:
August 26, 1901.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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support, that is, until foreigners have of 35 being converted into a majority of 32. begun to move in considerable numbers We shall receive shortly from Shanghai "into the suburbs, he has another reason some details of the speeches and voting, "for choosing streets which are more ex- which may throw further light on the clusively used by Chinese. His scheme motives actuating the opponents of the "will give the community a practical insight | scheme. It may be assumed, however, that "into the value of tramways, which it is property-holders in the centre of the town 'undoubtedly well that we should have used all their strength against a proposal "before we dispose of the rights in our which threatened to reduce their rents by leading thoroughfares." The fact of the relieving overcrowding in the Settlement. French Municipal Council proposing to in- The triumph, such as it is, will almost augurate shortly a tramway system in their certainly be found to be the triumph of Settlement at Shanghai, and of Hongkong vested interests-ever the most serious and Tientsin both having decided on tram incubus haunting the life of a Far Eastern ways was expected, as no doubt it did, to settlement, whether it be a Crown Colony spur the Shanghai ratepayers on to make a Municipality. Hongkong has not a further advance in municipal progress. | escaped from this obsession, as we have had Shanghai, like our own city, has been occasion to point out recently. Fortunately, suffering severely from excessive rents and however, it has been to the honour and interest alike of some of our most prominent lack of building land, and the cry for more rapid communication between the centre residents to foster the growth and im- and the boundaries, enabling an extension provement of the colony, which under of the latter, has been growing stronger and purely official guidance would have stagnated stronger. The following lines from the entirely. Shanghai bas had a far better name for progressive tendencies than has above-quoted article in the North-China Daily News might, with a trifling alteration, Hongkong. In one particular at last we have appeared in a Hongkong paper at any seem to have shown to better advantage.
It is hardly neces- date for many years:-
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the tenants as Crown Rent. Mr. GoMPERTZ'S lucid explanations of the origin of the anomalies of land tenure, as well as of the various methods by which land has been originally acquired in the New Territory, are logical, conclusive and convincing. His suggestions and recommendations are plainly the outcome of mature thought, following on long and patient research, and are there- fore entitled to the fullest consideration. The principal Police Stations have been equipped with Maxim guns: an admirable precaution, when we consider the prevalent turbulent character of the adjoining part of of the district of San On. It is doubless owing to this salutary fact, and to the temporary reinforcement of the froutier stations and of Taipo that, in spite of ill-suppressed chronic disorder, occasionally flaming into open rebellion over the boun- dary, no attempt has so far been made to disturb the peace in the New Territory. In Appendix 8, we learn of some of the difficulties encountered in the course of the Cadastral Survey: on the hill slopes, and in the glens and narrower valleys, as many as 120 and even more fields to the acre were met with. In Appendix 4, dealing with the work of the Public Works Department, we sary to point out to those who are suffering are informed that the total distance to Tai- "from the high rents which have become po now turns out to be 18 miles: not 16, as "inevitable with the rapidly increasing value Mr. LOCKHART has it in his Report. The of land within the old limits of the Settle- least gratifying feature is the Governmental "ments, what an advantage it will be to Balance Sheet-Revenue and Expenditure."establish cheap and rapid communication Here we see that the reasonably opti. "with the suburbs, where houses can be mistic views entertained by Mr. LOCKHART "built that can be let at reasonable rents. in his Report to Downing Street, in October The time occupied in transit and the cost of 1898, have not been fulfilled. Then, he have heretofore prevented to a great extent anticipated no difficulty in raising, from the the erection of middle-class dwellings in outset, an annual revenue big enough to our eastern and western suburbs." Hither. meet the cost of administration: at the to in Shanghai, as our contemporary points same time, he estimated the expenditure at out, there has been no improvement in the a lakh and a quarter of dollars. Let us means of communication in the Model compare this forcast with actual facts. Settlement" since the introduction of the The expenditure for 1900 was 8248,361.66, | jinrickisha. It has of course to be proved, exclusive of Police Establishment expenses, as the Mercury says, that the Chinese will which, as obtained from the Hon. F. H. prefer to ride a certain distance in fifteen MAY, C.M.G., Captain Superintendent, were minutes rather than in two hours on a wheel- $102,292.48: this gives a total gross expen-barrow. But this can hardly be doubted, diture of very nearly $350,000. The revenue, derived from all sources, during the same period, amounted to $17,580.75. Such a financial result after the expenditure already of so much time and labour on the New Territory is an unsatisfactory item in the Report,
SHANGHAI AND THE TRAMWAY SCHEME.
