July 4, 1993.]
dozen, while now they are marked at 20 cents a dozen. Nor is any different tale to be told when we turn to fish. Taking only two typical examples, soles have risen from 13 cents a catty to 20 cents a pound, and lobsters from 12 cents a catty to 18 cents a pound. Fruits are harder to compare, the list being fragmentary, but even there we find an increase in the price of mangoes from 6 or 8 cents to 12 cer
cents and in that of pumeloes. (Siamese) from 7 to 20 cents each, In vegetables we will take again some typical instances Potatoes in 1893 were from 2 to 3 cents a catty, whereas now 3 cents a pound is charged. The best cabbages then were 8 to 9 cents each; now they are 16 cents each. | Spinach was then 2 cents a catty; now it is 2 cents a pound. Indian corn has risen from 2 to 3 cents a piece. In the former market-lists the price of rice used to be quoted. The 1893 list which is now before us quotes rice, best quality, at 84 a picul, and rice, commou, at $3:10 a picul. In the market-list of the present time rice does not appear, but from enquiries made at the time of writing we find the following to be the approximate prices Low-rice, best, $7 a picul; good, §6 a picul; common, 85 a picul.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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kong last year was obtained in monthly of values and a reversion to the present instalments from Paris and systematically throughout the epidemic in change. But it need not be necessary, the was used instability shown by fluctuations in ex- accordance with the recommendations of Express adds, to proceed at a greater pace, the PASTEVE institute in the French capital, or to a higher figure, in the starvation due allowance being made in the adminis policy than would suffice to keep the tration of the serum for age, sex, and currency in the Colony and out of the other circumstances. In spite of this, Dr. melting-pot. "There is likewise the re. THOMSON writes, the mortality from plague "flection that most people with capital, in 1902 was 85.11 per cent. In 1900 it or savings, in the East do not show was 77.5 and in 1901 76.5 per cent. This the same decided objections to a rise increase of mortality be regards as an "in value that they do to a fall; and accidental circumstance in the consideration "the Straits is no exception to the rule." of a comparatively small number of cases. In the same number the London and China But, he continues in his report, the anti- Express states that it learns that the plague serum supplied to Hongkong from negotiations with the Indian Government Paris is manifestly useless possibly as to the coinage of the new currency through deterioration from lapse of time for the Straits Settlements have not yet and exposure to a hot temperature. Dr.resulted in any arrangement being arrived THOMSON has suggested to the Government at. The Indian mints are at present fully that it would be well to prepare locally a occupied in the re-coinage of old rupees, supply of anti-plague serum in good time and hesitate to give the desired facilities; for the next probable recrudescence of the it is to be hoped, however, that minting disease. This, he says, has been authorised, can be done in India, as there would the Government Bacteriologist having the naturally be a considerable saving of time matter in hand, Whether this means that during the now closing epidemic the new country, our contemporary conclud's.
over the same work being done in this The serum has been employed, we cannot say ; whole question of currency is an extremely but, whenever they are forthcoming, the thorny one, it must be admitted, and it results from the suggestion of Dr. THOMSON will be looked forward to with extreme study he may have given to the subject,
passes the wit of any inam, however much"
to predict the course of events after the change of a country from a silver ta gold standard The disadvantages of the Auctuating rate of exchange, however, are so marked and the results to the countries which have recently changed ara, compara. tively, so encouraging that we are bound to ask that the fullest possible expert opinion be gathered to discover whether in the cfse of Hongkong too it is not feasible to put the currency upon a stable basis.
STRAITS CURRENCY.
(Daily Press, 3rd July.) The English mail which reached the Colony yesterday brought some further discussion on the Straits currency question. The most important item was the announcement that the meeting of the Straits Settlement Association in London decided, almost unanimously, on the 3rd ultimo that the ratio to be aimed at in the projected change of currency in the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States should be that of a 28. dollar.
