April 18, 1904.]
Japanese; they possess neither the adminis- trative ability, the grasp of detail, the honesty, nor the tenacity of purpose shown by the Japanese, qualities which have, in so short a period, placed Japan in the list of civilised and powerful nations. If once the European supervision were withdrawn from the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service there can be no doubt in the minds of those cognisant of Chinese ways and idiosyncracies, that there would follow a rapid reversion to the old system of corruption, sloth, and pro- crastination. Trade would soon suffer, the revenue fall off, and smuggling become rife. The same with the Postal Administration. It can be relied upon while worked under Sir ROBERT HART and his able and energetic assistants. But what would hap- pen if the administration were placed in the hands of even foreign-taught mandarins? Would it be maintained in efficiency We greatly fear it would not. Moreover, some of the Powers are very loth to surren- der any of the extra-territorial rights acquired in China. They maintain, and with a very good show of reason, that China is so incapable of effective self-government that they cannot part with any of the privileges they possess or in any way delegate to her the powers they now hold. They cannot submit their subjects to Chinese law, they cannot place the concessions on which they reside under Chinese administration, nor can they entrust their correspondence to the tender care of Chinese mandarins and letter-carriers. The events that marked with so black a stain the close of the last century at Peking would alone have sufficed to create doubt and distrust, if indeed those feelings had not existed for the previous half century. It is therefore unlikely that China will pass out of tutelage for many a long year to come. The Chinese officials show little sign of real improvement, nor is it likely that even the stimulus of Japanese example will have any appreciable effect on the apathy and corruption which hold the Chinese Goverument in bondage.
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decline in 1903, when it was 3.17 per 1,000 The birth-rate of the Colony showed a against 3.8 in 1902. In 1901 it was 3.6 and in 1900 3.3 per 1,000, so that last year saw a turn in the advance. But, as has often been pointed out in official reports here, the number of the Chinese births registered does not give the actual Chinese birth-rate, for many of the infants dying within the first month or so of life remain unregistered as born. birth-rate is not worked out separately; no The non-Chinese deductions can be made about it. It may be remarked that it would be interesting if the European figures of births and deaths could be given instead of being merely classed with other “non-Chinese." It might mean a little extra labour, ut surely the figures are within the reach of the com- piler of the report? Additional interest would attach to prepared document, if the Principal Civil an already excellently Medical Officer would take this hint,
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DEPORTATION TO HONGKONG.
But
We are
!
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. 1st 2nd 3rd Non-Chinese 13.1 24.5 13.9 14.8) per Chinese But it appears that, apart from the ravages 17.46 25.32 17.83 16.8 † 1,000
(Daily Press, 14th April.) of plague and small-pox, the months of criminal persons from Shanghai to Hong- The practice of deporting worthless or April, May, and June, so far from being kong is one of which we have frequently the unhealthiest, have actually the lowest complained in the past, but it continues to figures, as follows:-May, 379; June, 314; flourish, and hardly a week appears to go by July, 375. Only February can show as good a record as May even, having also in our northern neighbour's Press cannot now in which a reader of court proceedings 379 deaths. The August deaths, on the find some mention of an undesirable char. other hand, exclusive of plague and small-acter who, with or without preliminary pox, are 461, the September 454, and the imprisonment, is to be removed from October 517-the worst month, excluding Shanghai and given a fresh chance in life the two diseases mentioned, them, June was the most fatal month in
Including in Hongkong. Matters have come to such 1903, 724 deaths being its record, of which (which we quoted in yesterday's issue) is a pass that the most recent Shanghai joke 343 were due to plague.
