September 23, 1897.]
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question the hon. gentleman asked at th meeting of the Finance Committee the oth day, we fail to see its applicability. The Colonial Secretary declined to answer the question at the time, "not from any desir to withhold information," but because i "would be more regular to give notice in "the usual manner, when no doubt the hon. "member will receive an answer to his question." We do not know whether Mr. WHITEHEAD has adopted the sugges- tion of the Colonial Secretary and given notice of a question on the subject, but if so he is not likely to receive an early reply, as the meeting of Council fixed for Monday next has been adjourned sine die.
**
THE PENSION LIST.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
MR. DETRING'S MEMORIAL ON
MINING.
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231
face inspired (Micawber like) with a lively hope present difficulty, being always that something will turn up to avert from them defeat, disaster, or ruin, Nor do they altogether relish being told plain truths, by Mr. DETRING will touch some of the and in all probability the statements made Ministers on a sore spot, notably his former patron LI HUNG-CHANG.
There is
fraud on the public. A glance down the pension list in the blue-book will show that ill-health is the most frequent cause alleged for the granting of pensions (ex- cluding police pensions, which come under different rules) and seem to have extraordinary_curative and that the pensions preservative properties. There is the Rev. W. JENNINGS, who served for a few years as Colonial Chaplain, obtained a pension on the ground of ill-health, and memorial, if they would only see it. That Yet there is sound advice in Mr. DETRING'S on his return home was able to resume his clerical duties, being now in the enjoyment money cannot be gainsaid, and it is equally the Chinese Government require more of a valuable living. Another case is that apparent that little more can be raised on of Dr. WHARRY, who draws a pension from existing securities. Hongkong on the ground of ill-health and out, the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, As Mr. DETRING points at the same time is able to carry on a luc-managed by Western officials, has yielded a rative private practice in California. There were, if report speaks correctly, special cir- It has also furnished the chief security upon very large and annually increasing revenue. cumstances connected with Dr. WHARRY'S which China has been able to borrow. But retirement, the services of a very competent the limit of China's available securities has officer being lost to the colony more by de- been reached. Why, then, not tap the partinental friction than by the assigned cause wealth that lies under the soil in a business- of ill-health. However that be, neither Dr. like and methodical manner? WHARRY nor Mr. JENNINGS, nor any other gold in Shantung, copper in Yunnar; retired officer in similar circumstances is to be hematite in Fukien, coal in half a dozen blamed for taking a pension if he can get it provinces, and Chihli and Manchuria are and it suits his convenience, but it is not to the public interest that pensions should that both coal and irou abound in the very rich in minerals. Mr. DETRING asserts be granted without sufficient cause, or that vicinity of Shanhaikway, and that the ore they should be continued on their original is equal to that found in Germany. He scale if they were granted on the ground of then draws attention to the necessity of ill-health and the ill-health has been res- proceeding to work them with discretion, tored or is found to be less serious than was and instances CHANG CHIH-TUNG's mistake supposed.
