October 22, 1898.J
DISAPPEARANCE OF A FOREIGN MERCHANT FROM KOBE.
Kobe, 5th October..
All sorts of rumours have been going round the town to-day with reference to a firm which has taken a very prominent position for some time past in the export trade of the port Un- fortunately the enquiries we have made show, there is some foundation for these rumours The resident partner of the firm, Mr. James Flood, is believed to have left the country by the O. & O. steamer Doric last week. None of his business connections seem to have been advised of his intended departure, and much consternation was evinced at his somewhat sudden disappearance. Late on- Monday it became known to a few interested parties that he was not to be found here, and the excitement among those with whom the firm had commercial transactions grew in in- tensity till to-day when the business premises have been, in a sense, besieged by Japanese oreditors. Needless to say we do not deem it fair to give currency to the wild charges some of these creditors are formulating. This much however seems clear. Mr. Flood has gone, and the firm's premises (the godowns at least) are in the possession of their bankers. It is a fact worthy of remark that the ship Englehorn, which the firm has had on the berth loading for New York for some weeks past, only left the port to-day.
At the time of writing it is impossible to say what, if any, loss the Japanese merchants who have had dealings with the firm have sustained. As to the liabilities of the firm to the Chartered Bank we understand that the advances are mainly, if not entirely, secured by produce and
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. HUANG CHUN-HSIEN'S KELKANE.
As will be remembered H.E. Hnang Chun. hsien almost immediately after resigning his post of Minister to the Court of Tokyo was arrested on Sunday, the 9th instant, while staying at the Taotai's Bureau of Foreign Affairs, on the Bubbling Well Road, by a secret order of the Empress Dowager and confined until Tuesday, 11th, in that place, on the alleged charge of having hidden Kang Yu- wei.during the latter's escape from the Empress Dowager'a myrmidons. For reasons not yet known this order was rescinded on Tuesday night, and it must have been most amusing to the ex State prisoner,barring the serious danger he had just escaped to find lying on his bed- room table, the next morning, a huge sheet of red paper containing an invitation "respect- fully praying for the pleasure and honour of H.E. Huang's company to a special banquet" in the grand dining-hall of his prison. to be prepared in the evening of that day (Wednes day) by his quondam gaolers, Taotai Tsai and city magistrate Huang! The reason for this "special banquet" was "the friendly desire to ya-ching," or in plain English to "subdue the fear" that was supposed to fill H.E.'s breast after the exciting danger of the past few days. The ex-Minister, of course, could not with pro- priety refuse this hospitality of his solicitous hosts.-N. C. Daily News.
CANTON NOTES.
[FROM THE
CHUNG NGOI BAN PO”
to the Canton Government for soldiers to
The Magistrate of Sunon district has applied
sup-
HONGKONG.
293
H.M.8. Bonaventure left for Manila on Satur
day.
Mr. D. Gillies returned from Manila by the Esmeralda.
The storeship Humber left on 19th Oct, for Weihaiwei.
The prospectus of the Shanghai Fire Insur, ance Co., Limited, is advertised;
The only cases of communicable disease notified as oconrring in the dolony last week were two of enteric fever.
H.M.S. Barfleur, which now carries the fing of Admiral Fitzgerald, went out for steam trials on 16th October and returned on the 19th.
There were 2,406 visitors to the City HNI Museum last week, of whom 168 were Europeaus. General Jandenes with his family arrived from Manila by the Esmeralda and leav for Europe by the French mail.
The Raub Australian Gold Mining Co., Limited, advertise a dividend of one shilling per share, payable on the 12th December.
For being in unlawful possession of ten bags of flour a Chinaman was on Saturday fined £10, or three months. P.C. 431 proved the case. ie
\The death rate last month was, for the British and Foreign community, civil popula, tion, 23.3, and for the Chinese community 174.
A shop coolie was on Saturday fined $50, or two months, by Commander Hastings for board- ing the Tai Lee without the permission of the master.
The Imperial Bank of China announces that it has opened a branch in Hongkong, the tem porary offices being at No. 4, Queen's Rosd
Central.
For cruelly illtreating poultry by carrying
merchandise stored in the warehouses of which press the bad, characters that have gathered to them in a basket in such a manner as to cause
the Bank holds the keys.-Kobe Herald,
gether in large numbers to commit robberies, demand money by menaces, and raise a rebellion, The Viceroy, fearing that the case might be getting worse, at once sent five hundred soldiers. thither. Admiral Ho Chang-Ching has con- sulted with the Viceroy as to sending more soldiers under the command of General Liu Yung-fu and Colonel Cheng Yan-tsoi, for he is of opinion that the situation has become alarming.
needless pain and suffering a Chinese hawker was yesterday fined $10 at the Magistracy.
At the Magistracy on 19th Oct. Fung Yin, contractor, 43, New East Street, was fined $75 for neglecting to enclose a building at 284, Queen's Road, while engaged in taking off the roof.
