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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
PLOTS IN "HE NEW TERRITORY. | and the Villages of Wongneiohong and Tai
The seizure and trial of Triad Society leaders shows that the police authorities are on the Blert and that the Colonial authorities do not intend to be again caught napping in the matter of risings and attacks in the New Territory. For some time past a plot has been hatching to get up a general rising, supported by a raid from Tungkoon, to take place in the 10th Chinese moon (next month), the Triads taking a leading part in the arrangements and being supported by the Tungkoon gentry who took such an ac- tive part in the last attempt to resist British authority.
Two Chinese Buddhist priests have for some time been training bodies of men in the terri- tory adjacent to that occupied by the British, the said two priests making visits to the colony at intervals to negotiate with their local adher- ents and to arrange for the purchase and for warding of arms to the districts in Sunon as yet unoccupied by British troops. Carbines are forwarded in rolls of piece-goods and cartridges are carried in bundles of matches, the match bozes being filled with them.
The above shows the advisability of pushing the frontier of the Colony up to the high range of hills dividing Sunon from Tungkoon, where all these plots are hatched and fostered, and likewise the taking over of all outlying islands which could be utilized by bad characters as places of refuge and for holding meetings where plots against the good order of the colony can be organized out of reach of the arm of the law.
The troops stationed in the Samchun distriot, which had been reduced to a few men, auder the impression that all attempts at risings were at an end, were reinforced on Thursday last by two launch-fulls of men and it is not likely that the military authorities will again be lulled into a false sense of security.
An unusual feature of the present plot is that the bulk of those concerned are Hakkas.
THE LOSS OF THE "WHITE CLOUD."
THE CHARGE AGAINST CAPTAIN RAYMOND. At the Magistracy yesterday afternoon, be- fore Mr, Gompertz, Arthur M. Raymond, master mariner, was charged that he did “on the 8th day of September, 1899, then being the master of the British steamship White Cloud, unlawfully take the said steamship to sea in such an unseaworthy state that the lives of the officers and crew on board the said #teamship were likely to be thereby endan- gered, from the waters of this colony, contrary to Ordinance 26 of 1891, section 11, sub-section
The arrest was made on Saturday morn ing by Chief Detective-Inspector Hanson (who was accompanied by Detective O'Sullivan), under a warrant issued on the application of the Harbour Master (Commander Rumsey). Bail ($1,000) was allowed. The case was formally called and the further hearing adjourned.
HON. T. H, WHITEHEAD ON THE INSANITARY PROPERTIES
ORDINANCE,
The following letter has been addressed by the Hon. T. H. Whitehead to the Acting Attorney-General :-
Hongkong, 24th October, 1899. Dear Pollock,—“ Stevensou & Murphy's Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health 1893" gives, on pages 502, 503, and 504, facts and figures compiled by ons of the greatest statisti. cians of the century, Dr. Farr, which show that the general mortality of districts bears a fixed ratio to the density of population. the following are the most recent statistics on the subject and pertain to the most thickly popu- lated districts of Manchester, Liverpool, and
London:
Persons per square mile.
166.
186
379
1,718.
4,499.
12,375
65,823
Deaths. 16.75 19.16
21.88
24.90
28.08
32,49 38.62
The average density of population of the City of Victoria, including the Public Gardens
|
[October 28, 1899.
THE CASUALTY TO THE
ESMERALDA.”
ENQUIRY AT THE HARBOUR OFFICE. At the Harbour Office ou Wednesday morning a marine court of enquiry was held to make en-
Hang, as well as all the open spaces in the Wongneiohong and So Kon Po Valleys, is stated in the annual report for 1898 of the Medical Officer of Health as 113 persons per aare or 72,320 persons per square mile. This is a substantially worse condition than exists inquiry respecting the circumstances connected any of the most crowded districts of Manchester, with the casualty to the British steamship Liverpool, or London,
application of the master and commander, Mr. The enquiry was held on the
Alexander William Ross Cobban.
The
The comparatively low death rate of this colony is due to the fact that we have an essen- tially young adult male population. population is maintained and augmented annual. ly not by any natural excess of births over deaths but by immigration of adults from the mainland of China Of the 5,000 persons added yearly to our population about 90 per cent. are adults. In Great Britain the birth rate averages nearly double the death rate, whereas in Hong- kong the birth rate is less than one-third the death rate. Another important factor which contributes to the reduction of the death rate in the Colony is one well-known to residents. So soon as a Chinaman here falls sick be makes inmediate preparations to return to his native village on the mainland. Unless funds fail him he invariably succeeds in getting away. The consequence is that many hundreds of Chinese residents of Hongkong, die annually in the neighbouring province of Kwangtung These deaths for the purposes of accurate vital statistics should appear on our records.
The density of population in the Colony of Hougkong is mainly, if not wholly, due to two factors-(1) the proportion of built over to unoccupied land, and (2) the height of buildings. The model bye laws of the Local Government Board at home, for adoption by the Sanitary Authorities throughout England, stipulate and require that there shall be an open space of at least 150 square feet in the rear of one-storey buildings, of 300 square feet in the rear of two storey buildings, and of about 375 square feet in the rear of buildings of more than two storeys. In addition thereto there must be an open space or a street of a minimum width of 24 feet in front of every such building.
