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to enter more intimately amid the comity of nations.
There exists a dim perception of the fact that the Republic has entered upon an unknown path. However dark this may be, the American has hardihood and self-possession enough to ad- vance with sturdy step. The 19th century is not yet ended. Strange things may pass before we date out letters A.D. 1900.
R. VAN BERGÉN.
THE DISTURBANCE IN KWANGSI.
THE REBELS RETIRING.
I
[July 16, 1988,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
taking the city, as the Magistrate effected his "Where washing only was required in houses escape without making any resistance. The the inmates usually carried out the work of rebels then divided themselves into several their own accord, which fact will explain the parties to make attacks on the neighbouring || small amount of weebing only that was dene districts. The city of Paklan was also captured by the Government. Although an opportunity by the rebels, and the Magistrate, a native of was afforded to the tenants to do the lime-wogh- Canton, taken prisoner. When the rebels were ing required very few availed themselves of it on the point of putting the Magistrate to death, on account of the expense. a wealthy Sansz came forward with a good "The obstructions removed consisted of bunks, number of men and fought bravely with the cock lofts, cubicles, doors, josses, and latrines, rebels, who at last declared themselves willing|which had been erected in such a way as to de- to haud the Magistrate over to the Sansz. A||prive the rooms of light and air. A great im. concubine of the Magistrate was found by the provement has been effected in most houses by rebels in the yamen and was killed. The rebels these removals, as the removal of a single ob have now been driven westward by the soldiers, struction has in many cases converted a dark, but are still taking possession of some places. ill-ventilated room into a healthy and cheerful Over one thousand multilated bodies of rebels habitation. However, experience has shown that bare been picked up by the charitable institu- these obstructions are put up again as soon as tion Kwong-yan-sin-tong of Wnchow floating vigilance is relaxed, so it is earnestly hoped that down the river.
special attention will be directed so that such structures may be at once demolished if re- erected.
Letters have been received from Wuchow, we learn from the Chung Ngoi San Po, stating that the rebellion in Kwangsi had its origin in the purchase by Canton merchants of rice from the various districts of Kwangsi to be shipped to Canton. On the 2nd inst. some vagabonds, trying to stir up the people to raise a riot, told the villagers not to allow rice to be exported, saying that if any large export took place there would not be sufficient grain left to supply the local demand. The vagabonds and the villagers, who fell into their trap, then com- menced to make an attack on the Canton merchants and seized all the rice they had already bought. The merchants at once made good their escape into the city of Yunghsien, where nearly all the big shops are owned by Cantonese. The vagabonds, who tried to seize this opportunity to raise a rebellion, began to burn the houses belonging to Cantonese in Yunghsien and to put the Canton people to the sword to the last man. The Magistrate, bear- ing of what was taking place went with some lakongs to restore order and was killed. The rebels then planted the rebel standard in the yamen of the magistrate, whose wife and son were also killed. Every possible means was used by the rebels to induce the people to come to their side, and their number was accord ingly enlarged to over six thousand. An
THE 81100TING OF THE COMPRADORE OF
*
TUE DOSHING."
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The
[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]
Wuchow, 9th July. The rebellion is in full swing. Tuugyuan and Paklau are reported to be sacked. Soldiers hare arrived from Canton and Kweilin. absolute incapacity of the officials to deal with this matter is only equalled by the senseless state of "funk (no other word describes it) of the inhabitants of Wnchow, who are leaving the place in large numbers.
The situation was farther complicated by the action of the captain of the steamer Dushing a vessel really Chinese owned but flying the American flag and chartered to take Chinese soldiers up to Tungyuan. She left on the evening of the 7th, and some disturbance pradore of this vessel dead, and Mr. Woods, the arising on board, the captain shot the com-
vessel's local agent, who attempted to interfere. received a bullet through his hand. The vessel returned to Wnchow and the captain goes under
arrest to Canton to-day, 9th inst.
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
A meeting of the Hongkong Sanitary Board was held on the 14th, July when there were present the President (Dr. J. M. Atkinson. Principal Civil Medical Officer), who occupied the chair, the Vice-President (the Hon. F. H. May, Captain Superintendent of Police), the Director of Iublic Works (the Hou. R. D. Orinsby), the Acting Registrar-General (Mr. E W. Brewin), and the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Clark), the last named being Acting Secretary.
MINUTES.
On the motion of the PRESIDENT, seconded by the ACTING REGISTRAR-GENERAL, the minutes of the previous meeting were adopted as a correct record.
