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July 2, 1898.]
either the Government must issue notes itself, or the Banks must be allowed to increase the amount of their issues, for which they would require an amendment of their charters and an increase of capital. It is generally recognised that an increase of the capital of the Hongkong and Shang- hai Bank will become necessary ere long to meet the requirements of the Bank's expanding business, and an increase of capital would carry with it the right to a proportionate increase in its note issue. But that, after all, would only afford temporary relief; in a few years, or perhaps even a few months, the demand for notes would again outrun the supply. What is wanted is an arrangement by which the supply may be increased indefinitely according to the requirements. This want a Govern- ment note issue would supply. Anyone having silver would be entitled to present it at the Treasury and to receive in return an equivalent amount in notes, and there would be no question of restricting the issue to twenty millions, or fifty millions, or any other amount, Great as is the favour in which notes stand at present it is likely to further increase in the future in pro- portion As the fall in the value of silver diminishes the portability of that form of currency. Twenty years ago an able-bodied man might carry a couple of pounds' worth of currency in his pockets without more than a supportable amount of inconvenience, but the same sum now is ex- cessively burdensome, and when the value of silver has further fallen to a point at which it will be necessary to carry double the pre- sent weight to represent the same value peo- plex ill not want to carry it at all if they can possibly help it. A remedy for the incon- venience might be found in the adoption of the gold standard, but the colony does not appear to be prepared to take that step as yet. The next best thing will be to have a Government note issue, unrestricted as to
amount.
THE RE-ENACIMENT OF THE CON. TAGIOUS DISEASES ORDINANCE,
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
"of what are known as the Contagious "Diseases Ordinances in that year produced a steady decrease in the number of cases "and virulence of the disease till the position was reversed, and the colony became noted throughout the Services as one of the healthiest in this respect in "the Empire." The ratio of admissions to hospital in the garrison, which had sunk to 15.6 per 1,000 in 1886, rose to 359 in 1896, and actually half the garrison (499.29 per 1,000) were admitted to hospital in the first four months of 1897. The testimony of the uaval reports is no less convincing, the ratio of admissions to hospital per thousand of strength having been 229.4 in 1895.
As to the effect on the Chinese, the Regis- trar-General in his report for 1895 stated that the repeal of Part III. of Ordinance 11 of 1890, which enforced registration of brothels, had resulted, as was anticipated, in a large increase in the uumber of what are termed sly brothels, and that this increase was "naturally very prejudicial to family life among the poorer classes and had been viewed with great dissatisfaction by the "Chinese." In his report for 1896 Mr. LOCKHART again reported that the number of such establishments had "still further "increased, much to the disgust of respect- "able Chinese;" and in his report for last year he writes:- 'I regret to be compelled 'to again call attention to the large number of sly brothels, which will, I fear, con- "tinue to increase until steps are taken to "deal with this evil. The Chinese are most anxious that something should be done to remedy the present state of affairs, which they complain is a great nuisance to re- spectable residents in the colony and acts
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as a deterrent to the increase of Chinese family life in Hongkong." On grounds both of public health and public decency it was most desirable that action should he taken to restore. the state of affairs that existed prior to the repeal, and it is most gratifying that the home Government has at last been prevailed upon to sanction the re-enactment of the Ordinances,
THE MANAGEMENT OF RAILWAYS
IN CHINA.
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China, if made where there is a large pas senger traffic. The Peking-Tientsin rail- way is already yielding such good returns that the line is being doubled, and should prove highly remunerative with such a traffic. The management, however, leaver something to be desired, and the line is, ac cording to a correspondent of one of our Shanghai contemporaries, being victimised by the Chinese "squeeze maker."
