June 2, 1900.]
THE FOREIGN TRADE OF JAPAN.
44
(Daily Press, 29th May.)
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40
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
| Indian product. Much the same is the case with wool as with cotton. The import of woollen manufactures fell off in 1899, and the Japanese factories are increasing in number and size. But leaving the individual branches of the import trade, we may look now at Mr. Lar's sum- ming up of the general import trade. The year 1899," he says, was the most profitable one to importers for many years, and the extraordinary rise In
· values, which extended to most branches 'of the import trade, helped to com- pensate merchants for the preceding years, when things were not so favourable. 1900 gives promise of being equally satis- factory from the point of view of the im- porter, as the absence of large stocks allows him to entertain the hope that any fall in price which may take place in home markets will be followed but slowly in Japan. On the other hand, caution is coinpelled by the fact that in prosperous | times the Japanese dealer has a proneness to purchase excessive stocks, while he is apt to leave goods ordered by him in the warehouses of importers at their entire charge when the market turns out to be
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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
On the 28th ult. a meeting of the Hong. kong Legislative Council was held in the Council Chamber at the Government Offices, there being present:-
His EXCELLENCY the Acting Governor, Major-General GASCOIGNE, C.M.G. (Comman- ding the Troops).
The Hon. F. H. MAY, C.M.G. (Acting Colonial Secretary).
Hon. W. MEIGH GOODMAN (Attorney-Gene-
ral).
Hon. A. M. THOMSON (Colonial Treasurer). Hon. R. D. ORMSBY (Director of Public Works).
Hon, C. P. CHATER, C.M.G. Hon. Dr. Ho KAI.
Hon. H. C. NICOLLE, Hon. A. W. BREWIN. Hon. WEI A YUK. Hon. J. J. KESWICK.
Mr. R. F. JOHNSTON (Acting Clerk of Coun- cils).
PAPERS.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY laid on
FINANCIAL..
The last English mail brought the Report on the Foreign Trade of Japan for 1899 com- piled by Mr. A. H. LAY and published by the Foreign Office. The Report shows all the usual fulness and care and derives addi- tional importance this year as reviewing a totally new set of conditions in Japanese commerce. With January 1, 1899 the new customs tariff came into operation with its higher rate of duties on imports, while in July of the same year all duties on exports were done away with. Of course, as Mr. LAY says in his introductory paragraph. 1899 being the initial year of the new sys- tein, it is as yet impossible to predict with any approach to accuracy what the result of the changes will be. But they would cer- "tainly appear." he says. to indicate great opportunities for the development of foreign trade. At the same time, Japan is not a new country, and although föreign firms are establishing branches in several "places throughout the country, such as
the table the reports of the Medical Officer of Nagora, and the ubiquitous Chinaman is
Health, the Sanitary Surveyor, the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon and the Registrar Gene- to be found peddling his wares in many
ral for the year 1899; the Secretary of of the inland towns, it is probable that
State's despatch with reference to the Governor's trade will remain largely in its old cluan-
regard to exports the ste ly ex- salary and the final statement in respect of the nels for some time to come, and that, the
this trade since 1863 has cor inued. loan of 200,000 raised under Ordinance No. 2 'chief centres of foreign trade hitherto ex-
In fact, no previous year have such high of 1893. isting will not lose their importance. Few figures on reached as in 1899, the gures | The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY laid on foreigners have left the old treaty ports for of 1896, as We mentioned above. being the table the report of the Finance Committee the interior, and it must be many years before beaten by more than £5,000,POV, "The
(No. 8) and moved its adoption. "there will be sufficient inducement for such principal causes of the satisfactory condi a radical change. So far the opening of the tion of the volume of exports," says the reuntry has had little, if any, effect upon | Report, lie in the revival in the raw silk the foreign trade of Japan." Thing the trade. the greater activity of the cotton early months of the year trade conditions
spinning and manufacturing industry as were abnormal: in January and February evidenced by the large quantity of yaru indeed the value of goods imported was less and cotton tissues sent out of the country, than during any two months since 1996, and
and the exceptional rice harvest of 1898-99, exports exceeded imports by no less than
which provide a considerable surplus of 2020.862. But it must be remetaberel
export. The her articles which mainly that a
very large quantity of goods
contributed to the increased exportation passed into Japan toward the end of
were silk tissues, camphor, copper, sulphur. 1203. so as to take advantage of the
and timber. Exports of tea, matches, mats, ll tariff. In March. 199, a change came and coal remain more or less satisfactory. about, and exports, which reached a high ↑ In connection with the export trade we figure in January and February, fell off and day look at what Mr LAY has to say on shewed increasingly less value than imports, | In the latter half of the year the aunt of | foreign commerce so increased, both on the uport and on the export sides, that the highest figures since the opening of Japan to foreign trale were reached--with the ex- reption of 1898. As compared with that vour of unusual conditions. 1899 showed a decrease of £5.828,982 in imports, but an increase of £5,020,068 in exports ; and put at the oud of December. 1899, impo,ts had again exceeded exports as in the past few
years.
