T
man morally as well as intellectually better, the Chinese idea is that if a man is made sharp so that he may succeed in getting the better of his fellows that he is per se morally better. In tellectually the Chinese were in no way inferior to the occidental. The average Chinese boy learned, he believed, much quicker than the average English boy, but there was no effort made to teach morality as we knew it, there did not seem to be the capacity for it; the Chinese seemed to be wanting the moral backbone of the western people. What they wanted were leaders and good. government. Govern- ment making for progress could only come from a strong ruler, who should establish a code of written law in the courts of justice. This as in the day of Shih Huaugti was one of the very things that the unfortunate reformers who were recently executed endeavoured to ob. tain. He had been asked, aiïd the question was a very natural one, why, with the example of the Japanese before the world, the Chinese were not capable of doing likewise, but he had an- swered that by showing how very different were the social institutions of Japan, where old fendal aristocracies with a high standard of honour, courage and discipline had existed for a very long period as compared with the age of western history, and how communities of men in Japan were led by strong men who were natural leaders of the people; whereas in China this was not so. The Japanese when dertermined on revolution took definite and uncompromising action to that end, and the people followed them. There was no such class in China. There was an official class, but it was to the interest of that class to keep the people as they were: Concluding, be said that if progress in China was to com、 it must have a strong Em- peror and a strong aristocracy.
Mr. Kingsmill went back to early times in Chinese history referring to the Hau dyna ty when the people were then more or less in a state of consideration of adoption of general reform.
Rev. J. C. Ferguson believed that China had progressed, but it should not be forgotten that she was a huge mass which in the nature of things was slower to move, but which moved nevertheless. Judged by two or three standards China had progressed, and this was to be seen in the extension of Chinese commerce beyond provincial boundaries, beyond even the Empire itself. The standard of education was, too, very mach higher, than formerly and the tendency was upward all the time.
Dr. Muirhead asked: Could the Chinese pro- gress? and he answered it in the decided affirma-
tive, for they had capacities and powers equal to our own, and only needed to be placed in right circumstances for the development of those powers.
Without those circumstances What China they must remain as they are. wanted was Christianity, that power which had lifted the nations of the west and would most assuredly elevate the Chinese.
Dr. Edkins thought the Chinese had not only shown that they could progress and but that they had progressed and notably in the matter of population, for in the Ming dynasty the population was set down at 60,000,000, whereas
now it was 400,000,000.
Mr. Hodges thought the Chinese had not the characteristics which made for permanent reform.
Rev. Timothy Richard believed that with foreign aid and guidance China would aud could progress. Once she could count on for eign support she would advance readily enough. Rev. C. E. Darwent, like Rosa Dartle "wanted to know." He wanted to learn whether the Chinese could progress as individuals or as a nation. It was in the former respect that he would prefer to have heard Mr. Bourne. He thought with the examples of western training of other races such as the Australian black children, the Indians and some others before them that the Chinese, if caught young, could
progress,
Mr. Bourne in reply said that the Chinese as & nation might not exist, but the people would ever remain. They lacked moral power to organise.
No one trusted his neighbour and there was none, and there appeared to be no signs of anyone being a leader and ruler of meu among them. Progress, he held, as was provel by the history of the world, came from above,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
and in China it must come from above, from the throne, while China remained as she was.
Mr. J. P. Donovan proposed a vote of thanks, which was very cordially carried.-Mercury.
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CANTON NOTES,
41
[FROM THE CHUNG NGOI BAN PO.” The Miut is at present busily engaged in the coining of cents of the same size as the Hong. kong cents to relieve the scarcity of copper tasb, which grows scarcer and dearer day by day. The Viceroy has sent Colonel Shik with three hundred soldiers of the Kwongngai gar- rison to be stationed at the boundary between Tangkun and Sunon districts for the preserva- tion of order, it being feared that some bad characters may get over from Tungkun to Sunou to give trouble.
With regard to the recent outbreak of rebel. lion in Chinchow, five hundred soldiers were conveyed by the gunboat Kwongkam on the 8th inst. to Lakfung, which is the head quarters of the rebels, as reinforcements to the soldiers ander the charge of a military officer named Pak that were sent there some time previously. The Viceroy has commenced to increase the number of soldiers at the different forts of Kwangtung in compliance with the secret order of the Empress Dowager. One thousand Ban ner soldiers have recently been sent by the Tartar General and one thousand Canton soldiers by the Viceroy to the Tiger Pass, and two thousand soldiers have been selected from the garrisons under the command of General Lin Yung-fu to be sent to the forts in Ngahmoon,
on the West River.
The Canton Government has received an Imperial order from Peking to contribute one hundred thousand dollars from the Treasury of Canton to the funds for the conservation of the
f
May 20, 1899, The Rev. Father Vigano left for home on 17th been in in- May. He has, we regret to say different health for some time which is past, the reason of bis taking a holiday. We wish the Rev. Father a speedy and complete recovery, It is his intention to return in about twelve: months if his health permits.
Three cases of plague occurred on board the Kutsang on her voyage from Hongkong to Singapore, where she arrived on the 8th May." All three cases were fatal, the victims dying on the 5th, 7th, and 8th respectively. There were over 700 Chinese coolies on board, who were all landed at the quarantine station.
