May 20, 1899)
paper with a sense of its duties, where daty is owed the China Gazette is neither to be
Jolled nor threatened into silence where to be quite well. He at once asked her how she contradiction, and it is to be noted that Mr.
silence, with the knowledge we have obtained of this very clever move, would be scarcely consistent with our duty. The question whe ther there is gold or not at Weibaiwei does not concern us; we have no interest in it what Boever. The Chinese have carried on petty washing operations between Kozanko and Lo- toko and Weihai for centuries. But whether it exists in paying quantities for European methods of working is another matter, an experiment which we have not the slightest wish to try to share in. There may or there may not be gold there, but we are very sceptical about the hills and rivers, surrounding the Larbour, proving another Klondyke, as over sanguine or in- terested persons may represent it to be. We have no doubt that most of those who want the concession, really believe it is a grand affair, but we rather fancy our Russian friends, who have put their money into the venture, do not care very much whether there is paying gold in it or ant. What they want is to get a foothold inside Weihaiwai, kuowing that the British Lion is the most stupid and purblind of beasts. The subtlety on the one side and the sweet simplicity on the other hand make a really touching picture, but we hope it won't deceive the British an- thorities. We can scarcely imagine that these respected Russian official's connection with the Syndicate is known to Admiral Sey- mour or Commissioner Gaunt, and it is chiefly to the attention of these two officers that we direct our remarks in the hope that they will very carefully scrutinise all applications for concessions or leases or rights of any kind in side the extremely important zone around the barbour of Weihaiwei. As a general prin- ciple, however, We may state in con- clusion that if mining is permissible there at all, we think it should not be given as a mono- poly to any one group of speculators, but the practise followed in India and Burmah, namely small claims on short leases and royalties should be adopted, and none but British subjects should be allowed to take up claims or work them in. side such a highly important stragetio sphere. -China Garette.
SENSATIONAL CASE AT TE
SHANGHAI MIXED COURT.
An important case was heard at the Mixed Court Shanghai, on the 12th March, before the magistrate, Mr. Weng, and the Brit sh Assessor, Mr. Mayers. It appeared that about three months ago a well-known Chinese mer. chant connected with export shipping and who is also compradors of the Indo-China steamer Suiwo, named Kin Chen-pino, discovered that his concubine, whom he had bought some nine years ago and who had born him a son and a daughter, had been having illicit relations with a notorious actor named Kao Chai-yuen, The injured husband's first discovery of how affairs stood was on the night of the 17th of February last. Happening to return home where both his wife and cononbine lived, the former in the upper floor and the latter in the ground floor, and entering first the concubine's room he thought he heard a rustling noise in a back room as if someone were there. He at
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
prised to find that it was the concubine who opened the door for him apparently appearing
was feeling, when she suddenly seized bold of him by the queue, pulling him into her room and declared that she was determined to settle matters with him that night, and that he was willing to stake her own life upon the result. By this time she bad pushed him to the side of the bed where he sat down, she still keeping a bold of his queue. At this moment Kao, the actor, again made his appearance from the back room, this time with a dagger in his hand-80 it is alleged-and with a threatening attitude, Kao, backed by the concubine, demanded the release of the woman in his (Kao's) favour to- gether with the two children the woman had born to Kin. Naturally Kiu objected, and upou seeing the threatening manner of his assail- ants he set up a cry for help. His wife living in the upper staroy, heard the ory, and of course came down stai's In the meanwhile, the ricsha coolie who had been occupied in bringing the ricsha from the back of the house to the front and putting it up for the night in the front alley, came to the front door of the house with his lantern aud ricsha cushion with the intention of eutering the house. He found the door locked and then, hearing his master's cry for help, struck at the door to get it opened. This Kin's wife did and the two rushed into the concubine's room As soon as the actor saw help come the ricsha conlie declared that he saw the former put the dagger into its sheath in the region of his trousers. Having done so the actor rushed for the front door and again escaped. After this outrage Kin reported the matter to the police and got the former Mixed Court Magistrate, Mr. Cheng, to issue a warrant, which having been signed by the Sea or Consul, the actor was arrested to await his trial, As this was a purely Chinese case, naturally it was tried by the Assistant Mixed Court Magistrate in the evening alone, when the accused was given 200 blows, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. at the end of which he was to be deported to Tientsin-a very mild sentence in the eyes of the Chinese law, considering the circumstances of the case. Knowing the desperate character of the actor, Kin spoke to his masters. the managers of the Indo-China Co., and a request was sent to the Superintendent of Police, asking that the prisoner be confined in the Municipal Ga 1, as confinement in the Mixed Court prison was mere "child's play." This accordingly was doue, while the concubine was confined in the Female Refuge to await future disposition.
