September 29, 1897.]
MISCELLANEOUS.
A duplicate line is to be added to the Peking: Tientsin Railway, extending for the present from Luchiao to Maotsungpu, the construction of which will shortly be taken in hand. The rails have already been ordered from England So says a native despatch.-China Gazette.
The native Committee in charge of the building of the Chinese Water Works Com- pany, outside the East gate of the native city at Shanghai, hare, we learn from the N. C. Daily News, issued a notice calling for tenders for the building of the engine-house, etc., which shows that the scheme is already well advanced. Mr. Brennan Atkinson, who drew the plans and specifications of the proposed works, will also superintend their construction. Penang (says the Penang Gazelle) is to have no detachment of European troops after that of the Rifle Brigade has been withdrawn on the 3rd of January next. Our contemporary urges that the Government should raise Asiatic soldiers
to replace the garrison. In its opinion, a police force, armed or unarmed, will not meet the requirements of the Settlement any more than a similar body of men would afford sufficient protection in the Native States.
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The Shanghai Mixed Court magistrate, Mr. Wêng, gave a dinner at his yamen to the com- pradores of all the principal hongs in the Settle- ments on Saturday afternoon, 18th September. It was ostensibly a social function," but, says the N. C. Daily News, there is evidently some- thing in the wind which will become apparent in the near future, such a dinner never yet having been given by mandarins to the merchant classes without there being a certain object in view.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
It is reported, says the N. C. Daily News, that the local mandarins will hand over control of the new Chinese band, outside the east gate of the native city, within a month from now to the Viceroy's newly-appointed Superintendent of Roads, Colonel Tcheng Ki-tong, and that the new Superintendent has obtained the Viceroy Lin's consent to the appointment of a foreign inspector of police to look after the band. A steam roller for use on the road has
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Some time ago the various Masonic bodies of
late R. W. District Grand Master J. I. Miller, Shangbai subscribed to obtain portraits of the
and of the R.W. Past District Grand Master C. Thorne from home, and these arrived quite recently. They are very excellent likenesses of these two distinguished Masons, being enlarged
Gold quartz has been found in Hupeh pro- Shanghai from Hankow. The place is called vince, according to a telegram received at Ch'ashan, in the district of Tsaitien, and a syndicate is in course of formation to work the vein. Permission has also been obtained from Viceroy Chang by the promoters of the scheme, who chiefly consist of the gentry of Tsaitien, to engage a foreign engineer to superintend the works which are to be erected at the mines.photographs by the London Stereoscopic Com- pany, coloured and rendered permanent, and de- pict the two gentlemen in fall Masonic regalia. The portraits will form a most valuable addition and ornament to the Masonic Hall. W. Bro. Grat- ton was chiefly instrumental in procuring these fine portraits, and it must be a great satisfaction to him and the whole Masonic fraternity that his ardnous efforts to obtain a counterfeit presentment" of these prominent Shanghai Masons have been so eminently successful. At the conclusion of the ordinary business of the meeting of the District Grand Lodge on Wednesday night. 22nd September, the R. W. District Grand Master Lewis Moore unveiled the portraits after a few well chosen words, to which R. W. Bro. C. Thorne feelingly replied, his remarks being supplemented by congratula- tions from representatives of sister Constitu- tions, R. W. Bro. Geo. Taylor for the Lodge Cosmopolitan, and R. W. Bro. A. W. Danforth, D. D. Grand Master Mass. Constitution. N. C. Daily News,
been ordered from abroad.
we trust that though the mill may now move. slowly it will grind just as effectively,
The N. C. Daily News says:-Nobody, we presume, imagines that the recent judgment" of the Chinese Court upon the Bennertz claim will be allowed to staud, but the delays which the diplomatic negotiations necessarily impose are inflicting a deeper and more personal injury upon the principal plaintiff than he has hitherto experienced. On excellent authority we under. stand that Mr. Bennertz is lying very seriously ill, and the effect of the action of the Chinese authorities has been to almost entirely stop his credit. Meanwhile the British Consular officials have done all that can be done till Sir N. J. Hannen returns. The case is so obviously one of right and justice against Chinese duplicity and dilatoriu ss, that stern measures would be amply warranted to bring the officials to A Changsha letter states that the Salt In- book. It is pretty obvious that British policy tendant-designale of Hunan, H.E. Huang Chun-in such a case would have been in the old days; hsien, has received instructions to be acting Provincial Judge ad interim during the absence of the substantive Judge, H.E. Li Chin-hsi, in Peking. The acting Judge is the same person who was known in Singapore two or three years ago as Wong Kang-doo, the Chinese Consul-General there, and who seemed not to be a personu gratu to Great Britain and Germany when it was intended to send him as Minister to either one of those places last year. Huang Taotai is master of a pretty fair English education and has had his views considerably broadened by travels in Europe. Officially speaking he is, therefore, doing much better than the gentlemen who superseded him at the European Courts, and he has a chance of rising much more rapidly in the near furture than Lo Fêng-lo in England, or Lü Hai-buan in Germany. His appointment to the acting Judgeship of Hunan is also another indication of the liberal and enlightened policy of H.E. Ch'en Pao-chen, the present Governor of Hunan.-N. .C Daily News.