Shanghai, in the popular phrase, is “rubbing where bad people go to-"To Hongkong." the child's answer to the teacher's question
it in" by thus laughing at us. indeed it is no laughing matter. not inhumane, and we think it is very right that minor offenders should be given the chance to make a fresh start. Hongkong, when Hongkong is not in any But why in way responsible for their offending? We are not in a position to be a reformatory or East. moral sanitorium for other ports in the Far and having so much work to do in looking We are not over, but under-policed, after the hordes of low-grade and at least suspicious Chinese whom our Tabour-market attracts, we cannot with justice be called upon to undertake the supervision of non- Chinese rogues and vagabonds from other places. It is impossible to say defiuitely that any than British subjects are openly that the "beachcombers passed on to Hongkong, though it is certain with whom we are favoured are Insular Government of the Philippines not all British. The recognised the equity of Hongkong's com- plaints not long ago, when it was decided of United States nationality direct to the to ship released convicts and other deportees
proceed to Hongkong. But the Philippines, States, instead of, as formerly, letting them of course, are troubled with bad or suspi.. cious characters of other nationalities, and the better sanitary condition of the Colony, the Philippines got too hot for them. of these we certainly get our share when he points out that it will not produce an Shanghai's offence against us, however, is immediate effect. apply to houses hereafter erected, and undesirables are legally sent here in a Many of its sections worse, and the sting of it all is that British others, such as the cubicle sections, are so far-reaching in their application that they The Order in Council for the Government number of cases, to prey on the community. must of necessity be enforced gradually.' But, by the alterations effected by the
of H.B.M.'s subjects in China (and Japan, amending Ordinance of the 14th December clause that, "where an order of deportation as it was originally) declares in its 107th last in some of the definitions in the Bill is made, the Court shall not, without the con! and in the cubicle and overcrowding sec- tions, the carrying them into effect has been deportation of any person to any place other sent of the person to be deported, direct the rendered more practicable. To the resump-than Hongkong or England.' tion of the worst insanitary aeeas, which it is proposed to do by means of an Improve- ment Trust, Dr. ATKINSON looks for more mmediate amelioration of the Colony's sanitary condition. The resident public of Hongkong too looks anxiously to the pro- mise of this Trust, the laying of the scheme for which before the Secretary of State our late Governor, Sir HENRY BLAKE, an- nounced in his farewell speech to the Colony in November last. It is satisfactory to read of a more healthy year, as 1903 undoubtedly was, in spite of plague, but it is on per- maneut improvement in Hongkong, render ing it a safer city in which to dwell, whether we come from Europe or are from the East,
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As copious extracts from Dr. ATKINSON'S report are printed in another column, we need not dwell on the various details there set forth. But we should like to call atten- tion to what he has to say, under the heading of the Colony," with regard to the Public General sanitary condition of Health and Buildings Bill, which came into force on the 21st February. Though he HONGKONG'S HEALTH IN 1903. says that the Bill will do much to further
(Daily Press, 18th April.)
The Hon, Dr. J. M. ATKINSON's report on the Health and Sanitary Condition of Hongkong in 1903 appears in the latest issue of the Gazette. The Principal Civil Medical Officer has a somewhat more favour- able year to report on than when he last wrote, in spite of the fact that plague cases were much more numerous in 1903 than in 1902, there being 1,415 notified as against 572. There were 60 cases of small-pox in 1903 against 57 in 1902; but of cholera there were only 10 cases against 460; of enteric fever, 44 against 55; of malaria, 283 against 393; of beri-beri, 397 against 452; of dengue, 123 against 422, and of diph- theria, only 9 against 20. In all there were 6,185 deaths (1,251 from plague) in 1903 against 6,783 (582 from plague) in 1902; and the estimated population in 1903 being 325,631, while in 1902 it was 311,824, the death-rate consequently dropped from 21.7 per 1,000 to 18.9 per 1,000. It is to be noted that the non-Chinese death-rate came down from 19 per 1,000 to as low as 16.6 per 1,000, while the Chinese death-rate was reduced from 21.93 to 19.1 per 1,000. Yet the 1902 figures were an improvement on those of 1901, and the latter, as far as the Chinese were concerned, an improvement on the figures of 1900. A table of the relative mortality in the different seasons of 1903 gives the following results for the four quarters of the year :-
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The 112th
clause goes on to say that, "when any person is deported to Hongkong, he shall on his arrival there be delivered, with the warrant under which he is deported, into the custody of the Chief Magistrate of Police of Hong- kong, deported, with the warrant, shall detain who, on receipt of the person him and shall forthwith report the case to
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warrant (if the circumstances of the case the Governor.
who shall either by appear to him to make it expedient) cause the person so deported to be taken to England him from custody."
or else shall discharge sanction in case of deportees. But there his is the legal are also British subjects who get into trouble in Shanghai, who are not definitely deported, At Kuala Lumpur, on the 29th March, the but, as it were, let off with a caution if they Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce was
undertake to go to Hongkong. Now with inaugurated. Mr. Loke Yew was elected Pre-regard to the Order in Council, this was Kit, vice-Presidents, and Mr. San Ah Wing sident, Messrs. Chow Sow Lin and Loke Chow
Secretary.
that our attention must be concentrated.
course totally different from what they made in 1865, when circumstances were of
are now. The continuance of the practice
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