:
↑ 1
|
The COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and the motion was carried.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY laid on the table Financial Minute No. 26, and pro- posed that it be referred to the Finance Com-
mittee.
The COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and the motion was carried.
SEARCHING FOR PLAGUE CASES. The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY pro- posed :- That the amendment to Bye-law 25 of the Bye-laws made under section 13 of Ordinance 15 of 1894, made by the Sanitary Board on the 17th day of May. 1900, be approved by this Council."
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS seconded. parties to commence their visitations at five The amended Bye-law empowers the search
o'clock in the morning instead of eight, and to continue them until 6 p.m., as heretofore.
The Hon. Dr. Ho KAI-I beg to move as 811 amendment that this amended Bye-law be not approved, and that it be referred back to the Sanitary Board for further consideration. The Bye-law provided among other things that any officer of the Sanitary Board house between the hours of 5 a.m.
may
can
visit
any
Japanese le with China; and with this quotation we must conclude a very inade- quate notice of a most painstaking and in- teresting review of Japan's commercial pro- |gress in 1889. · China," say Mr. Lay, as a field for Japanese trade is more and more attracting the attention of the states- men and merchants of Japan. Trade between the two countries ha increased and 6 p.m., and if he finds any person sick he with rapidity since the war. The Mitsui order his removal to the Hospital for Bussan Kaisha sent ten students across to examination by a properly qualified medical the Continent to study questions connected
man, or he can detain the person in the with Chinese trade and the commercial house and get a medical man to examine conditious prevailing there, and is sending him there. The old Bye-law confining the houses to between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. was ten more this year. And ther are many
severe enough. A visit from a search party other indications of the inten ion of the composed of persons who were not properly. Japanese to make commercial profit out of qualified medical men, and the fact that they the opening up of the neighboring Em- have to examine a patient to a certain extent to pire. Exports to China during 1899 were find out whether there is anything the matter much larger than during 189. Almost with him or not, are enough to alarm anyone twice as much cotton yarn was exported not merely women and children, but even grown- It is a source of great terror to a thither, and cotton tissues, matches, Eu-up men.
to run the chance by being re- ropean umbrellas, seaweeds, mushrooms, person
moved from the house to the hospital and coal all show an increase of no small
whether suffering from disease or not. It "extent."
is quite possible for a person so terrified to develop in the course of a few days signs of the very disease from which he is suspected to suffer. There has been such a case in the West Indies. Two convicts who were perfectly healthy were told they were suspected of having yellow fever. They were accordingly removed to a perfectly clean hut and there confined. Three days afterwards they developed symptoms of yellow fever and died, and when the post
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As causes for the decline of importation Mr. LAY gives, besides the accumulation of stocks at the end of 1898, the higher prices, obtaining in foreign markets for many of the principal manufactures and natural pro- ducts required by Japan, higher freight- rates. the development of home industries, and the diminution in the rice import con- sequent on the pletiful crop of 1898 having supplied Japanese domestic wants. But the.. importation of raw material on the whole showed a considerable growth, especially in the raw cotton and wool trade. Mr. LAY does not disguise the danger threatened to
A Labuan correspondent writes on the 29th ult. the Lancashire mills by the growth of Jap to the Manila Times, It is reported that Ba- anese competition-a growth which is only jah Brooke, the ruler of Sarawak, intends mak- a matter of time. The importation of Egyping another raid into Brunei territory some. tian and American cottons for manufacture where about the vicinity of the Trusan River. in Japan is assuming proportions which the We allowed him last time to seize this property from the Sultan of Brunei in violation of our English cotton-spinners may well view with alarm. The Indian cotton imports showed Treaty with the latter personage, but, in any a large increase, but the tendency is never theless for the American to supplant the
case, if Brunei is to go it were better that it should go into the hand of Rajah Brooke than into those of this wretched Chartered Company.
mortem examination was made they were found to be suffering from yellow fever, and yet at the time there was no yellow fever in the locality,
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