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This confinement of a prisoner in the Mudi- gipal Gaol, where no Foreign Assessor had beeu present at the trial, was therefore, made the plea for a re-trial before an Assessor; and Mr. H. P. Wilkinson appeared yesterday morn ing on behalf of the prisoner; Mr E. Nelson (Messrs. Stokes and Platt) appearing on behalf of the injured husband. There was an attempt made by the prisoner's Counsel to upset the evidence given, as above, in the first trial before the Assistant Magistrate, but it was not success- fal, while the magistrate, Mr. Weng, agreed that, being a purely Chinese case the prisoner should have been sent into the native city to be con- fined and not sent to the Municipal Gaol. But, as he remarked sarcastically, the first sentence was rather too light and he and the City Mag. istrate would see to it that the prisoner should get his deserts according to Chinese law. The case was therefore decided to be sent to the native oity, where, if the prisoner be unable to make good his defence. the chances will be that bis sentence will be made much heavier.-N. C. Daily News.
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deposit is inexhaustible. This very optimistio summary of Japan's wealth may be open to
Watanabe acknowledges that most of the mine- rals still remain undeveloped, Of the minerals produced in Japan, coal is most largely exported, copper ranking second. With regard to this last-named mineral it appears that since the formation of a syndicate in 1890, the price of copper has been maintained, and the output has continued to increase yearly. The quotations, which ruled at yen 21 to yen 22 per picul two or three years ago, have now risen to yen 34. and yen 35, and consequently the copper mines are paying well, though working expenditure has largely increased in consequence of a gen- eral rise in prices.
Mr. Watanabe looks with considerable dis- favour on the substitution of petroleum for coal, and thinks the advantages of the change have not yet been proved. The appearance of liquid fuel as a competitor may, however, he thinks, act as a stimulant to the production of coal.- Kobe Chronicle.
CAN THE CHinese progRESS?
A SYMPOSIUM.
This was the title of a paper by Mr. before the Shanghai Literary and Debating Society on the 10th May. There was a very large attendance.
Mr. Byron Brenan, CM.G., H. B. M.'s Consul-General, who presided briefly introduced Mr. Bourne, who first gave a very lucid defini- tion of progress as distinguished from change, The Chinese, he said, oan only judge of progress from the amount of human happi- ness which it brings them, and of that their ideas are totally different from ours. He showed how the ways of the oriental were not our ways, how the western and the Asiatic were so utterly dissimilar, which was proved in the case of India where, after the very extended relations of the English and the Indian races we were as far off us ever from understanding them, and it had even been con- fessed by an official having thirty year's ex- perience to his oredit that the feeling of friend- liness between the English and the Indian seemed to be not only not advancing, but actually dying out, So with the Chinese, when we talk of progress they cannot grasp what we mean and we cannot appreciate what they feel.~ ~ Progress, western progress to the Chinese appeared to be not only undesirable, but positively dangerous. No one conversant with the very outlines of Chinese history could reasonably deny that where had not been change. There certainly had been changes of government, but always with the same institutions. Mr. Bourne then showed how reform from below, from the mass of be Chinese people was impossible; reform from above was at present equally out of the question; and he described just how the government was constituted, how officialdom was a close corpora tion, how it was difficult to get into; but when once a member of this close corporation the mandarin was bound to consider the interests of himself and his class to the exclusion of everything else War, Mr. Bourne, be ieved brought out national qualities and strengthened national character as nothing else did, and he bought China had paid a very heavy penalty for her long immunity from serious war Emperor of China, too, was a notable example of the observance of the doctrine of Divine Right of Kings, and with a really strong Em. peror upon the throne and a strong aristocracy behind him there would be some hope for China, but under the present system, which had been sanctioned by the traditions of great anti-
The
THE MINERAL WEALTH OF JAPAN.|| quity progress could not possibly be looked for.
AN OPTIMISTIC REPORT.
once entered the room and detected part of a man's dress appearing from a corner of the room where some boxes happened to in- He then rushed to the spot and collared the be. trader, whom he recognised as the actor Kao Chai-yuen whom he had often seen on the stage of the Fukien Road theatre. But the moment Kin held the actor, the lattter let fly and struck him full on the nose and so affected his escape.
There was no written law, no power of election The second time Kin discovered the presence
and of dismissal as in the West; the admini. of the actor in his (Kin's) house was on the
Mr. Watanabe, the Director of the Miningstration of the law was not according to the night of the 19th of March last. About mid- Bureau, has been giving his opinion of the night that day while engaged in his hong in mineral wealth of Japan to some of the giving instructions about the shipping vernacular journals. The conclusion he has of goods away, Kin's ricsha coolie came come to, which will surprise most people. is. up to him and said that this concubine that the soil of the Empire is so rich in mine. had been complaining about being ill and rals of various descriptions that it has no equal had sent him (the ricsha conlie) to request in the world. Coal, gold, silver, cooper, iron, Kin fo retura home as soon as possible. Kinzinc, lead and all the other minerals, are, he accordingly did so, and upon knocking at the says, almost all found in the Empire, and not back door for entrance to his house was sur only is the variety of minerals large, but their
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hard and fast lines of the written law of Europe and America. It was a matter of caprios. The district magistrate was all-powerful, he was appointed for three years, to make as much money as he could and go somewhere else for another three years, to make more money. On such a rotten foundation: no stable structure could be erected. Then the Chinese idea of education is totally different from ours. Whereas we endeavour to
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