July 14, 1902.]
During 1901 there were 41 grass-fires in Hongkong, leading to the destruction of 12,174 trees.
A Government Gazette Extraordinary on the 7th inst, notified that Amoy was declared an infected port.
By a Government Gazette Extraordinary issued on the 9th inst, Tientsin was declared an infected port.
Mr. C. Mol. Messer has been appointed a member of the Governing Body of Queen's College during the absence of Mr. E. A. Irving. Acting on behalf of the owners of the 8.8. Kate, Messrs. Hughes & Hough on Friday disposed of the San Hop Cheung junk for $11,000. The buyers were Chinese.
The British transport Pentakota arrived in the harbour on the 6th with the 4th Punjab Infantry from Tientsin. The Uganda arrived on the 5th with reliefs from Karachi.
We are informed that the following telegram has been received by Mr. H. N. Mody from Sir C. P. Chater: "Express to all good friends hearty thanks for congratulations.-Chater."
Some shavings catching fire and going up in a blaze in a house at 12, Öld Bailey on the 5th iast, were responsible for the turning out of the Fire Brigade under Mr. A Mackie. The occur ants, however, extinguished the outbreak before any damage resulted.
On Saturday night a sampan in the Harbour capsized suddenly near
H.M.S. Terrible, Several other sampans passed by without offering the slightest assistance to the drowning people, but fortunately the boats of the Terrible, under the direction of Commander F. C. A. Ogilvy, were soon out and managed to save all the occupants of the capsized boat. The cruiser's search-lights were employed to aid in the rescue, a fact which was noticed by many who did not understand the cause of their use.
The body of a Swede in the employ of Messrs. Ponchard & Lowther as a night watchman was found. floating in the basin of the reclamation works near Murray Pier on the 6th inst. An Indian watchman saw the body and raised the alarm. Two employees dived in, but found that
the man had been dead for some considerable time. It is not known how the unfortunate man came to be in the water. He had been seen alive
as late as on the 4th inst., when he was apparently quite well. When the body was brought ashore, a large gash was discovered across the forehead, but this is supposed to be the result of a fall.
A detective-sergeant in the Hongkong Police was returning from Macao a day or two ago, and when the steamer had been half-an-hour on
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
the trip a Portuguese constable, uniformed and wearing a sword, came up on deck from amongst the Chinese passengers ft. The circumstance struck the detective as peculiar, and he set a Chinese plain-clothes man to watch the Portuguese, who was seen to divest himself of sword and belt and throw them into the sea; then he took off his regulation boots and substituted a pair of white shoes. When the steamer reached British waters the detective asked the deserter-for such he undoubtedly was what he meant by his conduct, but the man's astonishment and chagrin at discovery of his schemb were too great to permit of an explanation. He is now in prison here, and the Macao authorities have been communicated with.
Mr. J. F. Boulton has been appointed Acting A sistant Director of Public Works.
Professor Simpson, the sanitary expert, left by the Kiautschou for Kobe on the 10th inst.
Mr. Henry Keswick has been admitted a partner in the firm of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Coi
The insurrection in the Philippines being at an end, the process of emptying the military prisons is going,on. Does this mean more beachcombers for Hongkong?
The Hon. Treasurer of the Alice Memorial and Netbersole Hospitals begs to acknowledge with thanks the following donatiou to the funds of the Hospitals:- Hongkong Government. $300.
Though there was no falling off in money realised by plant sales in the Botanical Gardens in 1901, there was a largo decrease in the number of plants sold-from 3,451 to 2,345. This was due to the doubling of prices ab nt the middle of the ye r, which made the plants too dear for the poorer section of the general public to buy.
On the 8th inst. the Kowloon Bowling Green Club final for the silver mounted bowls presented by Mr. T. H. Reid was played off, the contest ants being Messrs. J: Henderson and T, Petrie, In the result, the former won by 21 shots to 13. As each of the finalists gets a pair of silver- mounted bowls, the credit of winning is the victor's only additional reward.
On the return journey of the Terrible's private liberty steam-launch from Murray Pier at 10 p.m. 'on the 3rd inst., a stoker named George West fell overboard while the boat was steaming between the Tamar and the Terrible. West had been previously cautioned by one of the chief petty officers who were passengers on board that his position on the gunwale was somewhat precarious, but, unfortunately, for himself, he persisted in remaining where he was sitting. The steam-launch was quickly stopped, but no trace of the man could be dis- covered; many of the passengers on the launch were waiting to plunge to his rescue should any definite object present itself to their eyes. The Terrible was hailed and the information shouted that a man was overboard, whereupon the ship's searchlights were brought into action with great promptitude, and the surface of the water was carefully searched. In the mean- time nearly one-half of the ship's boats were manned and sent in various directions, the search being maintained over a large arca of the arbour until midnight, when, every effort proving futile, the boats were recalled. We understand that West was not married and was 38 years of age; he had been fourteen years in the Navy. His end is particularly reguet table, as the Terrible is now under orders for England, and West had served with the Naval Brigade both in South Africa and in North China. The body was found on the Gth inst, near the cruiser, and was interred in Happy Valley at 5.30 p.m. with naval honours.
