May 19; 1902.1
THE RAINFALL.
The recent heavy rains which have fallen in the Colony have put a period to a most unsatis. factory state of things as regards the water, supply, but much more will be required before the reservoirs contain sufficient for another year's supply. At 10 o'clock on Thursday morning last Tytam Reservoir contained 124.8 million gallons, or, roughly, one-third of its capacity. In the reservoirs at Wongneichong and Pokfulam there were at the same date 11.8 and 27:2 million gallons respectively. The total amount now in hand is therefore some 162 million gallons, as compared with only 9 million before the rains set in on Thursday of last week. It is reported that the feeders of the reservoirs are all running strongly, too, so that the con- *dition of affairs is vastly more re-assuring than it was a week or so ago. Householders are now able to get three hours' service of water, the mains being open from 6 a.m. till 9 a.m. each day instead of from 6 till each morning as was formerly the case. Meanwhile water is still obtainable from the tanks on the Praya; this service will be continued as long as the people take advantage of it in such numbers as to show that it is required. The details of the rainfall may be interesting. These are AS follows, the days being calculated from 10 a.m. one day till 10 a.m. the next :-
May 8- 9
9-10
10-11
+01
.62 inches.
..96
17
1.45
11-12
.01
$9.
91
13-13 13-14
114
...
17
5.78
""
14-15
2.37 ...
J
Total
12.93
PRICES IN THE CENTRAL MARKET.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
is only one case out of many. It is to be hoped that the Inspector will be upheld in the position he has taken up and that some method will be devised of checking such unwarrantable imposition.
Another matter. about which the public complain is the manner of weighing which is in vogue. There is only one stall which boasts European scales. In all the others the Chinese ching is used. Buyers when they order, say, a pound of meat can stand by and see it weighed and yet be defrauded in spite of themselves, for there are no available means at hand to check the accuracy of the weight; and in many cases, when weighed at home subsequently, purchases are found to be deficient in avoirdupois. The Market anthorities should insist npon every stall-holder possessing European scales, in order that customers may just measure
see that
is given. It is an eloquent fact that the Chinese have not attempted to put up the price of mutton. The new Australian trade inaugurated by the Cold Storage Co. is responsible for that. Perhaps it is not ont of place to throw out the hint that a cold cham- ber at the Market would be appreciated by the public, if the General Manager should see his way to have his Company represented among the stall-holders. Certainly, buyers would prefer to deal at such a stall, where mutton game and fowl could be supplied direct from the ice-chamber. The whole subject of the administration of the Market requires revision, and there should be no time lost in setting matters to right, for the mere fact of there being no anthorised price-list issned is not preventing the Chinese from exacting the increased and exorbitant rates.
THE "KAIFONG" STOWA WAY
CASE.
to
Before Mr. F. A. Hazeland, at the Magis- tracy, on Thursday, the 15th inst., the charge against the No. 1 compradore and the members of the crew of the steamer Kai- fong of aiding and abetting 134 coolies obtain surreptitious passages to Cebu on 5th April was proceeded with. The four Filipino quartermasters and the Chinese cabin boy were discharged, there being nothing against them.
Four solicitors appeared in the case-Mr. G. C. C. Master for the owners of the Kaifong, (Messrs. Butterfield & Swire), Mr. J. Hastings for the No. I compradore, Mr. M. J. D. Stephens for three of the defendants, and Mr. E. J. Grist for ten. The remainder were unrepresented.
The captain, chief officer, chief engineer, and second engineer of the Kaifong gave evidence re- lative to the discovery of the stowaways on the voyage to Cebu, and were followed by two of the stowaways, who stated that they gave the No. 1 firemen $30 each to be taken on board the steamer. Inspector Gauld said he was present when the defendants were arrested, and found on the third $138.
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Witness and these other men took it in turns to go into the 6th defendant's room, where they sometimes received their “chow”, at other times it was brought to them in the hatch. When the ship got to Mauila witness was arrested by an European.
Cross-examined by Mr. Hastings, witness said he told the Court that he got on the steamer by mistake because the eth defendant told him to In the room where he was taken by say so. this defendant were twelve bunks, and eleven of them were occupied.
Mr. Hastings-Was this the compradore's
room?
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His Worship-No, it could not have been. Mr. Hastings-We were led to believe that it was, but the compradore's room would not have eleven bunks in it.
Ho
Witness said he came here to look for employment, not purposely to go to Manila, and met the 6th defendant at the boarding honse where he was staying. With the 6th- defendant he came to an agreement on 3rd April to pay $80 to be taken to Manila, and paid him $40 of that sum on the following day. The money was in silver, and witness brought it with him from Amoy in his belt. handed it over to the 6th defendant at the boarding-house in the presence of the boarding- house keeper, who was to give the other $40, and actually did so, witness promising that if he got work in Manila he would remit the money. The 6th defendant and witness conversed through the interpretation of the boarding- honse keeper, as each spoke a different dialect. The other five men with whom he went on board the steamer paid the same price-$40 each but witness did not see the money paid.
