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Complainants would never have done putting | hands in pockets. The so-called "model settlement" of Shanghai has not earned its proudly worn title without paying for it. Doubtless it was the grumblers who brought about many improvements at Shanghai; yet they are still grumbling there-at the rates. And they cannot put fires out so expedi- tiously at Shanghai as to choke off the grumblers, either.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND Corea (Sir HIRAM SHAW WILKINSON) must have "with difficulty refrained from expres- sing his feelings." Lastly, although the list of prominent recent grumbles has been no more than skimmed, there was grum- bling recently at the number of " acting officials in the Hongkong Government. The grumblers who do not presently see their schemes for a colonial millennium: given a trial, will surely then grumble because the officials are not acting Which "just shows "- -as the children say how hard it is to stop grumbling.
Another grumble heard locally has re- ference to the absence, at Hongkong, of a beautiful Bund like the one at Shanghai, with seats. The provision of a few seats now, near Blake Pier, and round the Praya that is a grumble we may echo, for is their absence rot a standing grievance? But to cite Shaughai in support of accusa- tions of lack of the aesthetic sense on the part of the Government, is to suggest that our grumblers know the beauty of Shanghai by hearsay only, as SOLOMON once of SHEBA. Not many weeks ago, the northern com- munity celebrated the jubilee of an event its volunteers recollect with pride, as one of the first historical occasions of active service for the carpet soldier. That was the "Battle of Muddy Flats." The real battle of muddy flats, however, lasted longer than a day. Early settlers up there had to wrestle with dingy levels as our predecessors in this Colony had to strive with barren crags. Yet much as they did, and have done, not all their skill of forestry and horticulture has im- parted a tithe of Hongkong's scenic beauty to Shanghai, nor ever can, while earth is earth and sea is sea. Passing now to another grumble, perhaps one of the most long-standing favourites, we have to per pend the grumble of the grumbler who is pricked for jury service. In China, it is possible that business men called upon to spend a mail day in Court have greater excuse than their prototypes who rebel at attendance upon Quarter Sessions or Assize at Home. We have sometimes thought that the Volunteer movement might with all-roun.1 advantage be extended to jurors and juries. There are generally some men of leisure who like the work as tending to relieve temporarily the tedium of existence. They would not, it may be presumed, be guilty of the repre- heusible conduct of some jurors in Ceylon, presumably busy planters, pre-occupied with their own affairs. Keferring to an acquittal he thought unjustified by evidence, the Acting Chief Justice of Ceylon (the Hon. F. C. MONCREIFF) said: “As a rule "he had found the jurors intelligent and fair-minded, and though he had had "occasion to disagree with some verdicts, "still those were cases in which there might have been some reasons for the view taken by the jurors. The present was an "instance where he could see no reason whatever for the verdict. He did not know whether it was want of intelligence or want of attention which was the ex- planation. He remembered a similar case "two years ago when a similarly unreason. "able verdict had been returned. He ha "with difficulty refrained from expressing his feelings on that occasion, but he could "not do so now.
His Lordship condemned "the verdict in very strong language, and hoped that such a miscarriage of justice "would not occur again, or it would be impossible to do justice. The Times of "Ceylon reports that on the following day "it was noticed that the jurors, most of "whom were responsible for the verdict so severely criticised, had armed themselves with pencils and paper, which they used in making copious notes of the evidence!" There have recently been at least two cases in which the Chief Justice of China and
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HONGKONG FINANCES.
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[July 16, 1904. widening of Conduit Road, together ac- counted for more than $51,000, and work en the new territory was also a source of con- siderable financial drainage. Police stations and jails, improvements to the waterworks, and the excellent interference with refractory and mischievous nullahs, accounted for another quarter of a million. Against "rainstorm and typhoon dimages," an extravagant item which could well have been dispensed with, was set about $26,000. Taking everything into consideration, how- ever, the inhabitants, looking round at the numerous new features dating from that period, may not improperly consider that there is evidence of value received, and some (Daily Prese 14th July.)
