April 27, 1901.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
mortar erections, and for the contractors to more feasible method of fighting make rubbish heaps of the green turf and "
ring which has raised the price flower-strewn undergrowth.
absent in England, and his assistant has been acting as head of the Department mean- while, expecting no doubt to receive assist
obliged to worry along as best be could, multiplication of deformities. We believe that the forest guard consists
ance, which has never come, and has been would seem to by none, and there was brought forward before
of only half anese, who do their best, apparently,
prevent the
941
the Food Suppy Commission, and the Commissien itself endorsed the suggestion when it commended the Government to " enco the villagers of the New Territory
prevent tree-cutting, | HONGKONG'S FOOD SUPPLY AND cattle by providing them with funds for the
and, judging by the number of convictions secured, they are not inactive. But the number of these depredations is far greater than it would be if the staff were not so limited, and it is not unreasonable to sup- pose that the hill fires, by which such large tracts are laid bare, would also be reduced in number and extent were more supervision possible, and the penalties for causing these
fires made heavier.
a
THE NEW TERRITORY.
"
On!
(Daily Press, 25th April.) In the course of the enquiries made by the Food Supply Commission last summer the subject of the possibility of making the New Territory supply cattle for the Hongkong market to a far greater extent than it does at present came up more than once. Now that the area of the Colony has been the evidence of Inspector J. T. COTTON, the so greatly extended, it is high time that average weight of cattle imported from the branch of the Afforestation Department New Territory is from 200 to 300 catties, should be formed for work on the mainland. compared with 600 to 700 from Huifung The roads and paths in Kowloon, which and 400 to 500 from Canton and Lin Chow. have been so much increased, require much In the examination of Mr. C. VIVIAN LADDS, more attention, both in the way of tree Colonial Veterinary Surgeon, the following planting and judicious ornamentation where passage occurred, as related in the report of opportunity offers. Apart from this work, the Commission :- however, the work of planting the slopes Dr. HARTIGAN, We have heard evi- of the numerous hill-ranges is one that "dence about the difficulty of feeding cattle should be undertaken by the Government," in the New Territory, and one of the both on account of the hygienic conditions "points was that the grass that would be and also to secure to the ever increasing po-"required to feed them was all used up in pulation supplies of cheap firewood. smoking and burning bottoms of junks. should not be necessary to have to import "Is that Eo?" all firewood from great distances, if supplies could be obtained in the immediate neigh- bourhood. The price of firewood, always high, fluctuates and sometimes goes to a rather abnormal rate through supplies not A."Not a bit. I say that the New coming forward owing to difficulty of trans-"Territory ought to provide 10,000 cattle." port. It would be a useful stand-by to have Here it may be noted that in 1899 23,582 some forests within the Colony from which a portion of the needs of Victoria could be supplied. Moreover, this Department might then give some attention to the crops raised in British territory and assist and encour- age the natives to try experiments in the cultivation of new and useful products, suit- able to the soil and aspect.
It
A.- "That is all rubbish."
છે. "And there is no reason why we "should not have cattle on the New. Ter- "ritory?"
head of cattle were used in the Colony, so that in the judgment of Mr. LADDS the New Territory should be able to supply between a half and a third of the total quantity required, instead of considerably. less than a quarter, as at present. Again on the evidence of one of the two leading Chinese butchers there is "a lot more cattle wanted in Hongkong"; and on the testimony of Inspector Corron the dealers in Hongkong do not buy the best kind of cattle, and the breed on the New Territory requires improvement.
purchase of stock (to be repaid when the animal is brought to market) or heifers from n Government stockyard. is now three years since the New Territory passed into British hands. It is time therefore that some efforts were made to convert it into something else than a heavy and unmitigated expense to the Colony. No doubt the elaborate system of land registration which the Government is carry- ing out is very important, but we cannot to begin see that it need stop every attempt to be making the Territory do something toward paying its way. Otherwise it merely re- mains & white elephant" for years to
come.
COMMERCIAL LOSSES OF THE STATES IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, 26th April.)
