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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
meals they must give the passengers rice until eggs the digestive process is slow, while
with the If it be determined
albumin of meat they have had enough.
its action that water-meters must be placed in houses or else seems first to produce a pulpy gelatinous mass water must be carried from the street the which, however, completely dissolves after a benefits of the scheme would be:-(1) That short time. When a slice of fresh pineapple water would not be wasted. (2) It might be is placed upon a raw beef-steak the surface of expected that in dry seasons, there would be the steak becomes gradually gelatinous owing enough water. (3) All people would have aq to the digestive action of the enzyme of the equal quantity. These are the only reasons.juice. Of course, it is well known that diges- Perhaps another reason might be that some rel tive agents exist also in other fruits, but when venue might be obtained from fines, but I know it is considered, that an average sized pineapple the Government do not wish for this as they will yield nearly two pints of juice it will be consider the imposition of fines to be injurious. seen that the digestive action of the whole fruit On the subject of equal distribution I hare must be enormous. The activity of this peculiar spoken above. On the subject of having suffi digestive agent is destroyed in the cooked pine cient water in dry seasons we cannot affirm apple, but unless the pineapple is preserved by that there will be enough, but if it is feared heat there is no reason why the tinned fruit there will not be enough the safest way is to should not retain the digestive power The active make more reservoirs. If more reservoirs cannot digestive principle may be obtained from the juice | be made in Hongkong could not water be by dissolving a large quantity of common salt brought from the mainland and pumped into in it, when a precipitate is obtained possessing the Pokfulum Reservoir. Surely this would the remarkable digestive powers just described be better than instituting the system of meters Unlike pepsin; the digestive principle of the and street taps, and if the Government has not pineapple will operate in an acid, neutral, or sufficient money, why not increase the water- even alkaline mediuu, according to the kind
of proteid to which it is presented. rate rather than enforce the meter system and the selling of water to the poor? As to not therefore he assumed that the pineapple wasting water I believe that under that system enzyme would not only aid the work of digestion in the stomach but would continue that action no one can guarantee that there will not be
in the intestinal tract. Pineapple, it may be waste.
added, contains much indigestible matter of the nature of woody fibre, but it is quite possible that the decidedly digestive properties of the juice compensate for this fact,"
Let me again try to point out some of the harm that will be done by the system-1) There will be great hindrances to personal and household cleanliness, (2) People living on the game flats will have disputes and fights and perhaps even lawsuits. (3) When the meter is examined at the end of the month and the tenant has moved, who will pay for the water used? (4) It will be hard to guarantee that when people move they will not destroy the meters. I believe that because land- lords fear this they do not want to put meters in their houses lest they should have trouble in the matter. Again if people have to carry from the streets, it would be difficult to enumerate all the evils that will arise; as houses of three or four stories may be supposed to have 40 or 50 people in each it must be necessary to have a street tap for every three or four houses; as there would be so many taps would not some people in- tentionally destroy the taps and let the water run to waste?
Every morning and evening how many people would be carrying water? Would it not block the streets ? Would there not be disturbances and even disputes and fights? Would not the police be kept busy in making arrests ? Would there not be fines and punishments? Would the streets not be always wet ? How many times a day must water be carried up to third or fourth stories? Would there not be difficulties Is it not hard that the poor must carry water How much wage- in order to have it for use?
How much earning time would be wasted ? hardship would be daily endured by the poor in How many men Hongkong to get water? would be heard sighing and groaning? Bat though their voices might not be heard by the Government, would the Government not know that they had these hardships? Now I bave finished. I trust that the members of the Government will condescend to think on the subject of these lines.-Yours, etc.,
(Pastor) WONG.
THE PINEAPPLE AS A DIGESTIVE.
AID.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE
DAILY PRESS.
事
Hongkong, 15th July. SIB Last night, after dinner, I settled myself down to read the home papers received French Mail. The first item that met my per eye was the following from the Lancet :-
The Pineapple as a Digestive Aid.-The partaking of a slice of pineapple after a meal is quite in accordance with physiological indications, since, though it may not be generally known, fresh pineapple juice contains a remarkably active digestive principle similar to pepsin. This principle has been termed bromelin," and so powerful is its action upon protoids that it will digest as much as 1,000 times its weight within a few hours. Its digestive activity varies in accordance with the kind of proteid to which it is sub jected. Fibrin disappears entirely after a time. With the coagulated albumin of
It may
I was not unnaturally attracted by this state. ment, as I had just concluded a meal with a slice from a very luscious pineapple raised on the lower slopes of Tmo-shan at the back of Chinwau. It is new to me, I confess, to learn that pineapple juice may in a way be substituted for pepsia. It is certainly a pleasanter aid to digestion, and here in Hongkong it is cheaply and readily obtainable. The pineapple is very successfully raised in the New Territory, and should be able to beat the Straits pines out of the field, though the price of these is very low. As a rule, I think, pineapples in Hongkong are more frequently eaten stewed, but the Lancet points out that when cooked the fruit loses its digestive power. It is a common practice among Easterners to eat salt with the pine, which would seem to indicate that its qualities are not wholly unknown to them. Salt is not only desirable as bringing out the digestive properties, but also as a distinct improvement to the flavour,
I have given prominence to this cutting in the hope that it may be of some use to those troubled with weak digestions and it may also serve to popularise a fruit which, though easily obtained here, is really but little appreciated.— Yours, etc,
R. CHATTERTON WILCOX.
MISCELLANEOUS SERVICES.
