August 6, 1898.7
leaving 10 feet of a well and opening ont No. 4 Level at 350 feet. I then propose to drive all of these levels at once so as to facilitate the work. The shaft is drained by an 8 in. draw-lift down to 250 feet and a 6-inch draw lift to the bottom. A steam winding plant hauls the dirt from the shaft. The sinking has been through hard black slate, diorite and quartz. Now comes the most pleasing part of my work. On Saturday last the European in charge of the work, Mr. Rowe, sent in to the office two boxes containing a quantity of quartz in which nice gold could be seen, this being the first gold got in the shaft. He afterwards sent in several more lots, and yester- day he brought in two kerosine tins full of the finest specimens I have seen at Raub, a sample | of which I send to the Directors. This I con- sider to be one of the most important discoveries yet made on Raub and is, I believe, the deepest gold yet found on the Malay Peninsula, and is of great mining importance to the State, as showing that payable gold is to be found in depth.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
HANKOW.
123
on the ball from a good backhander by Mr. | THE RAILWAY FROM PEKING TO Whitehead, made a good run, being only stopped by Capt. Burney, that some life was infused into the game. Capt. Simmonds replied by a very pretty run, which took the ball back to the Civilians' twenty-five. Then by dint of a 1 t of good play Mr. Hastings worked the ball back again and scored a subsidiary. Captain Sim. monds almost immediately replied with a sub. sidiary for the R.A., and shortly afterwards, Mr. Whitehead being well ridden off by Capt. Thwaites, the same player scored a goal. Ends were changed and it was not long before Mr. Has tings got possession and, carrying the ball down the side line, sent it right in front of goal by a beautiful cut and out of the melée that ensued scored a goal with a fine backhander.
On change of ends Mr. Hastings was again at work and being well assisted by the No. 1 (Mr Cox) carried the ball right up to the R.A. goal, leaving Mr. Gresson an easy shot, which unfor- tunately went wide. The R.A. replied and a nice piece of combined play on the part of the forwards and Capt. Simmonds carried the ball back again, Capt. Simmonds scoring a sub.
It is hardly a year since this work was started and it has been principally carried out bysidiary. Chinese and Malay coolies-most of whom had never been down a shaft before-under the supervision of one European miner and the engineer. This will bear favourable com- parison with similar work in any part of the world.
I intend fitting this shaft altogether with electric machinery for pumping, hauling and lighting purposes.
Battery. The usual clean up for May and June took place on Monday last and resulted in a yield of 2,140 ozs. 14 dwts. O grs. of smelted gold from 2,287 tons of quartz, Four days were lost in all during the period, owing to repairs and breakages, the fact being that the machinery badly wants a thorough overhauling but we cannot spare the time to do it.
Crushing was resumed again the same night at 9 p.m. and has continued steadily since. Our water supply is getting very low and unless we get rain within the next forty-eight hours the mill will have to stop. The whole of the stuff crushed, with the exception of 42 tons from the new chute in the 220 feet Level Raub Holes came from Bukit Koman.
Electric Installation.-Steady progress is be- ing made with this work. There is still a lot of blasting to be done on the flume- line and power station, the rock in both places being extremely hard. I have let a con- tract to drive a short tunnel on the flume trace £60 feet long, 30 carpenters and 2 black smiths have been put to work on the flume, and work has been started to put in the dam to turn the water into the flume. This I consider to be the most difficult job of the whole work. as the gorge in which it is to be built is rock bound, and the dam will have to stand the full force of floods sweeping over it. Owing to the rapid fall in the river these floods come down with very great force, often sweeping logs, trees and rock before them. These will have to go right over the top of the dam.
The cable track between the power station and the mines has the timber felled on it for about half the distance. This is rather a big job as on some of the steep hill-sides a very great width has to be cleared owing to the country over which the cable is to be carried being so rugged and precipitous. The greatest trouble we shall have will be fixing the posts on the side of these precipitous ranges.
WM. BIBBY, Mine Manager.
POLO.
|
The second quarterly tournament for the Challenge Cup presented by the Hon. F. H. May has been somewhat delayed this year owing to the inclemency of the weather. The first tie was played off on 27th July, when the Royal Artillery met the Civilians. The R. A. were represented by Captain Thwaites (No. 1), Mr. Hudson (No. 2), Capt. Simmonds (No. 3), and Captain Burney (Capt.) back; while Mr. Cox (No. 1), Mr. J. Hastings (No. 2). Mr. Gresson (No. 3), and the Hon. T. H. Whitehead (back) did daty for the Civilians. Mr. May was unable to play for the Civilians through in- disposition.
For the first few minutes the play was very tsicky and it was not till Mr. Hastings, taking
WATER POLO LEAGUE.
The following is the official table of results to the 31st July.
Matches-
Goalsrs, Played. Won. Drawn Lost. for, agst. Pts.
"
V.R.C. No. 1
No. 2 King's Own No. 1. No. 2
ទ
0
ก 26
I .....6
3
2
୯
14 12.....t
2
ย
0
7
3 10......0
2
0
0
2
1 21......0
MACAC AND THE WEST RIVER
TRADE.