A copy of No. 988 of the Advance Sheets of United States Consular Reports, which we have had the opportunity of seeing, deals with the effect of the Boxer trouble of last year on the trade of the United States, The report is the work of Mr. JOHN FOWLER, United States Consul at Chefoo, and is sup- plemented by a few remarks by Mr. J. W. RAGSDALE, United States Consul at Tien- tsin, on the export trade from that port. Mr. FOWLEE states his object to be to show a expor what the Boxers coat the American ter, a phase of the question which has not been treated elsewhere, though of course such statistics can be extracted with the ex- penditure of some labour from the returns of the Imperial Maritime Customs. Pro- bably, he says, no country in the world suffered as much as did the United States (in its export trade to China), for the scene of the recent strife covered practically the field of American trade in China. We do not propose to follow Mr. FowLEE into his detailed statistics, but only to gite a general idea of his argument. He points out first that in the quarter ended 30th June, 1900, imports to Chefoo of merchandise specially termed American showed enormous increases from the figures of the same quarter in 1899. The import of kerosene, for instance, showed the huge rise of 1,220,890 gallons, much more than 100 per cent. Then Mr. FowLEE gives figures for the same class of imports in the quarters ended 30th September, 1899 and 1900, which show that such trade fell away practically to nothing at all; taking kerosene again for an instance, we find the 857,100 gallons in 1899 fall to 5,000 gallons in 1900. Yet Chefoo and the interior, says Mr. FowLEE, saw no armed hordes, no milits Lovements, and, as compared with the mediate northern ports, was peaceful matter of fact, Chefoo was the b communication with the allies while Shantung was owing entirely to the frie by Yuan Shikai.
If the staff of this Department were increased, the Superintendent would be able to devote a little more time to research into the productions and pos- sibilities of the Colony. He might also do more to beautify the city and the It appears therefore from the evidence Botanic Gardens, and to add to the various before the Commission that there is little oases of verdure which here and there- ample scope for cattle-breeding in the but in so very few instances--relieve the dull New Territory, which supplies at the monotony of brick and stucco that make present time an inadequate quantity and up the general ensemble. It is intended, an inferior quality. Meanwhile the Colony we understand, when the Law Courts are labours under the burden of enormously erected, to make gardens corresponding increased prices for beef, amounting to a in size and shape to those created by the rise of 33 per cent. in the last five years. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corpora- A similar state of affairs exists with regard tion on their ground opposite to the Bank. to pork, the New Territory apparently also a These gardens will have to be kept up by very promising field for pig-breeding. Mr. the Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, LADDS, asked before the Commission to and it is possible, we hope, that other par-suggest a practical method with regard to terres and ferneries will be formed for the cattle-raising in the New Territory, advised beautifying of the city and suburbs. that the Government should purchase a Victoria owes most of what it possesses in number of calves at so much a head, and this line to Mr. J. M. PRICE, formerly distribute them over the various districts Surveyor-General, and Glenealy Ravine to every head man in each village and to (though partially spoiled by the intrusion deserving people in those villages, one to of some ugly houses) still retains sufficient each, under a distinct understanding that evidences of his taste to show how he seized they are to raise them for the Hongkong upon natural features, and utilised them in market, and when they are full-grown and the creation of verdurous and picturesque sold that they are to repay to the Govern-
· nooks and conзrs. There will be opportuni-ment the money which the animal cost. of the Boxer move
$
earlier and more
ties for his successors, when healing the|There seems on the surface no do not were general even in the
scars wrought by builders and road-makers, to Mr. Ladds's scheme, and we to carry out his ideas and work, to the end know what objection the Government could the year, except in that the city, while developing its growth, find to it. The question is one which we The American lumber
sumered may not become hideous and overcrowded. should like to see carefully discussed, and
enormously,
#hips At present, in this utilitarian age, there is if it is not proved that such a scheme is lumber reaching Taku and bein a tendency to disfigure the landscape in all impracticable we hope that time will not land their cargoes. One firm directions with closely stacked brick and be lost in putting it into execution. No $5,000 on demurrages on this
the
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