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vocative of the greatest wonder among the foreign soldiery; this is not surprising when they see a brave riding under an umbrella or keeping guard with a minute one-cent fan.
It is a highly contentious point whether Tientsin will come under native jurisdiction or will remain under the ever improving rule of the Provisional Government. I verily believe that if a plebiscite could be taken, the people would vote for the continuation of the P.G: Now that it has experience as well as honesty of intention, it is doing remarkably well. During the last seven months it has improved the city of Tientsin out of all recognition and has done more than the Chinese would have accomplished in as many centuries. At the present moment its energy is largely directed on that wide- spread organisation of thieves which has fattened like a vampire on the trade of the Port for thirty years and which has reduced river piracy to a fine art. The Provisional Govern. ment is also about to make an interesting experiment in the way of opening something like a free library in the city, and I for one should not be surprised to see it attacking the education question shortly.
RIVER IMPROVEMENT.
The Ministers are busy putting the final touches to the schemes for effective river conservancy in Tientsin and Shanghai. They are to be embodied in the treaty of peace. Our Tientain scheme is practically a going concern ; the organisation and finance have been agreed to in principle, and only one or two details have to be settled. The first Commissioners are General Wogack, representing the Provisional Government, Mr. L. H. Hopkins, representing the Consular Body, and Mr. G. Dotting, the Commissioner of Customs; to these is added a consultative body, which will later on haye co-administrative power and which is formed of nominees of the Chamber of Commerce, the Municipalities and the Shipping Companies. The constitution of the Conservanoy is open to criticism, but everybody concerned has shown fine self-repression in withholding this lest delay should be caused in the all important matter of getting to work. The great outtings will be begun the day the rainy season ends. The Provisional Government is to find the funds for the first instalment of the work--Tls. 250,000.
THE ALLIED VILLAGERS.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
in which musical high-water mark has been reached. The brilliant baritone has been much impressed with the high level of musical culture among Tientsin amateurs.
SANDAKAN NOTES.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Sandakan, 13th July. ISUFFICIENT WHARFAGE. The rebuilding of the Sandakan Wharf, or rather the patching up of the old wharf, has at last been started, and is proceeding apace. One, needs, however, to be a Government official to be at all elated over the work, for not only is the wharf not being carried out into that Sandakan has got for lack of wharf space deeper water, but in spite of the wide notoriety it is not intended to extend it at all at this time, As regards the lack of water at low tide Sandakan and the Montang frequently take the here, it may not be generally known but the sand at low water when they are deeply laden, as on the eve of departure for Hongkong As to the wharfage being quite insufficient, this is practically demonstrated so very frequently, and the fact is so widely known, that there is no need to go into any details. It was hoped the new Governor would at least do something in this vitally important matter, but it does not look like it, more's the pity.
MANILA.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Manila, 4th July. INAUGURATION OF THE FIRST CIVIL GOVERNOR. This morning at nine o'clock the Hon. William H. Taft, President of the Philippine Commission, took the oath of office, and became the first Civil Governor of the Islands. The ceremony was brief and simple, but impressive. It was performed in a tribune erected on the granite foundations of the projected Spanish government building, on the west side of the Ayuntamiento Plaza. It faced the head. quarters, and is one of the prettiest spots in the city. The central portion of the tribune accommodated about two hundred persons, members of the Consular Corps, the Commis- The Allied Village system, of which we are sion, and officers of the army and navy. Each now hearing so much, is somewhat obscure in of the wings was well filled with officials and its origin, its aims and its work; as far as we
civilians and their families. Those who were can make out it is a sort of Cave-of-Adullam not fortunate enough to receive tickets of ad- movement, very catholic in the spirit with mission occupied the street and grass-plots of which it includes all who will refuse to be sat the plaza. A few minutes before nine o'clock upón and to pay new or extra taxes. In some President Taft and the Commission, accom. C8898 it seems to be pro-Boxer, in others panied by Generals McArthur and Chaffee and anti; but in all its proximate object is self- their respective staffs and the senior naval protection from the impositions of every-officers walked from the Ayuntamiento to the body-officials, foreigners, robbers, &c. It owes much of its
hitherto success
to the remarkable example set in Chihli last summer, when the Fathers in several places set about the fortification of the villages and by their skill and the stout hearts of their converts defied the Boxer power indefinitely, The Chihli peasant seems to have risen to the idea "if one village could do this, a fortori can a whole series of villages do better still," but there is one element of the problem with which they have not reckoned and which I fear will make short work of their resistance, viz., artillery.
THE TIENTSIN ANNIVERSARY.
