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April 27, 1901.]
tendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1900.
The Council then adjourned sine die.
MEETING OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.
A meeting of the Finance Committee was held immediately after the adjournment of the Council, the Colonial Secretary presiding.
The Minutes Nos 17 to 25 were put before the meeting seriatim and carried. With respect to the vote for
THE ADDITIONAL CADETS, Hon.CP. HATER said-I should like to know something more about this vote.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY-We wanted some additional cadets, and the Secretary of State ordered that two cadets, Messrs. É. D. G. Wolfe and 8. B. C. Ross, who had been sent out to the Malay Federated States, should be sent on here. The Malay States have incurred certain expenditure in bringing out these gentlemen, and also in providing for their education in Chinese, and it is this expense that we have to recoup to the Malay States.
Hon. C. P. CHATER-Where are these cadets now ?
The COLONIAL SECRETARY--They are in Canton, studying Chinese.
Carried.
+
The Committee then adjourned.
HONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
At the monthly meeting of the General Committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce, held in the Chamber Room, City Hall, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, the 18th April, 1991-Present: Sir Thomas Jackson (chairman), Mr. U. S. Sharp (vice-chairman), Hon. J. J. ¦ Keswick, Messrs. W. Poate, R. L. Richardson, H. A. Ritchie, N. A. Siebs, H. E. Tomkins, Hon. J. Thurburn (ea: officio), and R. C. Wilcox (secratary),-
MINUTES.
The minutes of the last monthly meeting (held 19th March) were read and confirmed.
RESIGNATION OF MEMBER.
The Secretary reported the resignation by the Belgian Trading Company of membership of the Chamber, owing to their having closed their branch in Hongkong.
THE REGULATION OF BAILING CRAFT IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
On the 26th March a letter having bren received from the Colonial Secretary, in reply to the Chamber's letter of 19th idem, acknow- ledging receipt thereof and stating that H. E. the Governor would be glad to receive parti: culars of any other disasters similar to that which recently befel the 8.8. Menelaus in the entrances to Hongkong harbour,
A list of such disasters was compiled and embodied in a letter sent to the Colonial Secretary on the 11th April. Letter read.
In reply to the Chairman, Hon. J. Thurburn said he understood the Government were in communication with the Singapore authorities on the subject.
An opinion was expressed by the Committee that it ought not be a difficult undertaking to provide for the regulation of sailing craft in the narrow approaches to the barbour.
THE PUBLICATION OF QUARANTIN NOTICES.
Read letter from the Government, dated 2nd April,, transmitting copy of a despatch from the Acting Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements detailing the measures taken at Singapore to make public notifications of quarantine or medical inspection and ex- pressing the opinion, in view of the steps adopted to secure publicity, that masters of vessels have little reason to complain of the difficulty of obtaining such information.
THE FUMIGATING BUBEAU AND THE RELAXA÷ TION OF QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
849
standing that the measures proposed by the vise little discretion in handling their vessels Hongkong Chamber were carried ont under and show no consideration of foreign steamers. Government supervision, but that, in conse-
I have the honour to be, sir, quence of the marked increase of plague in
Your most obedient servant, Hongkong, it became necessary to declare that
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX, port infected, and the proposals outlined above
Secretary, could not now be carried out.
T
Some discussion followed, and the opinion was expressed that the Straits Government, if aware of the present actual sanitary condition of the Colony, where the plague was not epidemic, would perhaps not have been quite so hasty in declaring the port infected.
QUARANTINE AND MEDICAL INSPECTION,
The Secretary reported that letters on the above subject had been received from the Government on the 25th March, and the 4th, 10th and 12th April, covering copies of notifi cations from the Governments of the Straits Settlements, Bengal, Burmah and Madras, announcing that Hongkong had been declared an infected port by Singapore, and that at Chit- tagong, Burmah ports, and those of the Madras Presidency, plague restrictions would be enforced against arrivals from Hongkong and Taiwan. Also a letter stating that in Shanghai medical inspection had been imposed against arrivals from Hongkong after 18th April. Receipt of all these had been duly acknowledged and copies of the gist of most of them had been supplied to the local Press,
THE PROPOSED RE-SURVEY OF EASTERN SEAS. As decided at the last meeting, a letter in reply to that received from the Secretary of the Fourth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, giving the substance of the reply of the Lords Commissioners of the Ad miralty to this Chamber's last communication on the subjec', was despatched on the 19th March.
The letter was read.
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Hon. J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Colonial Secretary.
SIE,
Colonial Secretary's Offico, Hongkong, 26th March, 1901.
I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant, and to inform you in reply that His Excellency the Governor will be glad to have particulars of any other disasters of this kind that have occurred in the entrances to the Hongkong harbour.