attack was made on the following day on the city of Lakchuen-hsien, the magistrate of which dared not make any resistance and effected his escape. The rebels, thinking that they had sufficient force to conquer the whole province, divided themselves into several parties, surrounding the cities of Pokpak, Wat- lam, and Paklau, the magistrates of which or- dered all the city gates to be closed and made a stout defence. The districts of Chongng, Wai- chap, and Sumkai also made every preparation for their defence in case they should be attacked. All the telegraph wires were cut by the rebels, who also took possession of all the barriers. On the 3rd instant the Governor of Kwangsi sent some military officers and a large number of soldiers to suppress the rising. The rebels, who were very poorly armed, many of them Laving only long bamboos as weapons, fought bravely, but they were forced to retire after about one bundred and forty of them had been fatally shot. They have now abandoned the cities of Yung-REGULATIONS FOR THE SALE OF POISONS. haien and Lukchuen and turned their way west- Draft bye-laws for regulating the sale of ward. The Canton soldiers arrived at Sam- poisons, to be made under sub-section 22 of kiang on the 6th instant; but it is very prob-section 13 of Ordinance 24 of 1887, were sub. able that their assistance will not be wanted, as it is reported that the rebels are gradually dis- persing. The Viceroy Tan has, however, given instructions to Admiral Ho Chang-ching to get all the gunboats ready in Canton and to enroll more soldiers to be prepared for any emergency. In a later issue of the Chung Ngoi San Po we read that letters have been received from the district of Waichup, in Kwangsi, saying that the rebels mostly belong to the clans of Chu and Li, in Yung-hsien. The magistrate of that place, hearing of the disturbance, arrested eight of them and put them into prison. This action kindled the anger of the rebels, who at once marched into the city, set fire to the houses, and killed all the Cantonese whom they found on the way. They broke into the yameu of the Magistrate and released all the prisoners in the prison. The report that the Magistrate to- gether with his wife and son had been killed is untrue; they escaped long before the arrival of the rebels and hid themselves in the house of a Sansz. After the city of Yunghsien had been captured, the rebels turned their steps to Lukchuen-hsien, where they were joined by the rebels of the clans of Chan and Iu, so that their force was greatly increased. They had no difficulty in
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mitted and considered, and on the motion of the PRESIDENT. seconded by the DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, it was decided to refer Bye-laws 4 and 5 back to the Attorney- General.
THE DISINFECTION AND CLEANSING OF
ROUSES IN BRITISH KOWLOON
Mr. Frank Browne, Acting Government Analyst, reported as follows on the disinfection and cleansing of houses in British Kowloon, the report being dated June 22nd:-
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Cleansing in No. 11 district was commenced on April 20th last and completed on May 23rd last. The houses here are for the most part very good and substantial, but in the event of another epidemic attention should be particu- larly directed to Shung On laue and Dock lane, in which the houses are inferior, several cases of plague having been traced from Shung On lane. Ou May 7th the whole of Hunghom was disinfected with a mixture of salt, man.... ganese dioxide, and sulphuric acid. It was con- sidered advisable to disinfect the whole of the place, as a number of bodies had been the hill-side, and it was impossi- ble to find out which houses were infected and which were not, so the safest plan was
"I have the honour to report for the informa. tion of the Board that the cleansing work in British Kowloon for which I was a, pointed in April last by H.E. the Acting Governor on the recommendation of the Board is now concluded. “A great deal of cleansing was done, parti- cularly in Yaumati. The following table shows the extent of the cleaning carried out at the expense of the Government-No. 11 district (Hunghom and villages): floors washed only 29, cleansed and limewashed (floors) 204, obstruc tions removed 88, coolies employed (exclusive of limewashers, who were paid by piece-work) one day each 496. No. 12 district (Yanmati. || eto.): Floors washed only 36, cleansed and limewashed (floors) 528, obstructions removed 82, coolies employed one day each 875.
found on
adopted of disinfecting them all. No case of
though several bodies were afterwards found on plague could be found to have occurred in the houses of Huughom after the disinfection, al-
the hill-side, but the number of these bodies being only 11 from May 7th to June 13th a
further disinfection on a wholesale scale was not considered necessary.
"In No. 12 district cleansing operations were commenced on April 20th and the work was completed on June 2nd last. A number of cases of plague having occurred at Tai-kok- tsui a visit was paid to this villa e on April 24th, when it was seen that a large proportion of inhabitants were living in insanitary dwellings-buts, boats, and hovels. On April 26th the whole of the district was disinfected with salt, manganese dioxide, and sulphuric acid. The people in the huts, boats, and hovels were for the most part trespassers on Crown laud; they were not agriculturists, but ap.. parently merely loafers of no use to the colony. In an industrial centre like Tai-kok-tsui such dirty and insanitary hovels are particularly ob. jectionable. Fortunately now many of them have been destroyed. Since the disinfection on April 26th no further cases of plague have occurred in the houses at Tai-kok-tsui, but several cases have been found in the hovels and on the fore- shore. The majority of the houses in Tai- kok-tsui are well constructed, and with the horels removed there should be little fear of plague another year,
"It was early seen in Yaumati from the number of deserted floors that a number of bodies bad been carried out from the bouses and placed in the street or in other open places. The whole place was therefore dis infected as in Tai-kok-tsui on May 7th, and the number of dead bodies found in the street
subsequent to this disinfection being consider- able chloride of lime was placed on every floor in Yaumati on May 17th.
"It was not at all surprising to find so many dirty houses in Yaumati, considering that with the present arrangement of the kitchens it is absolutely impossible to prevent smoke from penetrating the living rooms, There are bat few houses in Yaumati that have proper arrangements for carrying away smoke. In many houses the smoke is continually present in such quantities as to be extremely irritating to the eyes and nostrils of a European. Can people living in snob houses be ex pected to keep either their houses or them. selves clean?. But, worst of all, in order to keep the smoke out of the living room, the inmates block up the window between the kitchen and the living room, so that a through
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