864
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
SHANGHAI AND PENNY POSTAGE. | SETTLEMENT EXTENSION AT
(Daily Press, 3rd May.) Shanghai is still sore because it is not allowed to participate in the benefits of penny postage at the expense of Hongkong. The N. O. Daily News in a paragraph referring to the late delivery of a mail concludes with the exclamation : —“ And we are paying Hongkong six cents a half- ounce between that colony and Shanghai on all our letters inward and outward !"
结篇
"
SHANGHAI.
AN AGREEMENT ARRIVED AT
[SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE" DAILY PRESS."]
Shanghai, 4th May. The extension of the general Settlement has been finally settled.
DEMAND BY SPAIN ON CHINA.
We understand that an endeavour is being made to get up evidence with a view to Spain When people are labouring under the in-demanding a land indemnity from China ou fluence of strong feeling it is perhaps a account of the Viceroy permitting the Ameri- little hard to hold them strictly account- can steamer Abbey to leave Canton with arms able for the expressions they make use known to be for Insurgents and landed at of, but if our contemporary had only Batangas in September last, the vessel being considered for a moment it would have afterwards captured by Admiral Dewey. seen the absurdity of its remark. A letter costs within a minute fraction of ten cents to go home, and therefore to say that Hongkong receives six cents
each
Shanghai letter is contrary to fact. Hong- kong has to manage Shanghai's postal business for nothing, or next to nothing, and the demand that we should not only not make any profit but make a large loss is one of the most audacious we have ever heard of. When penny postage was forced upou us as a Crown Colony it was estimated that the loss to the local revenue would be $30,000 a year.
If we were compelled to despatch not only our own correspondence but also that of all the treaty ports of China at the same rate the loss would probably be more than doubled. If our Shanghai con- temporary wants penny postage why does it not urge the Municipality to vote say $30,000 a year for the service? It will not accomplish any good by accusing Hong- kong of making a squeeze when there is no squeeze in the case. Shanghai is quite as well able as Hongkong to pay for penny postage if it wants it; if it does not like to pay for it, it certainly cannot expect to enjoy the privilege at our expense.
FOREIGN CONTROL OF THE CHINESE ADMINISTRATION.
(Daily Press, 3rd May) It is stated in a Shanghai paper that the Germans intend to appoint a German as Ad- viser to the Shantung Governor, his resi- dence to be in Tsinanfu. This seems to be a move in the right direction and one that might with advantage be followed by the British in Kwangtung. Some time ago a correspondent suggested in our columns that British Residents should be appointed to the various districts of the neighbouring province, and the recent occurrences in connection with the taking over 01 the New Territory point to the desirability of some form of control over the native administration being established either in the form of an Adviser to the Viceroy, or in the form suggested by our correspondent A demand for the appointment of British officers to assist in the administration of Kwangtung would, we think, be a better form of reparation to ask for in satisfaction of the recent treachery than further ter- ritorial demands.
The Shanghai tailor who is accused of set- ting his shop on fire has been brought before the Mixed Court Magistrate, who, finding the ease proved, said :-"You cheating devil! you can't cheat me!" and thereupon declared the prisoner guilty. In summing up he stated that he wanted to be just in his dealing with so serious a charge and therefore reserved his judg- ment that he might consult with the Taotsi. The accused was subsequently sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.
SUPREME COURT,
1st May.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR W. M. GOODMAN (ACTING CHIEF Justice).
TBUI CHAN SHI v. CHEUNG KAM TIN,
Mr. E. Robinson (instructed by Messrs. Mounsey and Bratton) apapeared for the plain. tiff; Mr. M. W. Slade (instructed by Messrs Deacon and Hastings) represented the defen
dant.
His Lordship delivered the following judg
ment in this suit:-
This is a suit brought by a woman named Tani Chan Shi, against the defendant Cheung Kam Tin, to recover, with interest, a sum of $800 lent by the plaintiff on the 7th January, 1895, to the defendant's wife (one Cheung Chin Shi,) at a time when she was living separate from her husband. The bearing lasted three days.
The plaintiff alleges that the money was lent for the purpose of paying for necessaries suit- able for the wife's degree, estate, and condition, that it was so applied by the wife, and that she was at the time deserted by her husband and left without adequate means of support.
