October 20, 1902.]
H.E. TAO MU'S DEATH,
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293
PUBLIC WORKS IN HONGKONG.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. regard with indifference or as a handy nominal, smuggling being connived at by means of adding to the revenue. But, like the officials. If the Chinese Government (Daily Press, 13th October.)
many other foolish movements, the anti- were so disposed, it would be a compara. The death on Friday morning of H.E. opium agitation means to die hard. That tively easy task to carry out the decree TAO MU, late Viceroy of the Two Kwang it is not yet dead is proved by REUTER'S prohibiting the cultivation of the poppy in provinces (announced in our Canton corres- telegram of the 9th inst., which announces the Central Kingdom. But beyond asseve- pondent's letter to-day) robs China of yet that a meeting of the Society for the Sup-rations to the effect that the production another upright official. TAO Mu was not of pression of the Opium Trade has been held is illegal and the issue of sundry orders course a man to be put in the same class in at Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of and decrees, the matter of ability as LIU KUNG-YI. He Canterbury presiding.
no really serious attempt No doubt the has been made to even restrict the illicit was, however, wise and just in the exercise of usual exaggerations and misstatements were cultivation of the drug. The mandarins his duties and, while not exactly a member made to do duty again on this occasion, have openly treated the law as a dead letter of the Progressive party, he showed a very for we are further informed that "the and have unblushingly allowed the pro- friendly spirit toward foreigners and was meeting stigmatised the opium trade as prietors to cover the land with the scarlet in sympathy with reform. Though an old a blot on the English name and an in- flowers of the flaunting poppy. It is idle man-he was about seventy-eight years old-"justice to China." It is much to be for the Imperial Government to pretend when he came to Canton he introduced a regretted that the head of the Anglican that the provincial authorities have been great number of improvements during the Church should have identified himself with alone to blame for the failure to enforce the period of his Viceroyship, including the such an agitation, and we can in charity only decree prohibiting the cultivation of the foundation of a new university conducted regard the fact as a proof of senile decay poppy, for the fact that it is so cultivated more or less on Western lines and the in bis Lordship. The cry of injustice to has been repeatedly recognised in official support of schools generally throughout his China is, as the executive members of the documents. This being the case, and the fact provinces. TAO MU was by birth a native Society are well aware--unless, as is being that considerably the larger portion of of Wuchiang, in the province of Chekiang. probable, they are quite a new lot-has the opium consumed in China is raised in He obtained his Hanlin degree in 1868. been again and again disproved, and Chinese territory, it is surely time for even His first office, as far as we know, was as Chinese officials have themselves disavowed the good people who hail from Exeter Hall district magistrate of Kansu, in 1874; seven sympathy with the aims of the Society. to drop this ridiculous agitation against a years later he was made prefect of Lanchou, All that the Chinese Government lesires is trade which the Chinese themselves de not capital of Kansu, and in 1884 taotai of the liberty to tax the drug to their heart's oppose, and which after all is less harmful same city. In 1885 he was transferred to content, in order to increase the already than the liquor traffic carried on by all the Chibli, being appointed Provincial Judge. large revenue derived from it. They have civilised states of the Western World. It He went to Shensi as Treasurer in 1888, to recently, in order to accomplish this object, is right that common-sense should rule in Chinese Turkestan as Governor in March, raised the tax by a hundred per cent., and this matter as in all others connected with 1891, and to the Viceroyship of the in order to do this legally they have avowed trade and commerce. Shen-kan provinces at the end of their intention to increase the duty on 1896. In 1900, when the Imperial Court native drug to a parity with that levied on was at Hsianfu and the late. LI HUNG- the imported opium. They are running a CHANG had been called up North from risk, it is true, of killing the goose that laid
(Daily Press, 17th October.) Canton, H.E. TAO MU was sent down to the golden eggs, but Chinese are invariably In his speech in the Legislative Council gucceed to the onerous post of Viceroy ready to take that kind of risk, as shown on the 9th instant, His Excellency the of the Two. Kwang. Coming after a in their refusal to lighten the export duty Governor made only the very slightest stern and able, if not scrupulous, official on tea and enable it to compete with the reference to Public Works. He stated, like LI HUNG-CHANG, he was anxiously products of India and Ceylon. The man-however, that a sum of $20,000 for the watched, for it was felt that weakness or darins are, of course, quite willing to accept preparation of the foundations of the new hesitation on his part might plunge South any advantage that may arise from the talk Post Office on the Praya had been placed China into turmoil. The deceased Viceroy of injustice to China, by making political on the Estimates, and expressed the hope from the outset acted in a manner to win capital of it, but they are not prepared to
"that in a short time the Colony will have the admiration of all but those whom his go beyond a passive acquiescence in the the benefit of this much needed improve- justice and honesty were bound to alienate. statements as to the injury done to China ment." This hope is, we are sure, most If not so successful as LI HUNG-CHANG in in allowing the Chinese to purchase the fervently echoed by all the colonists, who dealing with piracy, possibly because he pure drug of India to use instead of or in would like very much, as a preliminary was not a ruthless man like Lr, Tao Mu conjunction with the cruder product of measure, to see the contractors' materials reorganised the Canton forces, kept the Yunnan and Szechuen.