in getting ore for the ironworks at Hanyang and then being obliged to import coal wherewith to smelt it, raising the cost of the smelted iron to the price of the imported THE advice tendered by Mr. DETRING to article. The illustration is a notewortly the Tsung-li Yamen in the petition recently one, as it is a striking commentary upon addressel to them contains some sound sense,
the stubborn determination of an ignoraut but we doubt whether it would prove very
official to C
gang his ain gait." Apart, acceptable to the body named. The home however, from the errors sure to follow on truths delivered and the warnings uttered inexperience and lack of technical know- would find no responsive echo among Minis-ledge, the working of mines in China can ters who have feathered their nests by never be carried on profitably under means of commissions on contracts and fees native maungement, though no doubt ore for sale of office. The prospect of another could be won from alluvial diggings very Imperial service under the control of foreign readily by Chinese miners. When it comes officers on the lines of the Chinese Imperial to reefs of quartz, seams of coal, and veins Maritime Customs does not appeal to their of lead, copper, &c., the Chinese officials interests or induce them to believe that the would neither have the courage nor the necessity is as pressing as the petitioner re-enterprise necessary to ensure success in presents. The surrender of all patronage in deep mining. At Charters Towers, where the shape of mining concessions, with all the the mines worked are earning good divi- possible squeezes incident thereto, would not dends, the quartz is not rich, and the mining meet the approval of men like 'LI HUNG Companies do not hesitate to sink from CHANG and his pupil SHENG. Mr. DETRING 1,000 to 2,000 feet to strike it. Only by must have been well aware of this fact when sheer pluck and audacity have these mines he framed his scheme, since he has, in past been made the success they now are. years, had a long experience of the views nese would think a long time before sinking and methods of the late Viceroy of Chihli. 500 feet, much less 2,000 feet, in search of Truth to tell, there is not a very hopeful a lode, especially when the results are to say ring in the petition. The writer evidently the least problematical. Moreover, the fears that his scheme will meet with scant capital would be wasted in the employment consideration from the Central Government, of unnecessary labour and in the purchase but he urges it with all the arguments he of unsuitable machinery on which a fat can think of, being clearly bent on arousing commission was obtainable. To ensure the fears for the future of the country in the mines proving the source of wealth they minds of the Ministers. Unfortunately the ought to become, therefore, they should be members of the Tsung-li, Yamen are more placed under Western management. Mr. bent on checkmating each other or on for- DETRING is right to the hilt, when he hints pen-warding their own pet projects than they are desirous for the welfare of the Empire. Few of the mandarins possess any really patriotic feeling for their country. They are proud of their literature, their civiliza- tion-such as it is-and of the eighteen provinces, which they believe to be the inost favoured land in the whole globe, but they have no pride of nationality in the same sense that Western peoples have, and will not make the same sacrifices for it. Moreover, they seem to share the fatalism of the Turk, and are content to allow matters to drift rather than to
At the last meeting of the Legislative Council the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD drew attention to the pension list and its continual increase. The official reply was that as the colony got older and public servants left year by year it necessarily followed that the pension list must increase. The reply seems very fairly to meet the case, but devertheless pensions form An item in the estimates that requires to be scrutinised with a critical eye In the police peusions, for instance, it might possibly be more economical and more expedient if the Indian members of the Force received a lump sum in cash on their retirement in lieu of pen- sion, for it is not impossible that pensions may continue to be drawn in India long after the pensioner is dent. Precautions are of course taken against frauds of that kind, but whether the precautions are effective or not is another question. We fiud, too, that Sir E. L. O'MALLEY, who is in active service as the Chief Justice of another colony, is entered as receiving a pension of $720 from Hongkong, that amount representing the share this colony had to pay to his total pension, on his retirement some years ago. It will be remembered that Sir EDWARD got tired of his retirement in a short time and rejoined the Service, and his pension is presumably in abeyance, as pay and pension cannot be drawn at the same time. What, then, becomes of the $720 pension put down for Sir EDWARD O'MAL LEY? Presumably it comes back to the colony in some way as a refund, but it would simplify the accounts if the amount were not entered as being paid. A similar case is that of Sir G. T. M. O'BRIEN, except that he has only rejoined the Service during the present year and his name therefore properly appeared in the last estimates. Seeing that the amount cannot be drawn it would be well to strike the item out in the estimates for next year. Another point that might with advantage receive attention is the pay- ment of pensions to persons who have retired on the ground of ill-health, but whose health has been re-established and enables them to earn an income. It is provided in the pension minute that a pension abates on the pensioner's obtaining other public employment, and by parity of reasoning it would seem that when 1 sioner, having retired on the ground of ill-health, is able to take private employ ment some arrangement might be made, if not for the abatement of the pension, at least for its commutation. The pension minute also provides that no.officer "shall "have an absolute right to compensation for past services or to any pension or other allowance under this minute," and it seems to us that the payment of pensions to hale and hearty men who have retired from the service before pension age, on the ground of ill-health, is little short of a
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Chi-
very broadly-that there is danger to Chiua in entrusting too much power to one man, and that the country is already most seriously pledged to certain foreign Powers by the policy adopted in raising loans for her railway. If the mines were worked under a foreign directorate China might soon get free of her liabilities and in a few years regain her independence of action.
At present she is tied hand and foot to Russin, by the undertaking for the con- struction of the railways in Manchuria. These are to be made by Russia and worked in conjunction with the great Trans-Siber-
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