20
CHINA NEW YEAR AND THE CLEANSING OF HONGKONG.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND CHUN's good faith, but even if he can influence his poorer fellow-countrymen in the way he has undertaken we do not believe that the extra help from the Chinese whose dwellings, etc., a'e to be cleansed will compensate for the loss of precious The concession of an entire week time. perhaps is unavoidable, if to be regretted, but that the 8th to the 15th February should be added for no better reasons than those advanced at Thursday's meeting is absurd. We should like to have heard the other mem- bers who voted for Mr. Fung Wa Chun's motion speak on it before they gave their adhesion to the proposal. It is to be noted that Mr. LAU CHUPAK spoke only of the Chinese having," so much to do before the New Year." Mr. BREWIN, out-Heroding Herod, did not improve his clients' case by his assertion of the equivalence of the Chinese fortnight to our three days at Christmas.
(Daily Press, 11th January.) We do not imagine that any sensible and unprejudiced European resident in this Colony will disagree with the remark of Dr. CLARK, Medical Officer of Health, at the Sanitary Board on Thursday when he said that he thought that a week's suspen- sion of cleansing and disinfecting operations in Hongkong was sufficient on account of the China New Year festivities. It is true that two European members of the Sanitary Board spoke on behalf of Mr. FUNG WA CHUN's motion for a fortnight's suspension of work and declared that the request seemed to them reasonable. But Mr. OSBORNE at least expressed his fear that the cleansing gang would take the holiday anyhow and was in favour of making a virtue of necessity. The President very naturally asked whether the whole of the fourteen days would he required for the holiday. Mr. FUNG WA CHUN's reply about the preparation of cakes and puddings was not to the point. Even if it be granted that it takes seven days to prepare these delicacies, it is surely trifling to tell us that seven more whole days are required to eat them. The Chinese, no doubt, are an exceedingly industrious race, for the most part, and their general disregard for the length of working hours is remarkable. This being so, the supplementary motion carried by the Board on the 9th instant seems to us all the more unnecessary. Europeans in Hongkong have notably few holidays; in fact in no port in the Far East are the breaks in the routine of work so few. A precedent is now being introduced for a privilege to the native working-classes which we should not dream of suggesting for ourselves. This matter would not be so serious, were it not for the object of the operations which it is proposed to interrupt. The cleansing and disinfecting work now Leing carried on under the direction of the Sanitary Board is expressly designed to do away, as far as is possible, with the filthy conditions which foster the birth and growth of plague in our midst. The Board on Thursday consented to stop these ne- cessary labours for seven days before and seven days after the 8th February, the first day of the first Chinese moon. It is worth while to examine the plague figures for February and the following month, compared with the annual totals, during the years of epidemic in Hongkong. They can be tabulated as follows :-
1896..
February March Whole Year
139
132
1,204
1898.
67
137
1,825
1899.
2
25
1900..
8
5
104
1901...
14
1,462 1,086 1,487 It will be seen that in two years out of five the plague was in full swing in February and in a third in March. It is not too much to say that the period February to early March is a very critical one in the course of the epidemic. For two weeks of this period we are to see suspended the practical measures which now for the first tine have been adopted in Hongkong to check the outbreak of our deadliest scourge. A possible consequence may be though all will earnestly pray that this will not come to pass-that the plague may be on us in an early stage of the cleansing operations. The Sanitary Board has deliberately stulti- fied itself, and in return for nothing at all but Mr. FuNG WA Chun's guarantee that the Chinese will "help us all the more" in our.measures of cleansing and disinfection. We do not of course doubt Mr. FUNG WA'
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#4
66
SHIPPING SUBSIDIES.
(Daily Press, 9th January.)
