will be circulated to the members of the Committee and his proposals will meet with careful con- The picture shows the harbour sideration. almost full of warships, and the fleet presents a most imposing appearance. In his letter to the Secretary of the Navy League Mr. Ley Kum enumerates the vessels that he thinks should be added to our naval strength in these waters.
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The Moralist" in the Straits Times writes: -On Wednesday morning of this week His Excellency the Governor had his hair cut. I happen to know it, because it was mentioned to me in the French language by a tonsorial artist, who had the news in the Malay language from a Kling brother of the same craft. The Frenchman was rather wroth about it. pointed out to me that it was undignified for the Governor of the great colony to employ a mere Kling for such a purpose, when he might come to a French hair-cutting saloon with all the ad- vantages of costly mirrors and hair-dressing by machinery. I understood my hair dresser to say that the matter would shortly come before the United Association of Tonsorial Artists of the Straits. It would appear, therefore, that we are to hear more of this. Which reminds me that, when we were discussing the matter, a steam ship passenger from Hongkong, who had just finished being shaved, chipped in his opinion. He said that Governor Sir William Robinson of Hongkong came down to the Hongkong Club about eleven every morning to drink an affable cocktail with such eminent brokers and others as might then be congregating at the Club bar. The steamship passenger also added that Sir William Robinson-de- livered lectures to the Odd Volumes upon the humour of Dickens and such other up-to-date subjects: and that that was a Governor to have. I discreetly held my tongue, which is my custom when getting my hair cut, but, in my innermost mind, I then came to the con- clusion that, if the Governor of the Straits continue to refrain from lecturing on the humour of Dickens, I, at least, will exouse him for having his hair cat by a Kling. Besides, a Kling is a British subject; and are not all British subjects united in bonds af holy union by the Indian Famine Fund and the arrangements for celebrating the Diamond Jubilee ?
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