THE
Hongkong Weekly Press
AND
China Overland Trade Report.
VOL. XLVII.]
CONTENTS.
Epitome of the Week, &c.
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, 26TH FEBRUARY, 1898.
.............113
The Extension of the Burmah Railway into
.138
138 ...138 138 139
....139
.140
The Dock Company and Naval Construction ......140
Leading Articles :-
The New Chinese Loan
Yunnan
The Opening of Hunan
The Anti-Opium Society
Fire Insurance in the Far East
A Breeze in the Legislative Council
Double Brokerages
Soldiers and Sailors at the Races
Extraordinary Weather
Hongkong Legislative Council
Supreme Court
Hongkong Amatour Dramatic Club.
Hongkong Sanitary Board
The China Loan
The Powerful's Engines
Fire on the Emeralda.........
...... 153 ..153
Hongkong Races ...
Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co., Limited
Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown
Limited
..140
140
.140 ..144 ..1 52
152
.153
153
....... 1 5 4
Co.,
...154
The National Bank of China, Limited.
Hongkong Hotel Co., Limited
Hongkong Rope Manufacturing Co., Limited...
..155 .155 156
Goo. Fenwick & Co., Limited
...156
The Panjom Mining Co., Limited
.156
.157
.157
157
'58 '59
Wreck of a Borneo Coasting Steamor
Warlike Preparations in Indo-Cuina Hongkong and Port News Commercial:
Shipping
DEATH.
At the Old Ningpo Wharf, Shanghai, on the 12th February, 1893, ALEXANDRE F. SEVERIM, aged 70 years.
ARRIVALS OF MAILS.
The English mail of the 21st January arrived, per P. & O. steamer Bengal, on the 20th February (30 days); the Canadian mail of the 31st January arrived, per C. P. steamer Empress of Japan, on the 23rd February (23 days); and the American mail of the 26th January arrived, per P. M. steamer Peru, on the 25th February (30 days).
It is expected, says the Straits Times, that the West Yorkshire Regiment will be removed from Singapore to Calcutta next January.
With reference to the extension of the Burmah railway into China, a Peking telegram in the Japan papers states that Great Britain had demanded "the right to construct a rail. way from Burmah to Chingtu, Szechuen."
The N. C. Daily News states that the port of Yochou in Hunan is to be opened to foreign trade in two years, the delay being due to the well-known unruly character of the Hunauese, China also undertakes not to alienate the Valley of the Yangteze to any foreign
Power.
Japan claims that China's acquiescence in her repairs of the Formosa-Amoy cable at length fixes the question of ownership in her favour, Sixty out of the hundred miles of cable have been overhauled and renovated; the remaining section will be taken in hand ere long.-Hiogo
News.
A Tokyo press despatch of the 14th February, translated by the Kobe Chronicle, reads as fol- lows:--Iu reference to the Reuter's despatch stating that Japan has informed the Chinese Government that she could not permit the pay. ment of the next instalment of the indemnity to be postponed, the authorities concerned deny that any such intimation has been conveyed to China.
The Government of the Straits Settlements has written to the Singapore Chamber of Com. merce, replying to the communication in which that Chamber forwarded to the Government the result of the recent debate and vote on the Straits currency question, The Government intimates that, having regard to the very divided state of public opinion, as shown in the Chamber's debate, nothing can be promised except that the Government will take the whole matter into consideration.
A telegram from Peking received at Shang. hai by the native officials and confirmed from other sources states that the Tsungli Yamen having intimated to the Corps Diplomatique that the Emperor would receive them at the usual New Year Audience on the 15th instant, being the 25th of the Chinese moon, the Foreign Representatives declined to attend on the ground that the date fixed was too long after New Year's Day. It is reported that the Admiral Baller left for home by the last Austrian Minister was the first to decline the
Imperial invitation.-N. C. Daily News. English Mail,
EPITOME OF THE WEEK.
At Yokohama on the night of the 10th Feb- ruary fire broke out in the carpenters' shed of the
Yokohama Dock Co. and two godowns were entirely destroyed and a third partially des- troyed.
The petition of the foreign members of the Chinese Customs Service, asking for a revision ́of salaries on the basis of a fixed sterling rate of 58. to the Haikwan tael, is published in the N. C. Daily News.
It is stated that. China has agreed to admit foreign and native steamers on all the inland waters, also that Yoohow, in Hunan, is to be opened in two years time, and that sanction has been given for the extension of the Burmah railway to Chinglu, in Szechuen.
The Kobe Chronicle says:-Mr. Brenan's re- port on Japanese trade has proved a revelation to the merchant in England. He points out very clearly the gradual deterioration of almost every article of Japanese manufacture, but he has not made as much as he might have done of the great difference of prices in China and Japan. An interesting instance of this differ- ence has been brought to our notice this week. A. Kobe merchant obtained samples of a certain class of goods from Hongkong with a view of having an order exeonted here, to save freight, The Hongkong quotations were $15.50, but when the samples were shown to a maker here he said he could not make the article in question for less than 60. yen, notwithst nding that the material of which the article is made is as common in Japan as in China.
No. 8.
The Soy Chee cotton mill at Shanghai was recently stopped for several days owing to the machinery having been maliciously damaged by a Chinaman who was formerly employed in the mill.
A 4 per cent. Ioan of £16,000,000 has been concluded by the Chinese Government with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the German Asiatic Bank, each institution contributing half_the_amount. The loan will be placed on the London market in the course of a few days.
9th February at Lee Wah Heng's rice mill on A serious affair occurred at Bangkok on the the west side of the river. From the Bangkok Times we learn that a company of police, headed by Chief-Inspector Luang Anumat, set out with the intention of collecting the poll-tax from numbers of Chinese in this quarter. The latter had been apprised of the arrival of the police and had provided themselves with fire-arms. As soon as the police put in an appearance at Lee Wah Heng's rice mill the coolies are reported to have collected their forces in one of their sheds and opened fire upon the intruders. None of the policemen, however, were wounded. The company of police, sixty in all, were also armed, and returned the coolies' fire, with the result that two Chinamen were shot dead and one seriously wounded, while fifteen others were more or less injured. The two dead men were removed to the mortuary and the wounded man The proprietor of the rice mill is said was conveyed to the Bangrak Hospital. to be a British subject, and a complaint has accordingly been lodged with the British Con- sul, it being contended the police had no right to enter a foreign subject's premises to collect authority. poll-tax or for any other purpose without Several Sikh policemen were engaged in the work and a charge will be brought against them in the British Court.
.
From Tonkin papers just received, we learn that the Lyaudet claim was still outstanding, and as there is no reference to any fresh case of kidnapping, it is probably the Lyaudet case : that is the subject of the recent peremptory de- mand made by France upon China. M. Lyandet was employed at the Kebao mines and on the night of the 24th April, 1895, he and his wife and child were awakened to find themselves surrounded by a band of armed men who with- out giving them time to obtain a change of clothing hastily took them to a boat and rowed off with them. Their captivity continued until the 8th October, a period of six months within a few days, during which they were kept almost continually on the march and suffered great hardship. The object of the pirates was to extort a ransom, which had been paid in previous cases of abduction, but the Governor- General of Indo-China declined to sanction the payment of any ransom in this case and adopted the policy of hunting the pirates out of their lairs. The case was also vigorously pressed at Peking, and the remnants of the piratical gang having crossed over into Chinese territory the liberation of the captives was secured by General Sou, who is believed to have paid $6,000 to the pirates. M. Lyaudet then advanced claim for indemnification and we were under the impression that the claim had been admitted and settled, but apparently such was not the
case.
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