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14
September 30, 1899.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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address on the subject some years ago said: By the act of ordinary interment literally sow broadcast through the land “innumerable · seeds of pestilence germa "which long retain their vitality many report proceeds :-"So far as Kelung is "destined at some future time to fructify in "concerned this may be the case, but the "premature death or ruined health_for "last word has not yet been said about "thousands." It is high time therefore that "Tamsui harbour, which if properly dredged a more sanitary method of disposing of the might, for vessels of moderate draught, dead should be adopted, and although, as fairly enter into competition with Kelung Mr. POLLOCK says, it is not to be ex "for shipment at least to Japan. In fact pected that the cause of cremation will oue shipment has already been made from advance here by leaps and bounds, it is "Tamsui to Kobe, when the opportunity of a incumbent upon those who recognise the "direct trausit offered. However opinions importance of the subject to do what may vary on these points, the danger to the they can towards the education of public Amoy trade exists, whether it can be opinion. The formation of a Cremation successfully met or not, and it is for Society would be a step in that direc "British merchants and shipping companies tion. At best, however, it will be many
to see to it that all precautions are taken years before cremation is likely to prevent any inclination of trade in that general, and in the meantime we in Houg- "direction if they wish to avert the ruin of kong are confronted with the fact that "the Formosa section of the Amoy tea busi- the cemeteries on the island are rapidly "ness." The reality of the danger has becoming overcrowded. Official attention since been verified, but instead of taking the was devoted to this important subject form of the improvement of Tamsui harbour sonie ten years ago and an attempt was -which, whatever its effects on special made to secure an island in the neighbour- interests, would have been welcomed hood which might be used as a place of on public grounds-it has taken the vi- interment. The difficulty of making ar- cious form of a differential tax. A discrimi-rangements with the Chinese Government nating duty of yen 1.60 per picul is levied on stood in the way at that time, but with the Formosa ten if shipped direct to foreign extension of the colony's territory, which countries whilst the leaf is allowed to has placed a number of islands at the be shipped from Formosa to Japan free disposal of the Government, that difficulty and thence exported abroad free of duty. has now disappeared. It now only re- Tea shipped via Amoy or Hongkong is mains to make a selection of the therefore heavily penalised, Nearly two months have elapsed since representations as to the unfairness of this discriminatory duty were made, and it affords occasion for surprise that in such a clear case no intima- tioù has yet been made of its removal.
then rendered impracticable. He says good working margin on freights, and that, "The chartering of Chinese junks by ten can be delivered in New York at a foreigners, a right conceded by the Yang. freight, including the Suez Canal dues, taze Regulations, was availed of in 1898 which will render abortive any attempt to to the extent of 41 junks. which were em-ship it vin Japan and San Francisco. The ployed to convey Chinese-owned cargo, 'principally tobacco, to Chinkiang, at the Chinese New Year. According to an an- cient custom native craft arriving at cer- tain barriers during the three days pre- “vious and immediately following the New Year are exempt from payment of all lekin, and foreign merchants have been "hitherto in a position to oblige their na “tive constituents by forwarding their goods for them in this class of vessel, and "thus freeing them from the heavy exac- "tions of the lekin stations en route; but "under the revised regulations now in force on the Yangteze this privilege becomes abrogated, and no chartering of Chinese" junks will be possible unless the cargo on "board is actually the bond fide property "of the foreigner chartering the junk." The interpretation put upon the Inland Water Rules and Regulations by Sir ROBERT HART has, in like manner, put an end to any prospect of the British vessel doing the trade on the West River, unless some new understanding can be ar rived at. The real
cure of course is to be found either in the abolition of the restrictions at present imposed upon vessels seeking to avail themselves of the privilege of the navigation of the Inland Waters, and doing away with the distinction between "interport " and "in- land" trade. If this were insisted upon by the Treaty Powers, and also the amalgamation of the Native and Foreign Customs, there would be some chance of the inland waterways being really opened to foreign trade and steam navigation, whereas the so-called concession is at present only a leverly designed decision intended to pacify for a time the clamorous foreigner.
DISCRIMINATORY DUTIES ON FORMOSA TEA.