H.M.SS. Fearless and Sandpiper are in dock at Kowloon,
A special meeting of Justices of the Peace was held at the Magistracy on Friday afternoon at 2.15 for the purpose of considering the following applications: (1) From William Young for the transfer of his publican's licence.1 to sell and retail intoxicating liquors at No. :, Shaukiwan Road, under the sign of the Me tropole Hotel," to B. Eally; (2) from Luiz Manoel Lobo for p rmission to remove his publican's bu-i ess from No. 142, Queen's Road Central, to Nos. 148 and 150, Queen's Road Central, under the sign of the Stag Hotel." Mr. F. A. Hazeland, Police Magistrate, presided, and the others present were the Hon. F. J. Badeley, Captain Superintendent of Police; Mr. J. H. Kemp, Acting Police Magistrate; Mr. A. H. Rennie, merchant; Mr. C. A, D. Melbourne, Chief Clerk, Magistracy; and Mr. R. H. Craig, Assistant Superintendent, Victoria! Gaol Mr. Young's application was granted unanimously, but that by Mr. Lobo was edjourned for a fortnight on account of some slight sanitary defects in the building to which he proposes to transfer his business.
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The Portuguese gunboat Diu arrived from Macao on the 7th inst. river gunboat still at Macao.
There is a French
39
It was hoped that not only Hongkong, but also Kobe should be able to send a cricket team to Shanghai this autumu. It appears, however, that not only Kobe but even Kobe and, Yokohama combined cannot raise a team. Pro- bably the fact that the Interport Cricket Match takes place in Kobe in the autumn is partly responsible for the inability of the local Club to send a team to Shanghai. Altogether, a Shang- hai cricket week seems improbable this year, for even Hongkong is a very doubtful visitor.
The British transport Uganda left on the 7th inst. for Taku, carrying reliefs from Karachi; and the transport Pentakota left for Calcutta with the 4th Punjab Infantry from Tientsin board.
on
The German guvboat Luchs arrived from Canton on Friday.
MISCELLANEOUS.
According to a Northern vernacular paper certain English capitalists are reported to have been trying to obtain from the Central Govern. ment permission ‘o construct a branch railway between Peking and Paoting, the provincial capi- tal of Chibli, much to the satisfaction of Chinese merchants trading between the two points, who heard of the affair, and a large number of officials whose duties make them travel fre- quently between eking, Tientsin, and Paoting. There is, however, a fear that obstruction may be placed in the way of the scheme, owing to the reported jealousy of the foreigners who have the construction of the Lu-Han Railway in hand.
At the request of the Viceroy of Chibli, the Japanese Government has recommended Mr. Fuji, President of the Osaka Commercial Museum, for the post of adviser to the Engineering Bureau of Chibli.
The country in the 1orth of Shantung and also in the south of (hibli is reported to be very dry for the want of spring rains; 80 much so that in many places the cops have not Leen put in at all, and if rain does not fall soon the outlook will be serious.
On the 27th ult., the day before H.M.S. Pique left Sasebo for Weihaiwei, eighty scholars of the Saseho Female School, with their teachers, paid a visit to the warship and were entertained to tea. The girls were presented with hat-bands printed with the ship's name, which they tied round their heads, afterwards having their photographs taken.
Joseph Hale, a man who deserted from Company K of the Eighth Infantry, on 19th January, 101, while stationed at Bay in Laguna, and who joined the insurgent forces under the name of Horry Horal Alman and issued pamphlets calling upon his former com- rades to follow his example, escaped the night of 30th June from the Quartel de Espana, where he had been confined since November, 1901, says the Manila Timea,
He was soon after wards recaptured on board the 8.8. Loong- sang hiding under the bunk in the third engineer's cabin, Messrs. Smith, Bell & Co., agents of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co.. Ld.. have written to the above-mentioned journal denying on behalf of Captain Weigall the statement which had been made as to the complicity of the Leongsang's officers in Hale's attempted escape. Hale, it seems, had gone on board furnished with a letter of introduction to the third engineer.
The Administration Report on Pahang for 1901 notes a slight improvement in revenue, which stood at $438,558 against a growing outlay amounting to $696,842. The State is heavily in debt with a loan account standing at nearly three and a half millions of dollars, mostly advanced by the State of Selangor. The total value of the import and export seaborne trade slightly increased to $3,619.505. Little has been done in planting beyond experimenting with tapioca and cocoanuts. Tin-mining gave encouraging results, the output being 22,339 piculs against 15,728 piculs in the previous year. In Bentong, tin prospects looked brighter than ever. The output of gold was 23.948 ouuces against 17,048 ounces in 1900. The Raub Australian Gold Mining Company increased its outturn by 50 per cent. Four other companies began to export gold for the first time in 1901. The task of administering the Government of Pabang is hampered by low pay, long hours of work, high cost of living, and poor bouse accommodation. These check the flow of persons willing to join the Govern- ment Service.
The following comes from a Tientsin corres- pondent of the N.-C. Daily News who happened to visit Tongshan recently where are situated. the well-known Kaiping mines:-A few years ago I happened to be in Tongshan on a visit of several days and I took the opportunity then to pay several visits to the coal-mines. The other day 1 had cecasion to visit Tongshan for the second time and was astonished to see the vast improvements made at the mines and the large quantities of good ccal taken out of them--near- ly double to what it was before-ti at is to say, I found that the mines were now producing over. 18,000 tons a week. There is no doubt from
this that the employees of the newly-organised Company must be very energetic men, able to. put their scientific knowledge and appliances to procure the best results. It is stated that so great have been the profits of the new Company that they will be able to pay as much dividend as one tael two mace to the pound sterling. Furthermore the new port of Chinwangtao, which is being connected by rail with Tongshan, will be of immense advantage to the Company and the profits should be phenomenal to share holders in the near future,
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