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Mr. GOLDRING: The only thing to do is to grin and bear it.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PŘESS AND
A list of firms in correspondence with the Harbour Master, as representing the Commercia. Mr. BRETT: I do not think that at Hongkong | Intelligence Department of the Board of Trade, you will get anyone to not as umpire.
as to prospective openings in the Colony for trade, is published in the Hongkong Govern- ment Gazette. The Harbour Master will give further information to such persons as may apply to him..
The CHAIRMAN said it was very difficult in the Hongkong Cricket Club to get umpires. In the old days they had a very satisfactory sergeant, who was paid for his services. Whenever they could they got someone to act as umpire for them.
Mr. GOLDRING said they mustleave it as it was. It was rather unsatisfactory, but what could be done P
The CHAIRMAN closed the meeting; where upon Mr. ASGER proposed a vote of thanks to their president, Mr. T. Sercombe Smith (Applause).
TRADE ITEMS.
Kinchou has been reopened to trade. The Chamber of Mines Importation Agency (Ltd.) has been formed in the Transvaal to import Chinese. The capital is £420,906.
Mr. Clifford Wilkinson is turning his Tansan business into a company with a capital of half-a million yen.
It is reported that four exported from America to Japan will have to pay a war duty of ten cents per bag.
Hsüchien is anxiously awaiting the glass works which have been promised by the agents to the company promoted by the Nanking Viceroy and certain Shanghailandors.
The British Vice-Consul at Seoul reports that Canadian lumber might find a market in Cores, for it is cheaper to import lumber from America than to bring it down from Northern Cores.
A visit to the glass works at Kowloon is in- teresting. One can see the manufacture of lamp-shades, and lamp-glasses, etc., in their every stage. Chinese labour, only, is employed. Women do some of the grinding work and packing.
A Tokyo telegram dated 8th September says: -The Japanese Government has decided to open a Consulate at Changsha, a newly opened port in Hunan, and all the preparations to open the consulate are ready, and the consulate will be treated as a branch of the consulate at Hankow.-Universal Gazette.
H.M. Consul at Shimonoseki reports that a branch line from Usa on the Kinshin Railway to Oita City, distance 40 miles, has been off- cially sanctioned, also a short line of 1 miles from Kawasaki station, on the same company's line, to the coal mining district of Taito in Fukuoka Prefecture.
H.M. Consul at Shimonoseki reports that the city council of that place invited fenders in No- vember last for 2,000 tons of 14-inch iron pipes, and the tender of the Taneguchi ironworks, in Saga Prefecture, at the price of £13,340, was accepted. Eight firms tendered, including two American, one British and one Belgian,
The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha has sent us a report of coal shipments from five Japanese ports in 1902, 1903, and the first half of the current year. In 1902 it was 5,271,114 tons, in 1903 5,895,392 tons; and in the last six months the total reached 3,108,107 tons, of which the M.B.K.'s share was 1,273,543 tons,
Professor Jenks is said to have gone away quite satisfied that his work was not in vain, and that China really means to take up the scheme of currency reform. There are those who believe, however, that China will, with the in- formation and pointers given them by Professor Jenks, formulate some kind of financial system herself.
Here is a queer advertisement from the San Francisco Examiner :—" Shantung and Shang- hai Silk:-Made on the hand looms in Japan, and dyed in Lyons, France; stylish fabrics, 24 to 42 inches, yard 750 to $1.35.' We had not under- stood before that Shantung and Shanghai were in Japan.
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The Tin Hing Co. is a large engineering establishment worked entirely by Chiuese. Chi- nese shipbuilding at Hunghom is also progressing. At the Kwong Tak Cheong Yard, which adjoins that of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co., a river-steamer (to be launched soon-day), two cargo-boats, and two steam-launches are being built; the river-steamer Hai Nam is undergoing repairs; and there are several other small jobs.
The Chinese Telegraph Administration are constructing a telegraph line between Shanghai and Sungkong, and the officials have been instructed to properly protect it. The districts around Shanghai are, says the P. & T. Times, surpassingly ignorant compared with those in the north, when it is remembered how much longer they have been familiar with western institutions.
The Osaka Shosen Kaisha's 38th report for the first six months of the year describes it as an exceptional half year, so many of the Com- pany's steamers being under Government charter. The Company proposes to increase its capital to eleven million yen. The gross profits for the half year amounted to Y. 1,027,772, and a dividend at the rate of ten per cent. per annum was paid.
The news from the north is that the long- sought Kuling Extension has at last been secured. The extension includes the north and south ends of the present valley, and a five years' option on the valley to the west has been secured. The lots are 125 feet by 250 feet, and they are purchasable from the Chinese Govern ment at $200 (Mex.) per lot, to be resold to the public at $250 per lot. The profits are to be used for the improvement of the estate.
