November 7, 1903.]
the M.O.H. notice so as to place him in a position to reply
Mr. RUMJAHN asked that he be allowed to make a protest.
Mr. HEWETT seconded Mr. Rumjahn's proposal, asking that tho necessary order be made so as to allow that gentleman to speak.
Mr. RUMJAHN roped that the standing orders be suspended.
Mr. HEWETT seconded, and it was carried. Mr. RUMJAHN said he took it that the M.O.H.'s minute regarding the building had nothing to do with the case. Dr. Barnett had no business to make the remark that the build ing bulged in places and, moreover, the state. ment was inaccurate. Such remarks made public might considerably damage the value of the property. Building architects could do as well, if not much better with at the assistance of the M.O.H. who wasted tire making out. this minute.
The motion that the lane be made 6ft wide was then carried,
OPIUM DIVAN IN UPPER LASCAR ROW.
Correspondence was laid on the table relative to the opium divan at No. 7, Upper Laspar Row. The Assistant M,O.H.mionted that 7. Upper Laser How had no concrete floer and could not therefore be licensed de novo although it was otherwise satisfactory.
The PRESIDENT moved that ix inchos of concrete on the floors be required.
Mr. RUMJAHN seconded and it was carried. The PRESIDENT, wi reference to an applica- tion for a licence to sell fresh pork at No. 187 Hollywood Road, mod that permission be refused.
MB. LAU CHU PAR seconded and the mo- tion was carried.
The PRESIDENT, with reference to an application for the renewal of the fruit licerce for the entrance to the Ko Shing theatre, proposed that the application be granted.
MR. FUNG WA CHUN seconded and it was carried.
The PRESIDENT, with reference to an application for the renewal of the fruit licence for No. 117 Queen's Road West, remarked that meat or vegetables would become tainted if they were placed in near proximity of tobacco, etc. He moved that less special permission be granted by the Sanitary Board this be prohibited.
The VICE-PRESIDENT seconded that this application be refused.
ME. HEWETT thought the President's remarks should apply to all licences.
The PRESIDENT in turn moved that he applications to sell vegetables at No. 263, Queen's Road West, No. 265, Queen's. Road West, and fruit and vegetables at No. 8, Connaught Road West be refused.
Mr. HEWETT seconded the motions, and they were carried.
WATER ANALYSIS.
The report of the analysis of the public water supplies by Mr. Browne, Government Analyst, for the month of October, showed that the water was of excellent quality.
RAT RETURN.
The rat return showed that during the weeks ended 26th ult. and 2nd instant 422 and 411 rats respectively were destroyed. Of the total of 833, 28 were found to be infected.
LIME-WASHING.
The lime-washing return for the fortnight ended 12th November was laid on the table.
There is still nothing to report from Tokyo, says the Kobe (hronicle of the 29th alt. It is not even known whether any negotia ions are proceeding, nor has the nature of the interview between Baron Komura and Baron Rosen been disclosed. The Japanese
Government is certainly able to keep its own counsel. The report through Reuter's Agency that, according to the Standard correspondent, information received in Berlin both from St. Petersburg and Tokyo indicates that: drafts have been signed of a Russo-Japanese Convention pro- viding for a peaceful compromise of all differences, must, we fear, b: discredited, especially as no such news has been received from Berlin direct. The information is not borne out by events in Japan.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPÓRT. THE RECENT TYPHOON IN
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.
here on
II.M.S. Waterwitch, Captain Hardy, arrived condition. She reports having experienced a Friday evening in damaged
Formosa Channel. very heavy galo lust Wednesday in the Her boats were stove in and the deck-fitting smashed; and during the height of the tempest, when the ship was labouring heavily and taking large quantities of water aboard, two petty officers and a bluejacket were washed overboard from the quarterdeck and drowned. Later on she passed through a quantity of wreckage including later, when approaching Hongkong, she met one boat, bottom up, and a dismasted junk; and
uncontrolable, had been blown miles and miles with a rudderless Amoy junk, which, being
out of her conse When first seen the occupants were yelling, waving their hands, and bitting their "rica-baskets" significantly to indicate that they were short of provisions; there was a crew of some tou in all. Tho Waterwitch, after administrating to their temporal wants, gave them a hawser and took them in tow,
It bo inay safely assumed that many fishermen lost their lives in the recent typhoon. At the time, the Waterwitch was voyaging from Shantung Promontory to Ilongkong. The 8.8. Hinsang, which arrived here from Java about the same time as the Wale witch, reports that she sighted eleven disabled jaoks near Gap Rock; and the ss. Petchaburi, a German steamer from Bangkok, reports that when 45. off Gap Rock, during a strong N. E. gale and heavy so, she sighted a fishing boat flying signals of distress. Captain G. Hillmann, master of the res-el, immediately altered his course and, on approaching the distressed craft, eased his engines and took the fishermen aboard. Some two hours afterwards he encountered another disabled fishing-boat, dismantled and with the bulwarks gone by the bord. The occupants were waring frantically for assistance. The steamer was steered alongside and the fishing people rescued. Liter on another similar craft was supplied with pro- visions aud water, and finally, when in the immediate vicinity of Gay Rock, a small craft was obeserved signalling a tale of woe. A lifebout was swung out and despatched to the craft, but the fishermen, who had their all invested in the damaged boat, refused to abandon but sent one mau by the Petchaburi to seek assistance from Honkong. The steamer was delayed by the latter incident for no less than and hoar au a half. In all she brought eight shipwrecked people to Hongkong.
