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February 26, 1898.).
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,
139-
A "BREEZE" IN THE LEGISLA- TIVE COUNCIL.
"of the people, is profoundly moved by the of Directors, who will bring to bear not vast extent of the vice disclosed and the only ability in the management of the "irresistible evidence of the moral and Company's affairs, but also ability to con-
physical ruin which ever dogs its footsteps. tribute business. If they see their way to Much ado about nothing will be the It is clear that the growth of the poppy is obtaining cheaper insurance on a sound verdict of those who had the patience to spreading more and more throughout the basis for themselves and the communities wade through the discussion at the last Empire, and that the home supplies are they represent they are to be congratulated gradually excluding Indian opium. We on taking steps to achieve such a desirable meeting) of the Legislative Council with submit that these facts only enhance the object. The business of fire insurance, how-reference to the minutes of the Public responsibilty of our country. By fostering ever, is not unattended with difficulty and Works Committee. At a meeting of that and enforcing the opium trade for the sake serious risk, especially for new Companies Committee a scheme came up for considera- of revenue, Great Britain has been the starting under existing conditions, which "main factor in breaking down such barriers are very different from those which exist- tion which involved the purchase of Bea
as formerly existed in China against theed when the Hongkong Fire Insurance consfield, a property owned by the Hon. E. spread of this fatal vice. We call on our Company and the China Fire Insurance R. BELILIOS, a member of the Committee. countrymen, before it is too late, to stop Company were started. In 1870, the Mr. BELILIOS voted, whereupon the Hon. "this unrighteous and demoralizing traffic, date of the latter Company's establish- T. H. WHITEHEAD protested against his "and to let their influence at last tell in ment, the rate on first class godowns at doing so,
favour of justice and good will to this Yokohamin was 2 per cent. per annum and member's pecuniary interest.
on the ground of the hon "ancient and afflicted people." This long on first class dwellings 3 per cent. in the cussion appears to have taken place with Some dis- winded piece of claptrap was, of course, Settlement and 2 per cent., on the Bluff. reference to that protest and a motion was adopted unanimously. There it will end To-day the rate is per cent. on first class made by the Colonial Treasurer and for the present, but the Society will no godowns and to 1 per cent. on first class seconded by Mr. BELILIOS that it should doubt later on proceed to reiterate its former dwellings. Rates in other places have of not be eutered upon the minutes. The libels and calúmnies on British merchants course suffered a similar diminution. The Chairman, however, accepted the protest and officials. The anti-opium fuddists do at Companies in former times were also able and the motion that it be not recorded,, last recognise that the main portion of the to obtain better returns on their invested drug is produced in China, but they do not funds than are obtainable now.
was not put to the meeting nor placed upon Taking the records. Mr. WHITEHEAD's protest. propose to go to the Chinese Government advantage of these favourable circumstances on the other hand was duly recorded and and urge effective prohibition of the cultiva- our local Companies rapidly accumulated published, but, not satisfied with that, tion. If the habit of opium smoking were substantial reserves, and it is fortunate that the hon. member at the meeting of the really as peruicious and harmful as the they did so, for the time came when the Legislative Council anti-opium Society makes out, why do not reserves were much needed. There have peached the minutes because a motion that
on Wednesday im its agents come forward with a proposal for been, indeed, some years when the profit ou a simultaneous prohibition of the production insurance would not have justified payment recorded, Under the circumstances there was never put to the meeting was not and import of the drug? They, however, of a dividend had it not been added to by the does not appear to have been any reason. have only one cry abolish the trade interest earned on investments, and some why it should have been recorded, but even between India and China; retire from the when it showed a positive loss. In the year if it were admitted that au omission had business! This is absolutely puerile. If 1894, for instance, the accounts of the been made the subject was not worth oc- India ceased to-morrow to export opium, China Fire Insurance Co.. showed that the cupying the time of Council with, as it the supply would in a very short time be net amount of premia collected, less re- possessed no practical interest or import- made up from Persia, Turkey, and other insurances and returns, was $243,290, while ance. countries, while the home production of on the other side of the account the losses itself, and that duly appeared on
The important thing was the protest. the drug would be doubled in a few