justification for a state of things which, on Facts and figures covering a dozen foolscap paper, does not look so rosy as in former pages make up the report on the blue book aspects. In addition to what was done and for 1903, to be submitted by the Officer spent that year, 1902 left a legacy of ex- Administering the Colony to His Majesty's actions for its successor; yet the expenditure Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. was trimmed and pared down to $512,879.03 Dealing first with finances, it tells how the less than it was. If the revenue had but main- revenue of the Colony was altogether tained its rate of increase, instead of lagging $5,238,857.88, including $510,165.71 for as it did (8687,190.08 increase in 1902, and Land Sales. This means that the revenue only $337,784.19 increase in 1903) the deficit, was greater by $337.784.18 than in any already reduced by nearly $851,000, might previous year, and exceeded the estimate by have been rendered comparatively unim- $305,562.88. An interesting table given portant. That may be partly accounted for on a subsequent page shows how the income by a decrease of over $61,000 in the amount of the Government has gone on increasing derived from the sale of Crown lands. Here for the last five years. In 1900 it rose by it is necessary to point out a misstatement, nearly $600,000. In 1901 there was a fur- obviously a lapsus calami, that occurs on ther leap upwards of a little over $11,000; the first page of the report. Land sales are and for the year immediately preceding the quoted as $61,195.51 more than in 1902. period with which this report deals, there The figures in 1902 were $571,361, so that, KAB an additional increment of about as we have stated, the receipts were less by $700,000, in round numbers.
Thus we
about that amount, However, returning find that in a bare half decade, the revenue to our muttons," there is not the slightest has been swollen by a total increase of reason for pessimism; quite the contrary. $1,628,714.63, ample evidence, if there were Assets make Я satisfactory showing no other, of the assured and increasing against liabilities, and in summing up the importance of a Crown Colony whose enter position, the Officer Administering the prise, at the outset, was embarked upon Government speaks of the "continued pro- with 80 much diffidence. Turning to sperity of this Port." The temporary expenditure, which would, of course, in- diminution of the upward impetus is attri crease automatically in some sort of ratio, buted to the war, and “ there is nothing to the outlay for last year was, in total, indicate that the trade interests
of $5,396,669.48, or, without the item for this Colony have ceased to expand." What Public Works Extraordinary, $4,746,838.44. ought to be done to ensure continued That is less, by $512.879.03, than the total expansion he outlines in the notes we have expenditure for 1902, and leaves the already published, and have frequently Colonial Treasurer with a deficit on the referred to. year's actual work of $157,811.60. Revert- ing again to the quinquennial table, it will be seen that the annual increase for three years was in the main strictly proportionate. Beginning in 1899 with an expendi- ture of $3,162.792.36, there was a surplus of $447,350.89. The first increase in outlay amounted to nearly $466,000. By 1901 it had climbed up another $483,000, to which the corresponding increase of re- venue, already approximated at $11,000, was scarcely commensurate. This still left, however, the treasury with a healthy surplus of $102,170.73 at the end of 1901, and it is to the work done in the following year, the
year prior to the one under treatment, that we must look for explanation of the somewhat startling metempsychosis of a surplus of a hundred thousand dollars into a deficit of a million plus ‹ight thousand. The report would have been more complete if it had included some explanatory re- ference, for which, however, the uninitiated colonist or Home student will look in vain. Reference to the Gazette, however, secures a reminder of the extraordinary expenditure of the year which witnessed the change. Among the items, in addition to the large amount expended in determined copement with disease, were the new law courts, and the Governor's Peak residence, which were to cost together something like $117,000, of which over $73,000 was actually disbursed. The sixteen miles of Tai-po Road, and the
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POLICE GRIEVANCES.
(Daily Press, 15th July.)
It is with more than a formal regret that we hear there is some dissatisfaction in the ranks of the foreign police of the Colony, due to disappointments in connection with the latest promotion list. It would be too much to expect that there should be no dis- appointments. Everything, in the way of material advancement at any rate, does not come to him who waits. But between disappointment and dissatisfaction there is drawn, in this connection, a certain dis- tiuction. The first, as we have hinted, is an unavoidable thing. By the second is meant the expression of the thing; and its expression, far from being a matter of course like the other, should be scrupulously avoided. It is not wise on the part of the balked, occunying such official positions, to complain aloud in the market place, because that way never lies the hope of the end desired. It is not good, because it smacks of envy, and tends to destruction of the valuable esprit de corps. It is of no avail, in the present instance, because there is very little chance of public sympathy for such grum- blings and murmurings. Even supposing that sympathy were of the slightest use to a policeman, which it isn't, it would hardly be forthcoming just now. The plain citizen, with his own particular worries, would most
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