(Daily Fress, 22nd August.)
4
To judge from the anticipations in the leading Shanghai papers last week, the result of the voting on the proposed tramway scheme at the special Ratepayers' Meeting must come as a rather severe blow to the Shanghai public. It is true that of the ratepayers actually present 92 voted for the scheme and only 57 against, but the demand for a poll enabled the proxy-holders to turn the scale the other way, and the scheme was rejected. The idea of this tramway origi nated with Mr. ZIEGLER, & German by birth, but long resident in London and now Shanghai ratepayer. What he actually pro- posed at the meeting was an experimental line from Garden Bridge on the Bund to St. George's Farm, to be followed by other lines should the experiment prove a success. The North-China Daily News, writing on the 12th instant, said :-"The great point "of Mr. ZIEGLER's scheme as now formu- lated is that it involves little or no expense "to the community. It is a practical ex- periment which he proposes to make at “his own cost, and as its financial success "must depend for some time on Chinese
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provided that the fares are sufficiently low. The promoters of our own tramway scheme have expressed themselves confidently on the point, and all existing evidence is in their favour. When the first prejudice to an innovation has been overcome, the Chi- nese have always shown themselves appre. ciative of quick transit facilities.
or
GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMAN
TRADE.
The result is very
(Daily Press, 23rd August.) Our German contemporary in Shanghai complains of what it calls the action of British Colonies, aud especially of Singapore, designed to suppress the rising power of German shipping, and professes to be reminded by this action of a saying of Spinoza : Unusquisque tantum juris habet quantum potenti valet "—ie, practically, Might is Right. The writer in the Ostasia- tische Lloyd scorns the idea that the rapid growth of German commerce and shipping in the Far East can be hindered by British efforts, but he is still morbidly suspicious that the actions of various colonial autho- rities to protect themselves are all aimed at undermining Germany's commercial great- ness. He says (we paraphrase bis remarks): The British do not to-day, as they did formerly, merely whisper among themselves their anxiety about German commercial growth, but give loud utterance to it before the world. They are no longer satisfied with empty protests, but take such precau tions as from their own point of view appear justifiable. The Shanghai newpapers wrote hopefully unpleasant to nou-British shippers in East Asiatic waters. Nor can it be denied last week of the prospects of the scheme at the Ratepayers' Meeting. The North-China that Britain, possessing all the important Daily News said :-" What we want is a points between Suez and Japan, is in a practical demonstration that will stop the position to put many difficulties in the other nations' shipping, and constant objections of the typical con.
way of servative Shanghai man, ⋅ We're not going especially Germany's. But she has ceased to have the Bund and the Bubbling Well | to be almighty on the sea, continues the Road spoilt by tramways, and all the German writer, and she will go on losing And so on. The whole article is other streets are too narrow.' This must power. be answered by laying tramways in the designed to show that Great Britain, afraid “streets and working them, and we hope to of Germany's rapid growth, is determined see the ratepayers deciding at the meeting to wreck it in whatever way it is possible. next Monday that the experiment shall | Of course, no serious refutation of the "be made." The Mercury speaks with more arguments is required. The conclusion is "It is for the construc-absurd. At the same time, so exaggerated coufidence still :—" "tion of this experimental line alone that has been the language of those English "the ratepayers will be asked to give their | writers who wail about their country's consent, and, we have no doubt that the commercial decadence that it is not to be 'majority who vote will cast it in favour wondered at that foreigners should mistake of a tramway which is now so very much the state of affairs. The line of policy which needed and which is so important to the the Ostasiatische Lloyd secuses our colonia! future development of these Settlements." authorities of taking is precisely that which This confidence was justified by the voting the German Press, at home and abroad, of those ratepayers actually present at the strenuously advocates for the German However, patriotism and con- meeting. But the absentee landlord was colonies. not to be defeated so easily. The proxy.sistency are difficult to combine, and the holders nearly quadrupled the vote against German writer, excited by recent legislation the scheme, while the vote in its favour was ❘ of the Straits Settlements Executive Conncil, little more than doubled, an adverse minority may be pardoned for his distorted view of
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