We have been busy socially commemorating the great delivery of last year. The ladies did some very gracious and kindly work in tending the graves of our two hundred odd faller heroes. Then there was a banquet in Gordon Hall, with Consul Zimmermann în the chair (in the absence of Major-General Wogack); this was followed by a huge garden party in Victoria Park at night, when a bombardment of amimio Gordon Hall took place in which a lot of dummy Boxers met the fate they meant for na. Lastly on July 14th the
children are to have their own little com-
memoration by a picnic at the Race-course. Although the fetes were a success, a goodly number abstained from them on the ground that the time has hardly yet come for rejoicing
and celebration.
ME. MARAH'S CONCERTS.
Under the auspices and leadership of Mr. Aleo Marsh we have had two heilliant concerts
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tribune and took their seats, while the bands played a lively maroh. General McArthur introduced Mr. Taft in a few brief remarks, saying: Following the orders of the President of the United States, it becomes my duty to transfer certain of the civil functions, which have heretofore been exercised by the military authorities, to the Hon. Wm. H. Taft, the first Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands. It now but remains for him to take the oath of office, which the Chief Justice will administer." Chief Justice Arellaño raised his right hand and read the oath in Spanish, which was trans- lated into English by Mr. Arthur Ferguson, the Secretary of the Commission, and the new Governor answered “ I do" in a loud voion. It was all over, except the reading of the inaugural address. As the Chief Justics lowered his hand, the guests in the tribune began the cheering, which was taken up by the crowd and vastly increased while the Malecon battery fred the salute of seventeen guns and the beads played “ Hail to the Chief.”
GOVERNOR TAFT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
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(July 20, 1901.
low. om.
added to the Commission as members of the governing body. He also announced the creation of four executive departments under ing heads Interior, Dean Worce merce and Police, Lake E. Wright, Justies and Finance, Henry C.Ide; Public Instruction, Bernard Moses.
He was frequently interrupted by applause from those in the stand and in the street, and the Filipinos of the audience were loud in their cheers. However, owing to the mixed audience and the necessity of stopping after each para- graph to permit translation, besides the fact that the whole thing was new to most of the audience, there was not the spontaneous enthusiasm which was expected.
GENERAL CHAFFEE SUCOFEDS GENERAL
MCARTHUR.
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returned to the Ayuntamiento, where General When the address was over, the party McArthur transferred his command and duties to General Chaffee. This required only a few the Military and Naval Commanders and Staffs moments, and then the Governor, Commission, escorted General McArthur in carriages to the Pasig landing, where after brief adieus he boarded his launch and steamed down the river to the transport Meade, while the bands played "Auld Lang Syne." Then the Governor and General Chaffee drove togther to the Ayun- tamiento, where they held a reception in the Session Hall. It was concluded when the noon gan sounded over the western walls; and in one morning of three hours the Military Governor had retired, the new Commander had taken up his duties, and Civil Government had come to bless the country under the first American Civil Governor. Who says this is the land of Mañana?
J
PHILIPPINES UNDER CIVIL RULE.
[FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]
Manila, 28th June. THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. Civil rule is about to be installed in the Philippines with the organisations in the provinces and a central government at Manila. Nearly all of the provinces will have been". organised under the Provincial Act, passed in February, the Civil Commission having visited so far for that purpose nearly 30 out of 40 of them. The most notable exception is furnished in Mindanao, where conditions of population and of resources along the south coast make it advisable at this time to substitute a civil department, to include the Jolo and other · southern groups, in all of which the Filipinos are so few in number and the Moros and other tribes so numerous as to make ordinary govern. ment impracticable. Provision somewhat similar, or at any rate by special act, will be made for the supervision of some of the tribal districts of Northern Luzon. The island of Mindoro, heretofore unoccupied and to which troops have been forwarded this month, has no place in immediate plana. Samar must also be left out, because the military authorities seem to have thought until recently that the insur- rection ought to wear itself out, rather than he suppressed. Manila is to be organised under a separate act.
The executive head of the civil government will be William H. Taft, President of the Civil Commission. He will have a cabinet composed of the remaining members of the Commission, who will also sit with several Filipinos, to be appointed at first but perhaps afterward elected, as the chief legislative body of the islands. There will be a reorganiza- tion of the judiciary, the Supreme Court sitting as a whole at Manlia,” `and - by divisions at Cebu and Iloilo, at times to prescribed, for hearing appeals on questions fact. A circuit system is ready for under American judges, some of brought from the United States what are locally known as Courts Instance, which will
When the applause subsided, Governor Taft began the delivery of his inaugural address, which pocnessed the happy charnotereation of his other public atterances in being honest, concies, and to the point. There was no flowery county or superior courts.⠀ language or attempt at oratory, but it belody that Americans hold thees reviewed past conditions in militury and civil | or Spanish lawysen in affairs and looked hopefully into the future. In | thoroughly trained the beginning he made the nanousonment that on ❘ of the old school that September next Dr. Pardo T. H.Taverns, Señores | procedure will José Luzuriaga and Benito Legards would bo'
·Bench hot
too
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