THE CONTRACT WITH THE BELGIANS. We (China Gazette) lay before our readers the contract made between Sheng Taotai and the Russo-Chinese Bank, nominally through the Belgian Syndicate, for the construction of - the Lu-Han Railway, which is a very different enterprise from the original project, the con- tract for which was published in these columns on July 16th last year. We give the context from M. Hubert's French text, also an English translation, from which it will be seen that the Belgians have practic. ally transferred their contract to the Russian Government, all the money being Russian, the Russo-Chinese Bank openly holding 78,000 out of the 225,000 shares, while it practically owns the remaining 125,000 shares. The Belgians, in short, only find the personnel and materiel for the construction of the line, the Russo- Chinese Bank is the real owner of the Railway and will work and control it. It is a most transparent arrangement from beginning to end, and is a splendid monument to the audacity and courage of Russia's endeavours to seize the heart of China and to challenge Great Britain for the Yangtze Valley, FINAL CONTRACT ENTERED INTO AS A RE-
BULT OF CONTRACTS RELATIVE TO A
LOAN CONTRACTED IN BELGIUM.
-The Tsuugli Yamen must officially notify the Belgian Minister in Peking of the Imperial Decree received by their Excellencies the Vice- roys of Pechili and of Hn.Kwang the 14th day of the 9th month of the 22nd year of Kwang-Hsu (20th October, 1896), authorising the contracting of a foreign loan for the con-
(near Peking) to Hankow.
We translate the following from the Echo | struction of a railway from Lon-kou-chiao Macaense :-
We hear that the Chinese merchants have obtained from the Department of Reorganisa- tion at Canton permission for steam-launches to tow junks from Macao to the neighbouring ports, as has already been permitted in the case of the Sekki junk, but the launches must not carry cargo and consequently will not be sub- ject to the regulations relative to steam naviga
tion.
2. The Imperial Chinese Government places the general direction of this enterprise in the hands of H. E. Sheng-ta-yen.
3. The Director-General of Railways Sheng- ta yen and M. Hubert, the representative of the Belgian yndicate, undertake the construc- tion of the said railway, after an understanding has been come to regarding the present definite contract under the conditions following:
The General Company having already a capital of 13,000,000 taels, H.M. the Emperor authorises the Viceroys of Pacbili and cf Hu- Kwang that the Director-General Sheng-ta-yen having contracted & European loan for the purpose of completing its construction.
It is, nevertheless, an important conces- sion, because junks will be able to make their Art. 1-A copy of the Imperial Decree of voyages with greater regularity and rapidity.
the 20th October, 1896, to be attached to the In the meantime we hear the H.E. the Gov-present contract. The decree authorises the ernor of Macao has obtained from the Inspector-General Railway Company to undertake the General of the Imperial Chinese Customs, Sir construction of the Lu-Han line which covers a Robert Hurt, a promise that steam-launches may distance of about 1,300 kilometres. go direct from Macao to any port on the West River without having to present their manifests of cargo at the Custom-house at a treaty port, as is now required. There can be no reason for refusing this concession when once the duties due to the Imperial revenue are secured, the Customs charges being levied at the Lappa Customs. We hope that an arrangement will be made as soon as possible for a modus vivendi between the Macao Government and the Im- perial Chinese Customs which will permit of free steam navigation between Macao and the West River ports this side of Samshui.
CORRESPONDENCE
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
"
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS,
Dear Sir,-In your issue of the 7th ultimo there appears a telegram copied from the Times of Ceylon and Rangoon Gazette describing the reception of the Spanish prisoners after the recent sea fight off Santiago, and publishing also a statement alleged to have been made by Admiral Cervera regarding the guns which his flagship Cristobal Colon lacked and which were doubtless resting in the pockets of the. Spanish Superintendent of Ordnance.
This statement is nothing short of falsity, brought about by those people who have an ill-will against the Spanish nation and are ignorant of the well recognized honesty of the Spanish officials, in whose names I lay here a protest. I can, moreover, affirm that Admiral Cervera is not a man capable of making such a statement as the above.-Yours faithfully,
FRAN. LAŽA,
Hongkong, 3rd August, 1898.
Herewith the resumé of the Imperial Decree. "Upon the proposition of the Viceroys of Pechili and of Hu-Kwang a General Company has been formed to construct a railway be- tween Lou-koo-chiao and Hankow and a loan has been contracted in Europe by this com- pany for the purpose of completing the enter prise.
"The expectant official of the fourth class Sheng Chuang-Houai is nominated the 'head of this company under the title of Superintendent of Railways."
As a result the Viceroy of Pechili and of Hu Kwang. with Sheng-ta-yen, in conformity with the Imperial Decree, decided to negotiate a foreign loan with interest at 5 per cent. This loan of 111,500,000 francs, corresponding to £4,500,000, as stipulated in the preceding contract signed at Wuobang will take the name of "The 5 per cent Chinese Railways Loan of 1898."
Art. 2.-This loan is to be divided into 225,000 parts or scrip of 500 francs each."
The text of the scrip is to be annexed to the present contract.
These scrip are to be stamped with the seal of the Viceroys of Pechili and of Hu-Kwang as also that of the Superintendent of Railways.
Each scrip contains one to five in numbers. The numbers of the scrip will be advised at a convenient time by the Belgian Syndicate through the bank which undertakes the issue.
The cost of printing the scrip is to be paid by the Belgian Syndicate.
The interest of 5 per cent. per annum wil
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