A notification appears in the Gazette ordering that an additional rate of two per cent, per an- nam, to take effect from July 1st, 1899, be levied on the villages of Hunghom, Mongkok, Chai- wan, Wongneichung, Pokfulam, North Point, and Tai Han, in consequence of the destruction of trees in those places and their neighbour hood.
and
A special sessions of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace was held on 16th May in the Justices Room at the Majestracy for the purpose of considering "an application from one James Edwards for a Publican's licence to sell retail intoxicating liquors in a bungalow situate at Tai Wan in this colony under the sign of the Sea View Hotel." The consideration of the application was, however, adjourned.
M. J. Hess, of the staff of the Figaro, arrived from Haiphong on 15th May by the Hué, M. Hess has visted the Far East on two previous occasions, once sixteen years ago and again ten years ago. On his present tour he has visited Siam, where he had an interview with the King, and from there he went on to Coshin-China and Toukin. From Hongkong he goes on to Peking to report to his paper on the great China question.
Shortly before eight o'clock on 15th May it Yellow River. The order has been promptly committed suicide by hanging bimself from a was reported to the police that a Chinaman had obeyed.
HONGKONG.
The Right Rev. Bishop Hoare returned from Foochow by the Douglas steamer Thale.
There were 1,970 visitors to the City Hall Museum last week, of whom 193 were Europeans. The appointment of Police Sergeant R. Fenton to be an Inspector of Nuisances in gazetted.
The Haimun berthed alongside the Douglas Wharf on the 18th May being the first of the Company's steamers to be brought alongside
The death rate last month was, for the British and Foreign community, civil population, 17.4, and for the Chinese community, 21.1.
tree on the embankment in Robinson Road not / far from Breezy Point. A Sergeant and con- stable accompanied the informant to the spot indicated and found the story correct, the man having apparently been hanging for some time. The body was at once cut down and placed in a dead box which the police had taken with them The body was apparently that of a servant about 30 years of age.
The mail despatched from Hongkong to London on the 13th May contained the follow- ing correspondence:Letters posted in Hong- kong, 7,527 covers, 9,560 § oz. rates, weight 192 1b. 7 oz.; posted elsewhere, 3,215 covers, weight 1141b.; soldiers and seamen's letters posted in Hongkong, 153, weight 2 lb. 7 oz. Post cards posted in Hongkong, 41 single, 1 reply, weight 5 oz.; posted elsewhere, 82 single, weight 94 oz. News, books, samples, etc., posted in Hong-. kong, uumber of 2 oz. rates 3,298, weight 296 Atthe Magistracy on 16th May Reginald Hop-lb. 124 oz.; posted elsewhere, weight 266 lb. 5 oz kins, who is obarged with embezzlement, was again brought up and remanded for another
The stamp revenue last month amounted to $30,811, being an increase of $3,470 on the amount collected in the corresponding month of 1898.
week.
The Italian chartered transport San Gottardo arrived on 16th May from Naples with supplies and details for the Italian squadran in the Far
East.
Captain Nesbitt, of the Zweena, which arrived from Iloilo on the 18th May reported that on the 15th inst. he passed a full-rigged ship aban doned at Apo Reef, Minoro Strait.
The return of the number of cases of com-
municable diseases notified as occurring in the colony last week is as follows:-Bubonic plague, 89 cases, 69 deaths; enteric fever, I case; pner peral fever, 1 case.
1
The American ganboat Bennington, which arrived recently from the Philippines, has gone into dock, having damaged herself somewhat by ranning on to a reef while chasing a filibustering vessel near Iloilo.
The policing of the new territory is being rapidly pushed forward. The latest station is on the frontier near Shang Shai, where 14 Indian constables and 50 men of the Hong. kong Regiment have been sent.
It is notified in the Gazette that the 22nd inst., being Whit Monday, is to be observed as a holiday in the Government departments; also that the Queen's birthday is to be cele brated on Wednesday, 24th inst, which day will therefore be a public holiday.
There were also one bag from the Tamar
weighing 221b. 4oz. and one bag from the Gov- ernor weighing 4lb. 8oz.
The following Government notification was issued in a Gazette extraordinary on 18th May * His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to make the following appointment as from the 10th instant and until further notice, namely:-- The Honourable James Haldane Stewart Look-
hart, C.M.G.. to be, and to perform the duties and exercise the jurisdiction of, a Police Magis trate and Justice of the Peace within the
additional Territories acquired by the Colony 9th day of June, 1898, between Her Majesty under the provisions of a Convention, dated the Queen Victoria and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China.
com.
Mr. J. Edwards having obtained a lease from the Government, and having erected i modious mat-shed at Tai Wan Bay, has com- menced to run a steam launch at 5-15 p.m. from the New Stone Pier at the foot of Pottinger Street every day during the bathing season. Tai Wan Bay is a pretty little spot near the corner of Kowloon Bay-just behind the dooks
and is an admirable place for bathing. It is, however, well worth visiting now and then independent of this, as a splended view of Hongkong and British Kowloon is obtained from the hill behind. Being within easy reach of the city, there is ample time to go out, have a bathe, and return by a quarter-past seven. This
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