In the Bill now before the Council a minimum of only 50 square feet is asked for in respect of existing buildings, while about 120 square feet is the minimum in respect of new buildings. Practically speaking the Bill does not touch the question of the height of buildings. Let me therefore suggest that the words “
on land acquired from the Crown" in the first para- graph of section 6 of the proposed Ordinance be deleted and read as follows:-
Esmeralda.
The Court was constituted as follows: diary Magistrate; Staff Commander R. J. Commander R. Murray Rumsey, R.N. Stipen Rogers, R.N., H.M.8. Tamar, Captain John Kynoch, of the steamer Mausang; Captain James, of the steamer Phra Chom Klao, and Captain P. T. Reid, of the steamer St. Jerome.
Ho
certificate issued in 1879 at Aberdeen.
Captain Cobban said he held a master's had been in command of the Esmeralda six months. She was owned by the Chion and Manila Steamship Company and traded be tween Hongkong and Coast Ports and Manila. She left Hongkong on the 14th September bound for Amoy with a general cargo- ft. 8 in, and 13 ft. 2 in. There was a full a full cargo. The draught of water was 15 complement of crew and officers and the ship was properly found. They left Hongkong at 2-50 p.m. At 10.30 p.m. he was on the lower bridge lying down. The third offloer was on watch and he reported to him that the ship had struck some thing. He went on to the bridge, the vessel having been put at half speed immediately the shook was felt, and found that the land was vi- sible, so he took a bearing of the land, having previously sent the carpenter to sound the wells. carpenter reported that there was no water any. The bearing was N.E. half north (trus). The
where, and he concluded they had struck some sunken junk, and he resumed full speed on the same course. He continued to sound the well. The vessel made no water at all until 5-30 a.m. on the 15th, when Breaker Point was four and a half miles off. Various courses were steered until they arrived at Amoy. The shock was felt in the engine-room, and when they arrived at Amoy the engine-room was thoroughly ex- amined with the bilges, but nothing was found to indicate that any damage had been done to the ship. The cement at the bottom of the ship was intact as far as they could judge. The voyage was continued to Manila, which was reached on and an examination was made. the 19th September. The cargo was discharged No material damage was visable except that some of the cement in the after-hold was broken. They left Manila on the 26th September and arrived at Hongkong on the 29th September, and went in to dook. The ship was inspected, and the damage Almost the whole of the land in the city has not being found to be important he was allowed already passed out of the hands of the Crown. to make another royage to Manila. He arri-
Ordinance 15 of 1894, section 12, permits & house of 25 feet in height if the street on which and went into dook again.
ved back in Hongkong on the 8th October About 20 feet the house fronts is 15 foot wide. It also per- abaft the stem a slight rising was found-about mits a house of 40 feet in height if the street half-an-inch on the keel, and about midships, on on which the house fronts is over 15 feet wide. both sides, there was found a slight indentation Thus a house of 40 feet in height can be built-not more than balf-an-inch-on the garboard if the street on which it fronts is 15 feet 1 inch strakes. There were also a few loose rivets, wide, If the Bill before Council is not amended The ship remained in dock for repairs and was the provisions of Ordinauos 15 of 1894, section 12, will still hold good and permit the continu- ance of the excessive surface crowding which now obtains in the colony. That surface crowd- ing is an important factor in the causation and propagation of plague cannot be gainsaid. The question of compensation for loss of rental resulting from the proposed amendment is one which should be dealt with on equitable grounds and possibly on similar lines to those now followed under like circumstamces in Bombay. Irrespective of the cost the public health should be safeguarded and this import- ant shipping port should be maintained "as A clean one,
No building erected after the passing of this Ordinance shall exceed in height one and a half times the width of the street upon which such building fronts."
there now.
After the court had consulted in private for a few minutes, the captain was recalled, and in reply to further questious he said that after passing Single Island no alteration was made in the course. After the ship struck for about six or seven minutes she was standing in a south easterly direction, the helm having been ported as the shock was felt on the port side. At the end of that time the original course was resumed.
Replying to Commander Rogers, he said no soundings were taken when the ship struck as it was thought she bad struck a submerged junk and she was not far from land, He did Let me commend the before-mentioned sug-not feel the shook, neither did many of the gestion to your careful consideration. A copy other persons on board-passengers and officers. of this letter is being forwarded to the local press for the information of those interested.— Yours very truly,
Duncan McCallum said—I am third officer of the Esmeralda, I was on watch at about 10.20 p.m. on the 14th September. I went on deck at 8 p.m. The weather was overcast with The Hon. H. E. Pollock, Acting Attorney-a fresh breeze from E.N.E. We were steering
General.
T. H. WHITEHEAD.
Mr. Holt 8. Hallett is once more urging in the papers the construction of a railway from Burmah into China.
E. by Ni N. by standard сотрава. I could. see the land. I felt the ship strike something apparently amidships. I put the helm har | aport, and let her go off to about S.S.D.,
went to call the Captain. I did not alter the
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