I have the honour to be, sir,.......
Your most obedient servant,
C. ÜLEMENTI, for Colonial Secretary.
The SECRETARY,
Chamber of Commerce.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 11th April, 190129
SIE,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 26th ult. (666) informing me in reply to my letter of the 19th idem (proposing that rules for the regulation of sail- ing craft in the harbour and its approaches should be formulated) that His Excellency the Governor will be glad to have particulars of any disasters similar to the recent stranding of the Menelaus that have occurred in the entrances to Hongkong harbour.
Many other cases of the kind can be cited,
This was all the business of general interest but it is difficult to record them all, as no one before the meeting.
I
seems to have kept any list of dates. About twelve years ago the British steamer Taichow, The following is the correspondence read ut broke her stern when endeavouring to avoid struck on some rocks in the Lyeemün Pass and the meeting:
THE REGULATION OF SAILING CRAFT IN
HONGKONG HARBOUR,
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
SIR,
Hongkong, 19th March, 1901,
The attention of my Committee has been drawn to the necessity existing for some amend- ment in the regulations for controlling and directing the navigation of sailing craft with. in the narrow waters of the Colony.
These regulations provide that vessels pro pelled by steam must give place to vessels driven by wind, and are fair and reasonable when ap- plied to navigation in the open seas, but when applied to the approaches to the harbour they are calenlated to work disastrously to large steamers, whose masters find it difficult to bring them safely through narrow channels crowded with sailing craft, whose practice it frequently is to cross their bows, and who never conceds any right of way to steamers.
The latest instance of disaster resulting from this practice was afforded by the experience of the Ocean Steamship Co's steamer Menelaus, which, in endeavouring to avoid a junk standing in her way, went ashore in Sulphur Channel, causing a heavy loss to her owners and also to the cargo underwriters,
To obviate such disasters in the future, the Committee would suggest that, so far as the harbour entrances are concerned, the responsi- bility of keeping out of the way of incoming small sailing vessels as is done in Singapore, and outgoing steamers should be thrown on the where the following rale has been embodied in the local Port Regulations:-
BOATS GOING THROUGH NEW HARBOUR.
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collision with a junk. Some years later the British steamer Lightning ran on the rocks off Green Island, the P. & O. steamer Ancona collided with a Chinese steamer off North Point, and the steamer Zafiro went ashore on North Point on the 14th November, 1890, all through trying to steer clear of impeding junks. The river steamer Heungshun, when attempting to avoid a sampan on the 20th De- cember, 1892, by porting her helm, ran ashore near the old P. & O. Wharf. The steamer Taisang while trying on the 27th June, 1895, to avoid collision with a junk. struck the Praya Wall. The steamer Whampoa sunk a ballast boat that tried to cross her. bɔws while entering port, one of Messrs. Biemssen & Co.'s steathers collided with a junk on the 17th November, 1888, when entering port, and the river steamer Powan Was in collision with a jonk in Capsuimun Pass on the 18th January, 1901.
It is not only in the narrow approaches to the harbour that such disasters occur--steamers are increasingly liable to them in the fairway which' yearly becomes more crowded. The memorable case in which the P. Mi steamer CityTM of Peking, when entering port on the 29th November, 1886, collided with the M. M. steamer Saghalien, then lying at anchor, and caused her to sink, was due to the former vessel's course being impeded by some junks, the strength of the current carrying her broadside on to the French steamer when trying to avoid them.
It is obviously unfair to masters of steamers
to insist that they should keep out of the way of junks and sailing vessels in the narrow approaches to a crowded harbour, more espe- cially as these craft are usually met with in “All native craft, boats, or rafts going throngh little fleets of five or six. It bould
New Harbour are to keep out of the way remembered that a steames
then deem of the steamers, and should they have to carries way for a consid anchor are to do so well in shore, and at her engines are stopped," night to keep ■ light burning above the she is liable either to onn Read letter dated 3rd April, from the Acting
rail and visible at a distance of one mile," | go on shore, or run in Colonial Secretary, in continuation of previous
The Committee are of opinion that if some
the fairway. correspondence, and transmitting copy of a similar regulation were to be enforced in the letter from the Straits Settlements Government narrow waters of this Colony, it would tend to the effect that it was first proposed, after lemen the difficulties of entering or louring a correspondence with the Singapore Chamber of crowded harbour, and would at the same time Commerce, to permit immigrants to land af er impose no real hardship on the junk-masters Hon. T. Sunconne SMITH, undergoing ten days' quarantine on the under-, and owners of native craft, who at present exer◄ Acting Colonial Secretary
have
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