.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."
[July 19, 1903. strange to relate, masterful condensation takes the place of painstaking detai', for what reason the ordinary mortal is at a loss to understand, although to the Government official it may appear quite the correct way of doing things. I fancy colonists would not complain if these reports were simply entered in a book and like the details of the expenditure for Miscellaneous Services" never saw the light. The bulk of the residents of the Colony, I am sure, would be quite satisfied without being told how many letters were despatched to the United Kingdom during the past year, and be ready to dispense with the information as to the number of junks that entered the harbour during the same period, while the number must be very small indeed who would care to know if crimes with violence were diminishing or increasing or where several thou ands of trees were planted during the previous year
The reluc-”
It is needless to remark that it would be of much more interest to the entire community to ascertain where their dollars had been plauted and whether the planting is to continue with unabated vigour so long as there is no difficulty, in finding the necessary material, tance shown by the Government to publish the statement referred to is somewhat surprising considering the document is made up in such a condensed form and could prove of little or no value in supplying the information the public so much wants to obtain-the expenditure in connection with plague, which is a very large Item, being, I understand, entered in one line. In future let the Government's financial trans- actions be treated in an ordinary businesslike manner and thus do away with the necessity of the representatives of the public having to be continually asking for information that should be furnished voluntarily.—Yours, etc., BIZ.
A DANGER TO THE PUBLIC.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE
13
"DAILY PRESS. Hongkong, 14th July. S:R,-I d sire to draw attention to the con- dition of the "Black Rock" on Chamberlain Road, Peak. In summer many, amahs and children sit in its shadow, bat to the lay eye the upper parts of the rock seem insecure, and it is to be hoped that the P.W.D. will look into the matter before a holocanst takes place. Several massive boulders have shifted in the recent rains-Yours, etc.,
"TERRIFIED.".
RAUB AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINING CO.
The eighth annual meeting of the above company was held at the registered offices, Queen Street, Brisbane, on 28th May, Mr James Forsyth, M.L.A., being voted to the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, stated that, taken all round, the figures as shown must be regarded Hongkong, 12th July.
as satisfactory to the shareholders. SIR-I trust the ratepayers of the Colony In the profit and loss account, the amount will not rest satisfied
until they secure appearing to the debit at the beginning of the
financial year
was £12,812 13s. 6J. and publication either in the Government Gazette or focal papers of particulars of $253,035.33 voted although a large amount of nearly £16,000 had for "Miscellaneous Services" at the Finance been written off for depreciation, the profit and Committee meeting held on 7th inst. The loss at the end of the year showed a deficiency worthy representative in Council of the of £958 198. 10d. only. This proved that the Chamber of Commerce did all that could be results of last year's actual mining had really expected of him in endeavouring to obtain been profitable to the extent of nearly £28,000. publicity for details, of disbursements under He (the chairman) desired to point out that in that head, before the vote was taken, with what Mr. Curle's report, which was furnished to the result the public well know. What would be shareholders last year, the available ore re- thought of a Chinese butler, who on presenting serves mentioned therein were given as 40,000 a larger bill than usual to his master at the end tons. Yet on reference to the manager's report of a month entered the total sum on a formidable now issued for the year the total amount of ora This proved to his piece of paper under the head of Charges of crushed was 38,224 tons.
mind that the ore reserves have been under- Establishment His master would naturally say
Counter too muchee largee, what thing in estimated by Mr. Carle, as no report had reach- This was a mat- side ?" If the butler replied, "Can secure belonged the directors that any serions diminution bad
taken place in these reserves. ploper, allo have got inside one Chinese book,"
ter for the shareholders to ponder over, The his explanation would be very similar in effect to that vouchsafed by the Chairman of the question of reduction of expenses in connection Finance Committee when appealed to for details with the surface work at the mines was on- of the item for miscellaneous services. The gaging the serious attention of both the Singa- annual reports issued by the postal, harbour, pore and Brisbane boards, and, without a doubt, police, and afforestation departments are brist, if the same results were obtained from crushings ling with detail-in fact there is often so much during the coming twelve months, it was more of it that there is a difficulty in finding the than probable that the figures now produced
would be much improved upon. particular item one wants once in a blue moon, but when the realm of Finance is approached,
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Two new mines had been started during the
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