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[Daily Press, 29th September] In another column we reproduce from the Formosa Consular report an interesting ex- tract referring to the competition now pre- vailing in the Formosa shipping trade. In so far as that is a fair trade competition it calls for no remark, nor do we propose now to enter on the vexed question of shipping subsidies. There is, however, another pas sage in Mr. LAYARD's report, referring, not to the competition between particular Com- panies, but to the attempt of the Japanese Government to divert the Formosa ten trade from its old accustomed route, which com- mands attention. This subject, it will be re- membered, was recently dealt with by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce, which minde representations regarding it in the proper quarter, and the question is still pending. At the time Mr. LAYARD penned his report, the date of which is not stated, the discriminatory duty had not been im posed, but some movement of the kind was apparently anticipated. Mr. LAYARD says:-"There can be no doubt that the Japanese Government will do all in its power to foster a direct export of tea "from Kelung to America in Japanese steamers, either via Japan or direct, "bat this consummation seems to be no nearer than in previous years." Re- ference is then made to the drawbacks of Kelung as a shipping port, and to the profession of some of the merchants to be little concerned with this danger menacing their A nioy business, on the assumption that British steamship companies still have a
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CREMATION AND THE OVER- CROWDING OF HONGKONG CEMETERIES.
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most suitable island and formulate the
necessary regulations. If we cannot, în the present state of public opinion, dis pose of our dead by cremation, let us at least remove them from the immediate neigh- bourhood of inhabited areas.
OPIUM SMOKING AND SUICIDE.
(Daily Press, 23rd September.) We do not hear so much nowadays of the (Daily Press, 26th September.)
vice of opium smoking and reproaches The Hon. H. E. POLLOCK in his letter sug- heaped upon the wicked British merchants, gesting the formation of a Cremation Society who were most wrongfully alleged to be res in Hongkong says it appears to him that ponsible for the introduction of the drug nobody who studies the facts and figures into China. The reasons for this, perhaps, can fail to be struck with the dangers are not far to seek, The misstatements attending upon the disposal of the dead by sown broadcast by the Anglo-Oriental burial, especially in a small island like Society for the Suppression of the Opium Hongkong. He adds that " It is not to be Trade have been disproved; the Chinese expected that the cause of cremation will officials and Government have been "at once advance here by leaps and bounds, shown to be responsible for the enor "but, if an association were to be formed of mous growth of the native drug; and the "those who are in favour of it, a valuable alleged harmful effects have been clearly "start would be made which might lead in proved to have been much overdrawn. Still "due time to important results." We hope there are not wanting among the missiou- Mr. POLLOCK may be successful in starting aries many who deplore the extent to which such an association, and to those in the vice has attained in China. Although terested in the subject we would commend the imported variety plays a comparatively the perusal of the late Mr. GRANVILLE unimportant part in the use of opium, the SHARP's lecture upon it, copies of which, we drug has by no means ceased to exercise understand, may be had upon application baleful effects upon those who abuse it. On to Mr. POLLOCK. In that lecture Mr. the contrary, the native drug has, in many SHARP gave some figures of local interest. cases, proved more harmful than the im- We have, he said, a population of 260,000 ported opium, and as it can be purchaseil souls. Of these some 2 per cent die every at a much lower rate the habit of opium year, or say about 5,000, and it takes about smoking has spread among the lower classes half a century for a corpse buried under the in many provinces very considerably. Exten- usual conditions to be entirely resolved into sive tracts of fertile land, formerly devoted its original elements. Calculating from to grain cultivation, have also been given these figures we now have in the island a up to the production of the poppy, whose quarter of a million of corpses in all stages scarlet blooms flourish their baneful of decay, and this number rapidly grows glamour over many a country side as the population increases. That the formerly the tender green of the rice plant burial of the dead in the soil may be at-spread its pleasing homely tint. tended by danger to the living is so fully of importing opium, China will very recognised that intramural interments are have opium to export if she can find no longer permitted in England, and ceme- tomers for the drug. Fortunately i it is teries are frequently closed when the growth Mongolian chiefly that indulges in the opium of towns brings houses into immediate conti- habit, and it would not be admitted into guity to them. Sir Lyon Playfair in an either Japan, India, or Java.
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