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On Thursday the Government tender Stanley conveyed the relief lighthousemen to Waglan Island; and on Friday a relief for those on Gap Rock. On arriving at the latter place she set to work to gather up disabled craft in sight which she towed to port. On Saturday to be in the offing, and the Stanley, again, morning nine disabled janks were reported
damaged craft arriving in the harbour they was despatched to sea. On the rarions
were towed in batches to Yaumati By. Some and w re generally kuooked to pieces above the of them were dismasted, had lost their nets, deck level. Others, mare fortunate, had only suffered the loss of their matting herringbone sails, or their masts, or perhaps the rudder. They were a well seasoned set of boats; some of them literally moulding away with age. There were gaping crevices in their carval-built sides that had been filled with putty. The deck-seams, also, no doubt having ofttimes been opened by a scorching sun, wers in a similar condition. In the holds and about the decks were hopeless mixtures of broken cordage black-meshed fishing nets, crab-nets, primitive disjointed hand winches, sea-shells, wooden floats, bamboo-hooped buckets, rice-baskets and rage. In the holds, from which exumed an unbearable stenoh, were layers of rotten fish; it
was upon these that in several instances the
fishing-people, families of them, were subsisting. Truly, the occupants of these antique craft must be a hardy lot.
The history of the storm by the Hongkong Observatory briefly is that on the 25th ult, it was reported that a typhoon had passed from the vicinity of the Philippines into the China And on the 27th and 28th it was reported that the typhoon was to the Southeast of Hong.
Sea.
333
kong, and the centre threatened to approach the neighbourhood of the Colony. Next we earned that the typhoon was rapidly. filling up on approching the coast to the Eat of Hongkong; and, on the morn of the 28th, the Black Drum was lowered.-Daily Press, 2nd November.
A pitiful sight was witnessed on Monday Strand cross-road. Twenty-nine hungry ship- forenoon in Winglok street, near the Bonham
rescued from the water, and all of whom were wrecked fishermen, many of whom had been destitute, were squatting on the road-side awaiting relief from the authorities. The government during the last few days affording relief to dis- light-house tender, Stanley, which has been busy
dismasted junk to port; and the dismas ted tressed craft off Gap Rock, on Sunday towed a juok had picked up the fishing folk after the recent typhoon, those rescued being lucky iu securing pieces of wreckage to oling to till assistance, such as it was, arrived. The privations from hunger and cold that were experienced, and even those that after- wards ensued, will never be known.
Friday, the Stanley brought in two oa Since towing eight disabled craft to port on Saturday and four on Sunday.
The Harbour Authoritiesasked the Hongkong and Whampoa Dook Co. for their new twin screw tag Robert Cooke a powerful boat, recently constructed at the Kowloon Docks, but this was refused because, it is understood, the Robert Cooke insurance does not hold good outside the harbour. The Admiralty were then applied to, and they promptly made arrangements, the torpedo-destroyers Sparrow Hawk, Handy, and Janus and the water-boat Cherub, being despatched to Gap Rock. On arriving there yesterday morning, however, no wrecks were in sight, so they signalled to the Rook asking for the impartation of any information possessed.
'
There has been an enormous loss of life and craft during the recent typhoon; in fact it is estimated that no less than two hundred and forty odd fishing-boats, out of three hundred employed, in fishing off Swatow, have sunk and of these 300 bosts, which would have been the occupants perished. At any rate, only 56 blown south by the storm, have arrived at Gap Rock. If all the rest, as is assumed, are missing, the approximate loss of life would be some 2,000 Fouls. Wreckage of every description has been reported by several vessels.-Daily Press, 3rd November.
So many reports of shipwreck and disaster being seut in, and, as several steamboats of various description were putting to 'sen on Mon- day to seek for further disabled junks, & Daily Press representative was sent in one of the craft. Making an exit (by the Lyeemoon Pass, and leaving the narrow waters sandwiched between patches of Hongkong Island, Cape Collision, the rugged Kowloon coast and burnt-up
ing innumerable typhoons on au old lighthouse that has done sentry weather- the rocky slope for fully a score of years, was reached. Ideal weather prevailed, the wind being light from the NE., and the sea smooth. and to the right were the tide-washed shores Ah-ad
and pinnacle roc is protruding fom water, and in some places low-lying caves had been formed by the ceaseless action of the waves. Here and there was a fishing junk or sampan amongst the shallows On the hills behind, where the sun shone upon a smooth- faced, now dry typhoon watercourse, it gave the appearance of there being running water surg. ing down the slope. Beneath, where waves broke amongst the scattered orags, areas of snowy foam contrasted with the green water.
the
Waglan Island ahead, and Cape d'Aguilar a little to the right, we passed Bokhara Rock buoy, where the old P. & O. Bokhara met her fate; in this vicinity the megaphone was used to enquire from passing junks whether they had seen any disabled oraft. In each instance a negative answer was returned, so the vessel was headed for the Lama Islands. After fruitless search was there made the Ladrones were resorted to. Pak Lee and the outlying islands were approached as the “red orb” was sinking to rest. The sky was a clear blue with the western horison of a reddish hue, which ally¡turning into grey towards the nor
Ar
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