with which the site is at present cumbered peace in Kwangtung during the northern
It is somewhat of a coincidence that this cleared away and a commencement made, troubles, and at least prevented the Kwangsi revival of energy on the part of the Society without any further delay, of the necessary rebellion from assuming dangerous propor- for the Suppression of the Opium Trade piling, which even if put in hand promptly tions. He was incapacitated by serious should be almost synchronous with the will not probably be completed in less than illness for many months previous to his attempt by the Chinese authorities to nine months. The preparation of the site death, and indeed it has more than once double the duties on Indian and Persian for the new Law Courts has already con- been reported previously that he had Opium. It is also noteworthy that Sir sumed two years, and though it may cheer- succumbed to his afflictions. Unfortunately HALLIDAY MACARTNEY, the active agent of fully be conceded that this has been now there seems no room for doubt, and we China in London, has just received the phenomenally slow progress, yet the work have again within the space of less than a decoration of the Double Dragon, and being under the PW.D.-which may be week to mourn the loss of that rarity in permission from His Majesty the King to translated the Procrastinating Works De- China, a good official.
wear it. Whether Sir HALLIDAY MACART-partment-may nevertheless take double NEY has had any recent communication with the time ordinarily required under outside the anti-opium society we are unable to say, supervision. Of course we exclude from but it is not unlikely that he is cognisant coinparison the corner site between Ice- of all that it does or proposes to do. How-house Street and Des Voeux Road, for that (Daily Press,, 15th October.) ever that may be, we trust the Government We had almost hoped that with the nine of Mr. BALFOUR will not-any more than teenth century we had seen the last of that that of Lord SALISBURY-be led into any fatuous band of fanatics who for so many action affording encouragement to this years squandered money and wasted energy agitation. There is no doubt that the in the futile attempt to abolish the opium opium trade is just as legitimate as any trade. The crusade was kept actively alive | other trade, and that the drug is in no sense so long as silly people could be induced to forced upon China. No sustained effort contribute money for the maintenance of a has ever been put forth by the Chinese secretary and staff, who, in order to justify Governmen' to combat the habit of opium their raison d'être, poured a flood of pamph-smoking, but on the contrary opium-smok- let literature-containing hysterical appeals and distorted figures and facts-upon an unsympathetic public. The stream of sub- scriptions, however, dried up at length: the public grew in time to recognise the rank absurdity of a movement to deliver China from a traffic her rulers really
OPIUM AND THE ANTI-OPIUM CRUSADERS.
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iug saloons are permitted if not licensed in all parts of the Empire, and tacit encourage ment is afforded to the cultivators of the poppy in various provinces by the imposi- tion of a lighter duty on the home-grown drug. Indeed, in several provinces, the duty collected on native opium is almost
work has practically stood still for years. We may be permitted to hope, however, in view of Sir HENRY BLAKE's hope, that the placing of $20,000 on the Estimates as a provision for the preparation of the founda- tions of the new Post Office really means that, the money being voted, the work will be actually proceeded with. It is true that the money for the erection of the Blake Clock Tower was voted and tenders called for, but, so far as the public can disceru with the naked eye, a trace of the struc ture is yet to be seen. The site is as baro and as clean as a tennis-court, and the sun beats down upon the place where the waiting-rooms for passengers using the wharf should be with pitiless force and blinding large, emphasised by the vicinity
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