Kobe, 6th October. There has been considerable excitement dur ing the last day or two respecting the sudden disappearance of Mr. Flood, resident partner of the firm of Flood & Co., from Kobe a fact which is evidently distressing to the Japanese oreditors of the firm. Mr. Flood left Kobe last
In view of the Imperial decree ordering the week, without previously notifying apparently
suppression of all Chinese newspapers and the any of the employés of the firm, which, we may The uncle and other relatives of Kang Yu-arrest and punishment of their editors all the say, has generally been regarded as among the wei who were arrested and imprisoned in Can- vernacular dailies at Canton are now published most prosperons in Kobe. On inquiry beington have been released, and the ancestral tem-nominally by foreigners. made of Mrs. Flood, she stated that her ple of his clan, which was sealed up by order of husband had gone to Yokohama. Telegrams the Viceroy, has also been allowed to be reopened. of inquiry in regard to important business matters elicited no reply, and it is not known whether they reached Mr. Flood, who was subsequently stated by his wife to have gone to America by the Doric. Mr. Flood's name, we may say, does not appear in the steamer's list of passengers from Yokohama. The name of Mrs. James Flood appears in the list of passengers by the Empress of Japan (embarking at Yokohama) and we understand that she left Kobe by an early train this morn- ing.
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Among the claims against the firm mentioned in the vernacular press is one by Mr. Ikeda, of Kobe for about 10,000 yen for camphor; one by & Matting Company of Okayama for 15,000 yen, another company is stated to have a claim for 12,000 yen for general merchandise and there are stated to be many smaller claims. The vernacular papers give the total amount as being in the neighbourhood of 100,000 yen, but it is obvious that the amount cannot be ascer tained until the books are examined.
It is mentioned that the Chartered Bank has advanced money to the firm upon goods stored in the godowns, but it appears that some legal question has arisen as to the Bank's position in
this matter inasmuch as the godowns are situated outside the mixed residence area and are in the names of Japanese subjects. Hiogo News.
The Kobe Chronicle says:It is stated that the liabilities of Messrs. Flood & Co. reach some yen 400,000, and that some yen 120,000 is due to the Chartered Bank. We understand that the Chartered Bank is in the main covered by holding a lien on the goods in godown. . The Japanese creditors are taking steps to ascertain their legal standing in the matter. It is now rumoured that Mr. James Flood did not leave by the Doric as stated, but on the British barque Englehorn, which was loaded by the firm, and left for New York direct on the 5th inst.
A gang of robbers, sent a letter on the 4th inst. to the village of Loongtongiu, Chingun district, demanding two thousand taels under threat that if the demand was not complied with they would burn all the houses in the vil lage. The village, which was well fortified, did not take any notice of it, On the 11th inst, the band of robbers, numbering about one hundred, made an attack on the village. The lukongs on duty at once gave the alarm and the villagers came out to offer resistance. The robbers, being out-numbered, were compelled to retreat, leaving behind twenty-two of their number fatally shot and one captured alive.
One thousand two hundred and fifty Onyung soldiers have been disbanded in accordance with the Imperial decree. The Kaifong people, knowing that the Onyung soldiers are the only disciplined troops available for the protection of the place, have applied to the Viceroy to be allowed to retain five hundred of them at the expense of the shops. The permission has been granted.
rebels are now taking refuge in the fastnesses A large number of the remaining Kwangsi of the mountain of Ngmashan, where a good many gunsmiths and blacksmiths are engaged in making arms. They intend to raise another
rebellion.
It is said that the Viceroy has received in- establish the official posts which were previously structions from the Peking Government to re- ordered by an Imperial edict to be abolished.
The Italian cruiser Marco Polo has sent a large landing-party up to Peking, and the French cruiser Descartes and U.S. cruiser Bos- ton will probably both send up guards to their respective Legations. The Legations of the countries which have no naval force in these waters will, no doubt, be looked after by their more powerful neighbours.-N. C. Daily News,
H. M. Sadich, of 27, Gage Street, was fined $60 for having failed to comply with an order of the Sanitary Board requiring him to complete certain drainage works within a specified period, and Ah Ping, of 37, Gage Street, was fined $50 for a similar offence.
At the Magistracy on 17th Oot. a Chinaman charged another with having stolen a gold watch belonging to him. He told a long storsa but the police had in the meantime made en- quiries, as the result of which defendant was discharged and complainant fined $25 for lying.
At the Magistracy yesterday the master of a junk was fined $25 for attempting to leave the waters of the colony without a clearance permit, and two boatmen were fined respectively $15 and $25 for neglecting to exhibit lights on their boats between sunset and sunrise on the 16th inst...
A seaman named William Gilvie, he came from New Zealand, was charge Magistrany on 17th October with grandy. He was found on the cricket ground on Bayur- day morning. He had previously been in the house of detention, but had had no chance of sent back to the house of detention. getting work. He was declared a vagrant and
At the Supreme Court on Saturday, befor Sir John Carrington (Chief Justice), Mr. Per- cival Paul Chater Manuk was approved, admit-
ted, and enrolled as a barrister of the Chief Justice wishing him success in the
by Messrs. Deacon and Hastings) made tice of his profession. Mr. Pollock (instructed
plication. The affidavit of Mr. Manuk the effect that he was admitted to the Honours able Society of the Middle Temple on 16th November, 1891, and called to the bar of same Society on 19th November 1894. For past four years he had resided in Burmah, And had practised in the High Court of and Burmah. An affidavit was also filed by Hon. C. P. Chater, uno
unole of Mr. Mannk. new barrister was educated at Wren's and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
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