Ng Sin Ting, the boarding-house keeper. said he was a déaler in Manila goods. He had some people staying with him just before the Kaifong sailed, the last witness amongst them: he left with a few friends, including the 6th defendant, to go to Cebu. The party of friends membered 19, and they were travel- ling by the Kaifong. The agreement between was that the compradore and his "friends' he was to get $80 from each if he succeeded in landing them in Cebu; if not, no money was to be paid. Each man paid the 6th defendant $40 through witness, who was to band over the remainder of the money when the Kaifong returned to Hongkong. None of the 19 stowaways personally paid any money to the 6th defendant, who received altogether $760 from witness, and who agreed to look after their food.
Mr. Hastings cross-examined, and elicited that witness and the one who preceded him in the box were relatives, and that the former had called on his kinsman in gaol.
As to the agreement about landing the stow- awaways in Cebu, half of the $80 was to be paid down and the remainder when the ship returned here. Witness, however, contradicted his previous statement that the stowaways personally paid no money to the 6th defendant by saying that he had seen the last witness pay the 6th defendant $40 which he had brought
Another boarding-house keeper was examined, who stated that be made arrangements with the No. 1 fireman to send three stowaways on board.
For a considerable time past there has been good ground for complaint with regard to the way in which the Central Market business is conducted by the Chinese stall-holders. Complaints as to extortion and insolence on the part of these vendors of provisions have been frequent and bitter. Even the official price-list regularly published every week did not serve to prevent extortion. Now the situation has come to a pass which calls for the intervention of the authorities. For a whole fortnight there has been no issue of the revised price-list, owing to the fact that Inspector R. McEwen has refused, we understand, to append his signature to the sheet. It is to be hoped that his righteous refusal to do so will result in making the Sanitary Board look into the subject, with a view to rectification of the abuses complained of by the public, and more stringent regulation of the stall-holders. Prices have of late shown a distinctly upward tendency in the case of almost every article offered for sale in the Market, and this in the absence of the factor which governs the price of
Another of the stowaways on the Kaifong, commodities, namely an insufficient supply to who like the others, is at present in gaol,-down from Amoy.
He said that at the meet the demand. Instead of there being an was then examined insufficient supply of any article of European Chinese boarding-house where he stayed consumption, which of course would receive due for a few days after arriving in Hongkong the 6th defendant consideration from the Inspector in passing the from Fukien he met price list, the very opposite seems to be the case. (the No. 1 compradore), who asked him if The supply of food could hardly be more he would like to go to Manila. Witness said plentiful. Nor can the fall in the value of the he would, and the boarding-house keeper paid dollar be urged as an excuse, for, so far as its the 6th defendant $40 to get witness to that purchasing power on the mainland is concerned place. On the afternoon of 4th April he and sam to the it has undergone no depreciation, financiers five others were taken in a agree. The rise in market-prices must simply Kaifong by the 6th defendant, and whilst his be put down to an organised attempt on the part companions were led away to the fore part of of the Chinese vendors to bleed the European the ship, witness was asked to go into the 6th even more freely than he is bled at present. defendant's cabin, where he remained until the Doubtless they considered the present time op-ship sailed on the following day. The only portune for putting their plan into execution, the inspection of the Market having been transferred from Inspector J. T. Cotton to Inspector McEwen, and a transition period apparently lending itself to such a move. The result was that the price-list submitted to the Inspector for his approval a fortnight ago showed an increase all round of something like 20 per cent. To take beef, for example: the prices before were 14 to 15 cents; according to posed new scale of charges, these would risen to 18 to 19′ œents, Yet scarcity of boof. And this
there
two people he saw were the 17th and 39th defendants (the tallyman and the assistant cook), who supplied him with food. After the ship sailed witness was asked by these two hatch, which defendants to go into the was reached by a small hole in the 6th defendant's cabin covered over with flour bags. When witness saw the dark hole he refused to go down, but the two defendants kicked him down and covered the hole again. A place had been made in the cargo for him to go into, and in it were about twenty other stow- sways so far as could be judged in the darkness.
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This concluded the evidence, and his Worship, after having been addressed by the solicitors in the case, said he would first deal with the charge against the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 17th, and 39th defen- dants (the No. 1 fireman, steward, No. 1 compradore, tallyman, and cook respectively). With reference to the 3rd, 17th, and 39th, it was clear that they had been guilty of the offence with which they were charged, and under these circumstances he was justified in convicting them. As regarded the 4th defen- dant, the only evidence against him was that he had been seen talking to one of the stow aways, and that, in bis Worship's opinion, was not sufficient to convict him. As to the 6th defendant, the evidence against him, as Mr. Hastings, his solicitor, had pointed out, had certainly been conflicting, but, putting himself in the position of a jury, his Worship felt satisfied on this point that the 6th defend- took some of the stowaways on board. therefore had no hesitation in convictin of being an aider and abbetter. – The 6th defendants would be fined $500- months' imprisonment with hard labour,
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