the were $222,906 and the charges, commissions, minutes. years. In this case, what good would etc., $49,548, making a total of $272,454, have been achieved by the retirement so that the net result was a loss of over of India from a profitable trade to the $29,000. The revenue from interest, how serious detriment of its revenue? The ever, was close upon $100,000, which plain sober truth is far from what is allowed of the payment of a dividend of stated by the hysterical agitators on the $4 per share. Last year about this time we Exeter Hall and other London platforms; gave a history of the Hongkong Fire Insur Opium when eaten is no doubt pernicious auce Company's reserve fund, and it may and when smoked to excess is certainly be useful to again briefly epitomise the de- deleterious, but the number of smokers who sults. In 1886 the fund reached $1,000,000, indulge in it to excess is comparatively the sun fixed in the articles of association, small, and the misery entailed by the abuse but as it was deemed desirable that it of this stimulant in the whole vast area of should be further increased a special the Chinese Empire is probably nothing resolution was passed to that effect. In like so great as that wrought by the abuse 1894, however, the fund again stood ouly of alcohol in London alone. If the worthy at $1,000,000. Some small additions had people led by Prebendary PEPLOE would been made to it in the meantime, but only devote their energies, time, and money these had to be afterwards withdrawn, to the removal of the beam of drunkenness and the dividend, which was $27 in 1886, from the British eye instead of striving fell to as low a point as $9.05 in 1894, the vainly to pick the mote of opium smoking balance of the working account for that year from the Celestial organ of vision, they being only $92,504, notwithstanding that would do some real good instead of the harm the income from interest stood at nearly effected by mistakenly and mischievously $115,000, so that here again the insurance holding up the British Government to business showed a loss. Those were the execration as the poisoner of a race.
lean years of fire insurance, but the two local companies, thanks to their substantial reserves, came out of them in very sound condition. Two ventures started at Singa- pore, however the fire branch of the Straits Insurance Company and the Singapore Fire Insurance Company-the shareholders deemed it advisable to wind up. If the Japan Fire Insurance Company is floated we hope it will have a more successful career than the Strkits concerns, but we would urge upon the directorate the importance of steadily building up a strong reserve and paying no dividends, or only small ones, until their accumulated profits have reached a sum equalling at least the amount of the paid up capital.
FIRE INSURANCE IN THE FAR EAST.
Both the local Fire Insurance Companies show good results in their recently issued annual reports, and advantage is wisely taken of the opportunity to make substantial additions to the reserve funds. The pro- spectus has just been issued of another Fire Insurance Company, which we may also class as local, since its head office is to be at Yokohama, and the occasion is perhaps not inopportune to offer a few remarks on fire insurance in the Far East. The Yako- hama Company starts with a strong Board
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The marrow of the matter is the dis puted right of Mr. BELILIOS to vote on a question in which he was pecuniarily in- terested. As a member of a Committee sim- ply expressing an opinion for the Governor's information we should say, Mr. BELILIOS lar vote in Council on a motion which if was within his rights in voting, but a simi carried would commit the colony to an ex- penditure of money would be decidedly illegal. The Colonial Treasurer thinks otherwise, but the hou. gentlemau's argument when ex- amined proves self-destructive. He adunits that ordinarily a member may not vote upon a matter in which he is pecuniarily interested, but contends that the disqualification is over- come when the matter at issue is one of state or public policy. Now as all votes in legislative assemblies are necessarily on having nothing to do with private affairs, matters of state or public policy, such bodies it would follow that a member could al ways vote, whether pecuniarily interested in the matter at issue or not. Which, na Euclid would say, is absurd. The rule that a man may not vote on a direct contract between himself and the State is clear and unmistakable, notwithstanding that the con- tract may be a matter of state or public policy. Exception must also be taken to the Colonial Treasurer's contention that al- though a vote was taken at the meeting of the Public Works Committee it was not uecessary that this should have been done, If the Governor asked for the opinion of the Committee as a Committee we fail to see how that opinion could have been arrived at or recorded except by means of a vote. The members of the Committee might in dividually have expressed their opinions without voting, but that would not have been equivalent to the Committee's collective
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