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44
[January 13, 1902. judging by the conflicting character of the evidence so far. In any case, however, he says, the enquiry is one which, at this particular juncture, we as a nation prac- Lically dependent on shipping cannot afford The question with us," he to neglect. continues, "is not whether we shall sub. sidise our shipowners and shipbuilders, but how the bounties granted by other nations have affected or may affect both." With the natural development of foreign shipping Great Britain can compete tranquilly, but unnatural development by means of go- vernment aid is feared because its potentia- lity is unknown. Mr. TAYLOR ranges him- self at once among the opponents of the MCCULLOCH'S bounty system, quoting saying that a trade that cannot be carried on without the aid of a bounty must be a naturally disadvantageous one, the history of all businesses carried on in this country by the aid of bounties proving that they are hardly less disadvantageous to those engaged in them than to the public. He goes on:-
4
This country has had experience of boun- "ties for the encouragement of the fishing industry, and the provison of an import- "ant nursery for seamen. The system failed in both of the objects in view. The fishermen were distinctly injured by 'the bunties, which attracted into the "industry a crowd of interlopers, who glutted the home markets and spoilt the export trade in herrings. Immediately after the bounties were repealed the quantity of herrings cured and exported doubled; thereby demonstrating that the best way to promote the industry was to leave it alone."
E
The author of the article in the Monthly Review deals in turn with the system of subsidies in the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia' Belgium, Holland, and Japan, and gives the following table of mail subsidies and bounties of various character paid to shipp. ing by the several maritime countries, the
latest amounts being for the obtainable:-
United Kingdom (mails only)
do. United States
France (mails and bounties) Germany (mail subsidies) Italy (mails and bounties) Russia (mails and bounties) Austria-Hungary (mails and bounties) Portugal (mail subsidies) Netherlands do. Norway Sweden
years
£
764,117
357.723
1,787,270
400,000
500.000
374,700
400,000
13,000
75,000
30,000
17,000
20,000
700,000
In Mr. Acting Consul WAWN's report on the trade of North Formosa for the year 1900, which has only just been published by the Foreign Office, some very interesting remarks are to be found under the head of Shipping, bearing on the question of the subsidies granted by the Japanese Govern- ment and their effect on competitors with the Japanese lines. From the tabulated return of foreign-going ships entering and cleared at Tansui and Kelung during 1900 it appears that British shipping showed a remarkable decrease, only 56 vessels enter- ing during the year, as against 100 in 1899. Japanese shipping slightly increased, 57 vessels in 1900 against 42 in 1899. Only one German vessel entered during 1900, as against nine in 1899. Mr. WAWN com- ments as follows:-"The decrease in British shipping is owing to the withdrawal of "the regular service of steamers run by the Douglas Steamship Company, which found "it impossible to compete successfully against the heavily subsidised Osaka Shosen Kaisha. Up to June, 1900, three Douglas steamers were on the run, but two were taken off at the end of that "month, and only 51 Douglas steamers "entered in 1900, as against 95 in 1899. It is a pity that some arrangement could "not have been made between the rival 'companies; competition lowered freights
to such an
extent that the Douglas "steamers made very little if any profit by the run, and I doubt whether the Japanese "steamers would be able to keep up the
With regard to the mail subsidies of the 'service, were it not for the subsidy which United Kingdom (which, it may be noted, Mr. were reduced by £24,000 in 1900), our pay- "they receive from the Government." WAWN anticipated a still further decreasement for mail and services is less than one- in British shipping during the year just twelfth of one per cent, of the annual value According to the past. As the figures for 1901 are not yet of British se traffic. to hand we cannot say to what extent this statement of Sir THOMAS SUTHERLAND expectation has been verified. The figures himself, it is very questionable whether of the previous year, however, are sufficiently the P. and O. Company, one of the significant. The question of shipping sub- few sidies is one which is exciting much In the interest at home just now. December number of the Monthly Review there appears an article dealing with the subject by Mr. BENJAMIN TAYLOR, a writer who was already well known for his A Select contributions to the discussion. Committee of the House of Commons last year issued an interim report on the nature and influence of foreign subsidies on British shipping in which they recommended that the Committee be reappointed early in the next session of Parliament to continue the enquiry. Of this enquiry Mr. TAYLOR says that it is more likely to result in confusion of opinion than in material for legislation,
看看
Denmark
do. do.
do.
Japan (mails and bounties)...
companies who are paid fixed annual amount by the Government, gain anything directly by the mail subsidies they receive, as they are forced to provide very expensive vessels, and to despatch them at stated times, whether full or empty. Such payments are very far from being bounties, says Mr. TAYLOR, and they are certainly very much less profitable to the owners than the payments to vessels engaged in the transport service to South Africa, which no one has thought of calling sub- sidies. Nor, he continues, can the Admir- alty payment of £60,000 per annum, divided over ten vessels for the right to use them in case of need as cruisers, be regarded as bounty, for in order to adapt these vessels
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