He gives an instance of how the Company is defrauded out of its legitimate fares. Three Chinese gentlemen left Tientsin by the early morning train for the capital. The ticket office was not open early enough for all the passengers to secure tickets-probably by design-and the three before mentioned were among the number. They were, how- ever, told that if they paid their fares it would be all right and though still anxious to get tickets they were induced to take places in the cars. At Langtang, the half- way station, a foreign inspector boards the train to go through the cars with the ticket collectors, and at this station the men who had taken the passage money from the three passengers for Peking jumped out and bought tickets there for Peking, which they handed to the travellers, who were thus enabled to present their tickets to the collector, while the obliging (?) individuals who had secured them pocketed the differ ence in the fares between the trip from Tientsin to Peking, and that from Langtang to Peking, a very good morning's work för them. The Railway Company were thus defrauded of one and a-half fares to Peking, and the correspondent says this sort of thing goes on daily. As he rightly remarks:-"It is this old evil-this utter lack of right prin- ciple which runs through the entire social and civil fabric of the Chinese make-up, "that is spoiling the new good that is come "to them, and robbing it in large measure "of the blessings it would otherwise con-
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vey." On lines built by foreign capital, however, and managed by foreign officials, it would be possible to impose some check on the robbery that must inevitably go on wherever Chinese are employed. It is hard enough, even under foreign supervision, to prevent corrupt practices, especially as the Chinese set to work to bribe and corrupt foreign employès, but there is at least a certainty that the railway earnings will in the main be collected. For any foreign capitalists to advance money for the estab lishment of any undertaking on Chinese soil without an absolute guarantee that the construction and subsequent working shall be under foreign supervision would indeed be folly. Fortunately the risks are pretty well known, and there is little chance of foreign capital being invested in China except to be laid out under the eye of the investor.
For railways to prove a financial success in China there is little doubt that they must be placed under foreign management. The temptation to squeeze is so ineradicably ingrained in the Chinese character that it will, for many years to come at any rate, be most unwise to confide any industrial or commercial undertaking to native manage- ment. There are always, in all Chinese business concerns, to use a homely phrase, far more cats than catch mice. Many of these are much underpaid, some get no actual pay at all, and all are keenly on the alert to make money, by any means that offer. As the Chinese are past masters in the art of "squeezing," and devote most of their time to the subject, which is very | vital to them, it is not to be wondered at In the May number of the Contemporary Rë- that corruption sets in on such a scale as to view Mr. DEMETRIUS BOULGER contributes quickly cripple any enterprise, however pro-an interesting paper which he has entitled
The news that it has been decided to sanction the re-cnactment of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance in Hongkong will be received with store satisfaction by both the Foreign and Chinese communities. Some few dissentients there will be, no doubt, but the evil that, has resulted from the repeal of the Acts has been so great and so notorious that no serious opposition can be offered to their re-enactment. The evil has been of a two-fold nature, namely, injury to the public health, and especially to that of the garrison and fleet, and, secondly, the intolerable state of affairs that the uncon- trolled opening of brothels all over the colony has brought about amongst the Chinese commuuity, rendering respectable family life almost impossible. The first of these subjects was very ably dealt with in representations made last year by the China Association to the Colonial Office, in which full statistical information was given of the deplorable effects upon the army and navy.mising. No matter whether it be a factory, In one of his letters the Hon. Secretary, a steamship line, a railway, or a mine, the Mr. R. S. GUNDRY, writes:- The reports cream of the profits is quickly skimmed off "and statistics which the Hongkong Com for the benefit of the management proper. "mittee adduce in support of their case As all the underlings follow the example of *"exhibit in striking contrast the persistent their superiors, and as the local officials iu- "improvement in the sanitary conditions variably put in a claim for a share in the "which followed the enactment of such plunder, it is small wonder that industrial regulations in 1858, and the immediate undertakings owned and managed by Chin- "revulsion and deterioration which ensued | ese, no matter how encouraging their pros- upon their rescissiou. Previous to 1858 pects, invariably tell the same tale of com- Hongkong was proverbial for an ag-parative failure after a brief trial. The gravated form of disease. The enactment railway will, in most instances, pay well in
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MR. DEMETRIUS BOULGER ON THE SALVATION OF CHINA,
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How' China may yet be saved." Mr. BOULGER is of opinion that Great Britain has been diplomatically defeated at Peking, not through want of will or ability on the part of our statesmen and diplomatists, but because the Representative of Russia was less fettered, the Foreign Minister less bound by pledges, less scrupulous of the preservation of peace. The policy to which the British Government stands committed in the Far East, he says, "is based on the "fundamental principle and assumption "that China will continue to exist asS
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