It appears that, immediately after the 29th of January, 1892, the defendant left his wif who was his Kit Fat, and, from that time, has. preferred to live with his two concubines and his children by them. The unfortunate quarrel between this husband and wife which led to their separation after many years of married life together has been the subject of consider- able discussion in various suits brought, from time to time, against the husband, which have occupied the time and attention of the Courts on previous occasions. I am glad to say that, in the present case, it is unnecessary to discuss the respective merits of the positions formerly taken up on each side as regards these domestic disputes, because, at the trial, it was admitted by the defendant's counsel that, for the purposes of this suit, the wife's position was to be deemed that of a woman deserted by her husband without sufficient Having regard to the views expressed by the Court on previous occasions, I think the husband's counsel was quite right in making that admission; he, however, contended that bis client had supplied his deserted wife with adequate means of support and be denied the loan and its expenditure in necessaries.
cause.
As regards the facts of the case I find that the plaintiff has proved the lending of the money and its application to "pecessaries," which, in a case of this sort, may be taken to mean "such things as may fairly be considered essential to the decent maintenance and reasonable comfort of a person in the social position of the defend- ant's wife." The wife's father was a respectable compradore and the defendant is, and has been for many years. compradore to Messrs. Meyer and Company, and be owns property in land aud houses in this Colony to the value of $172,900 according to his own valuation. It is true that he has liabilities under the head of mortgages and loans which he calculates at $120,000, but he admitted having made last year 85,864 by his commissions and profits in his business trans-
[May 6, 1899
actions, apart altogether from his landed property. It is clear, therefore, that, taking his own estimate of his financial position, he is s' man of considerable means and well able to make adequate provision for his wife. Daring make his wife any allowance for her support the first two years of the separation he did not
found himself sued, and then, in February, until, as might have been expected," he
1894, he made payments to or on behalf of his wife amounting to $720. which would be equal to $30 a month for the two years; he also had to pay a further sum of 830 odd in respect he had also been paying the rent of the house of another suit against him. It is true that
in which she was residing during these two years, which amounted to $15 a month, but it is obvious that it would bare been much wiser on
his part if he had made his wife a suitable and regularly paid allowance from the beginning of the separation : she could not live upon nothing and once she began to obtain food and goods supplied on credit and bad to borrow money to pay for necessaries, litigation was certain to ensue. From February, 1894 to the date of the loan (7th January, 1895) the defendant seems to have made an allowance at the rate of $40 a month, although the money for the last seven months of that period was not paid till January 10th, three days after the loan, when $280 in one sum was paid for the seven months, arrears. This the defendant accounts for by saying he had heard that his wife was absent from the Colony. She, however, does not admit that she was ab- sent all that time. It is unnecessary in this judgment to set out precisely the exact suns paid by the defenddat from time to time either pressure of litigation, on her behalf. He alleges to his wife directly or indirectly, and under that, including rent, they amounted to some $15 and that they averaged roughly $50 a month from a month on an average for the first two years, February, 1894, to April 1898. The writ in this suit is dated the 3rd May, 1898. It also appeared in the course of the case that in 1892 the wife benefited to the extent of $170 through the marriage of one of her servant girls.
But taking all the circumstances of the case
into consideration. I am of opinion that the husband did not make adequate provision for the wife, though I am far from saying be ought to allow her anything like the somewhat ori travagant sum she mentioned to the Court as essential and requisite for her reasonable main- tenance and comfort.
Having dealt with the facts of this suit it' remains to consider the law applicable to it. The common of law of England recognized the right of a deserted wife left without adequate maintenance ó pledge her busbaud's credit for necessaries supplied to her, and the person sup. plying such necessaries could sue the husband. But here the Common Law Courts drew the line. If anyone lept the wife money to pay for or procure necessaries, the lender could not recover from the husband. The Courts of Equity, however, took a broader and juster view of the position and afforded the remedy which
the special forms of action and the greater technicality of the common law pleading re.. fused. Equity was not satisfied with the technical defence that there was no "privity of contract "between the husband and the lender of money to his destitute and deserted wife. The case of Knox v Bushell, 3 Common Bench Reports, (New Series) p. 334, is an example of the Common Law Court's method of dealing with the matter, while Deare v Soutter, Law Reports, 9 Equity Cases. p. 151, is an instance where the equitable view prevailed and an adequate remedy was afforded to the lender. The history of the law upon this sub- ject will be found in the judgment which Lord Campbell delivered, as Lord Chancellor, in Jenner v. Morris, 30 Law Journal, Chancery, p. 361.
In this colony, this Court has jurisdiction to give effect to the equitable rights of the lender, and I accordingly give judgment for the plain- tiff with costs for 8800, the amount of the” losa- together with interest at the rate of $8 per cent. per annum from the date of the loan. I do not consider that, in the circumstances of this case, the husband should he saddled with interest at a greater rate, although the wife may have stipulated to pay it. In calculating the amount of interest to be paid by the`
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