It is hardly necessary for us to add any thing to this. The figures speak for them-interest. selves. It is, of course, possible to point out that the dollar in 1893 was worth 28. 8d., whereas its value is now a shilling less. But even if it could be contender! from this that its purchasing power in China has diminished by one-third-which, as a matter of fact, it cannot, if we take a general view of trade and prices-still the fall would not be sufficient to explain a practical doubling of the prices of the staple articles of diet. It is, however, a notorious fact in connection with the cost of living in Hongkong that, while every panic and fall in silver causes a rise in prices of food and certain other necessaries, a recovery in silver is not allowed to produce a fall in such prices. It may be claimel that this is an inevitable result of a fluctuating exchange, which causes the dealer to feel uncertain about his profits. Precisely 80; let us then by all means strive to get a stable rate, in common now with nearly every country in the world. The upholders of the present state of monetary affairs should be called upon to suggest some, other means, if they are able, of alleviating the very genuine distress
caused by the constant rise in the price of food. As far as
we can recollect, poue of the champions of the status quo have proposed any remedy. Yet they cannot be blind to the hardships now and for some years past suffered by those of small means.
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A NEW PLAGUE SUGGESTION FROM BOMBAY.
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(Daily Press, 27th June) Tue city of Bombay is, in a way, to be regarded as the head-quarters of the anti- plague campaign, for no other place has been responsible for so many suggestions or has tried so many ways for fighting the disease. The last Indian mail "brings us yet another scheme, this time emanating from Dr. J. A. TURNER, Health Officer for Bombay. Dr. TURNER is an earnest sup- porter of the segregation theory, and holds hat the only really valuable method we have of checking the spread of plague is by removing the infected to hospital or thoroughly isolating them and the contacts to an uninfected locality and preventing any communication with infected area. In no case where this has been thoroughly done, he says, has plague continued to spread.
He continues:
If we could remove 300,000 people from infected "houses in Bombay for six months, isolite cases as they occur, keep the vacated "houses empty, thoroughly disinfect them, "demolish the insanitary quarters, prevent 'immigration from infected arens, plague would be under control and soon dis appear. On a small scale this is what we are doing now, and the results show that plaque does not spread among people "who leave infected areas for uninfected camps unless introduced from without." In his description of the situation in Bom- bay Dr. TURNEE presents a state of affairs which can easily be paralleled here in Hongkong. He points out that the com- mercial prosperity and the facilities for the working class being close to their work have to considered their wages being row, theost of food not decreasing, and
ratio arises from the danger, ou the one The difficulty in selecting a hand, of fixing it too low, in which case the new currency would be immediately snapped up; and, on the other hand, of fixing it too high, in which case it would paralyse trade. In favour of the 2s. dollar are the facts that this is the value of the Japanese yen and the coming Filipino peso; that it is the equality of the rate adoptei in Siam; and that Indo-China will probably also adopt a 2s. dollar. In an article on the subject the latest rumber of the London and China Express says:-"The idea is naturally that a rate for the new dollar should be fixed at a price that is not likely to be "exceeded by the market value of the silver in the coin. One of the reasons that the Committee did not mention, or rather recommend, any particular ratio, was to "afford time for the inercantile community to fully consider the matter, and also to see. what the course of silver was likely to (Daily Press, 29th June.)
"be. At that time-the end of last year Annexed to the Principal Civil Medical -people were talking about silver at a Officer's report on Hongkong for 1902 is a price that meant a dollar at a sterling smaller report by Dr. J. C. THOMSON, value of 1s. Since then there has been a the medical officer in charge of the Infec- fair rise in value, and we are now asked tious Diseases Hospital at Kenne ty Town, "to look on the possibility of something in which certain observations are to be
more. thau a2s. value to the dollar." found on the local use of anti-plague serum Our contemporary, however, does nɔt loɔk in plague cases. As Dr. THOMSON remarks, for the rise of silver to a price which would during the 1902 epidemic anti-plague serum jeopardise a 28, dollar, and, even supposing was for the first time available. Now, as that such an event appeared to be within is familiar to all who have followed the measurable distance of accomplishment, recent history of plague-fighting, this presumes that further legislative. enact- method of attempting to combat the discase inents could be brought into force, by has received a great deal of attention lately. which the starvation process could be Therefore the application of the method further resorted to and the price forced here must necessarily be watched with to, say, 28. 6d. per dollar. This interest The serum employed in Hong- of course would mean a disturbance lents rising, it is impossible to expect those
ANTI-PLAGUE SERUM IN
HONGKONG.
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