When the Kwei-lee was here last week, writes the Ichang correspondent of the N. C. Daily News under date of 10th September, a sad ac- cident occurred, which occasioned the death of the third engineer of that steamer, Mr. J. W. Caldwell. On Thursday evening (2nd inst.), the deceased had been on shore, and was returning to his ship about 11 o'clock. As there was no sampan at hand, be and a companion, one of the engineers of the Shasi, proposed to go on to a cargo boat which was moored not far from the bank, and wait till one could be got. As the night was very dark and only a single plank was available, his companion warned Caldwell to be very careful and went on first himself. On reaching the cargo boat he turned round, but Caldwell had disappeared. The night was too dark to see anything and some few minutes elapsed before lights could be procured. Care- ful search was made both at the place and for some miles down the bank in case the body bad been taken down by the current, but in vain. It seems, however, as if he had been caught among the ropes mooring the juuks about, or in some other way, as the body came to the surface on Sunday near the Customs' pontoon, An inquest was held on Monday morning by the Consul and a jury, when a verdict of “accidentally drowned was returned. A short funeral service was afterwards conducted by the Rev. Mr. Kearney, and the body buried in the new cemetery. The deceased was a young man of four or five and twenty, and was a native of Paisley, where his parents still reside.
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The Singapore Free Press of the 18th Septem- ber says:-H.M.S. Iphigenia is to leave Singa- pore, on Wednesday, to present herself on the British North Borneo Coast, in order to see if that will have any effect in aweing Mat Salleh into_good behaviour. It is understood that H. E. the Governor was unwilling to send any military police from the Colony or Native States into the jungles of Borneo, as he believes they are very unhealthy. It is not usual in a service to think about healthiness or other. wise when there is
a specific job to be done. Otherwiso everybody might go into We can't quite cotton-wadding permanently. see the use of sending over the Iphigenia to be no authority to land if there is
men. We still think that a party the of Malay States Guides, taking overcoats and parangs with them, would do very well, the North Borneo Dyaks helping with cutting tracks where wanted and rigging up camp at night. The transport for Sikhs need not be heavy, but transport for Europeans must be heavy, as they will knock up if not fairly fed; while a Sikh will go along for weeks on chupatties (flour and water) with a daily ration of square-face gin.
The Japan Mail of the 15th September says: -An interesting case seems likely to be shortly bronght before the British Court in Yokohama. During the typhoon of last Thursday morning, the British steamer Patroclus, of the Ocean line, dragged her moorings and in drifting past the Austrian Lloyd Co.'s steamor Melpomene, fouled an anchor which was banging over the bow of that vessel, with the result that the fluke of the anchor knocked a hole in a thin plate above deck, about the break of the Melpomene's forecastle, the Putroclus herself having a plate on her stern deuted in. Overtures were, we understand, made by the Agents, Messrs. But- terfield and Swire, and Captain Dickens, of the Patroclus, for a friendly settlement of damages on a reasonable basis, but wore apparently un- satisfactory to the Agents of the Melpomene, Messrs. Browns & Co., or to her master, Capt. Martinolich, as a suit has been.instituted in H.B.M.'s Court against the Patroclus for damages laid at the large sum of $30,000, and on Monday evening the Patroclus, which was to have sailed for home ports at daylight ou Tuesday, was arrested by an officer of the Court. Mr. Lowder has been retained for the case by the representatives of the Austrian vessel.
The Nanking correspondent of the N. C. Daily News writes nudler date of the 23rd September-A sad accident occurred in the fort on the Mofushan hill, east of the steamer- landing on Tuesday. Gunner Schneitz, who
has been the instructor in this fort for more than two years, was attempting to use the large forty-pound cannon in rainy weather as a drill for his men. The electric fuse for some reason held fire and Mr. Schneitz opened the breach to examine the cause. Fle attempted to rub the end of the shell to brighten it so as to allow the electric current to pass freely, when suddenly the cannon exploded. It is thought that in some way he must have formed complete circuit for the electric current through his body and thus have set the cauuon off. The poor man's body was fearfully mangled, one side being completely torn away and the neck broken by the shock. Dr. Beebe was called by the official in charge, Captain Fung Kuo-sze, and prepared the body for burial. Mr. Schneitz had lived alone on the hill, which
a
is quite a distance from the city, so that he was rarely seen by the residents here. It is not known that he has any living relatives but a of his from Chinkiang has been friend
Mr. telegraphed for to attend his burial. Schneitz was a German by birth but had served his time in the American Navy, so that it is not yet known in which country he claimed his nationality.
China is now the only country where silver changes hands in return for large mercantile operations, and China is rapidly beginning to
discover to her cost the loss and inconvenience
entailed thereby. In fact did China have at band the machinery for reforming her currency she would long before this have taken the necessary steps. This, and not any affection for the silver standard is the reason she has not we may rest assured hitherto moved, and
practical plan will meet that the first with general approbation. Even in China the appreciation of copper cash as exchanged against silver is working a silent revolution, and the revolution is only checked by the deplorable condition into which the copper cush circulation has fallen. Had the copper cash, instead of being a mere token coinage, being exchangeable for anything like its price value affairs would have righted themselves before this. Now the better qualities of cash circulating at less than their intrinsic worth are gradually being drawn out of circulation, and the situation is becoming daily more serious.". In fact, be tween a shrinking revenue and nu increasing debt the inevitable is slowly but surely creeping on when China for sheer existence will be compelled to put her finances in order and follow the example of the South and Central American States and Japan, or submit to the less dignified course of baring, as in the case of Greece, a foreign control placed over them. -Shanghai Daily Press.
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