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[September 19, 1904.
that
The British Vice-Consul at E that the item of fish manure port last year shows a subs some £50,000 in value and 8,000 tity. This article is imported exclusi Saghallen, where its preparation amords employ- ment to many thousands of Japanese fisher
It is stated that a number of Russians in Shanghai are just now buying all the large se-going jauks they can secure, and are paying big prices for the vessels. The junks are being purobased ostensibly to ship goods to Tsingtau and Weihaiwei. A good many vessels have ben obtained so far, but a difficulty is being experienced in getting crews to man the craft, as when it is learned that the junks are bound for the north the Chinese refuse to proceed in them. It is believed that the vessels are really futended to be employed as blockade runners, the des ination of Tsingtau or Weihniwei being used as a blind, the real object being to take advantage of rainy or foggy weather to reach Po t Arthur-Shanghai Mercury, -
The death of Mr. T. C. Bogaardt, formerly of Singapore, is announced in Home papers. He joined the firm of William Mansfield and Co., Singapore, in 1871, and remained till he became a partner in 1877, retiring about nine or ten years ago, though he remained for a few years in Singapore as managing director of the Straits Steamship Company, of which he was practically the founder. He was a member of Council during the latter years of his stay in Singapore, and was also a director of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company (Limited). During the years 1877 or 1878 till 1883 he represented the firm of Mansfield and Co. in Penang. He died at Amsterdam on July 29,
The case of Boyd ». The American China Development Company, at the U.B. Consular Court at Shanghai, is attracting much attention in the northern port. At the last hearing, W. P. Boyd, plaintiff, sworu, said that he had been in Shanghai a little over two years. Before coming here he was United States Shipping The British Consular report on the trade of Commissioner at Honolulu. Prior to that he Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, states that the was a United States Consular clerk for 15 years. development of the flour trade has been very The terms of the contract with the defendants rapid, and nearly all was sent to Asiatic ports.wers for five years, at a salary of $500 gold por Appearances would indicate that before many month. He had been dismissed, without any years have passed the entire surplus wheat of fault being found, with 37 months of the agree the Pacific Coast will be shipped to Asiatic ment yet to run, so that he claimed $18,500 ports in the form of flour. The average ship- gold. He had made demands for the money ments of the last five years were 2,099,068 barrels, and was refused. He had endeavoured to find coastwise and foreign, from this district. suitable employment, but had failed to do so.---
Judgment (on the 8th instant) was reserved.
Telegraphing Tokyo on the 7th instant, the N.-C. Daily News correspondent says: The official estimates of the rice crop forecast an extraordinary harvest exceeding fifty million koku (250,000,000 bushels), twenty per cent. above the average, and breaking the "record in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. There will be no necessity to import rice, thus making the balance of trade favourable. The yields of barley, tea, and cocoons are also excellent.
The British Consular report on the trade of Trieste for 1903 notes that a meeting has been held in Vienna by Austrian manufacturers of machinery, waggons, and locomotives. A pro- posal to open Austrian technical offices in Far Eastern Asia has been presented. The object of such offices will be to procure orders for Austrian industrials from private persons as well as from governments. It is proposed to open one of these offices in Japan and a second at Tientsin.
The average amount of bank-notes in circula- tion, and specie in reserve at Hongkong during August were :—
Average Reserve Chartered Bank... $ 3,405,479 82,200,000 H. K. & 8. Bank... $11,213,911 87,000,000 National Bank $ 397,039 $ 150,000 -
The foreign settlement at Chinan is to be established at Wu-li-kon, outside the east gate. The area is to be six li or two miles from east to west and four li from north to south. A Public Works Department has been opened in connec- tion with the Bureau of Agriculture, Commerce and Art, to have charge of the necessary lands etc., for the use of foreign and Chinese merchants and others who wish to establish themselves at this trading centre, which will soon become one of the leading commercial ports in Shantung. Taotai Ho Chih-hsiao is the director of the department above mentioned, and it is reported that the Governor has obtained permission from the Government to spend Tls. 300,000 to meet the initial expenses in connection with the open- ing of the port, which is voluntarily opened.--- Peking Times.
An Ichang letter states that Viceroy Chang Chih-tung has appointed Mr. Wang, for many years compradore of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire at Hankow, and Agent for that firm in Ichang, to be Assistant Director of the Ichang Bureau of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Wang is a deputy sub-prefect by rank, and one of the returned American students, which speaks for itself as far as knowledge of English and foreign matters is concerned. The fact that there have been recently several anti-Catholic riots in that part of Hupeh province, namely, Ichang and Shihnan prefectures, and a lament able dearth of foreign-educated officials in - the Huknang provinces, were probably the main reasons which prompted Viceroy Chang Chih- tung in selecting Mr. Wang for his present post; and a very good and opportune appoint. ment it is. We may mention, en passant, that the present popular and able Taotal of Hankow, His Honour Liang Tun-yen (for many | confidential secretary of the Viceroy),
Total..
$15,016,429 $9,350,000 The steamer Unison, which cleared from Shanghai on the 11th ult., with a cargo of provisions for Newchwang, was destined for Port Arthur, in sight of which port she was wrecked. Her captain, the story goes, was promised 5,000 roubles and a Russian decoration if he succeeded in making Port Arthur, and the same sum was to be divided among the crew. She was dispatched from Shanghai by a blockade-running syndicate there which is composed of at least four nationalities, one y commence building business pre.belonging to a belligerent and three to neutral | a returned American, student and mises on this valuable site.
Mr. John Hirsbrunner has purchased from the Taku Tug and Lighter Co. the vacant lot of land to the north of the Astor House Hotel at Tientsin. The price paid was something like Tls. 12,000 per mow, the highest figure, the P. & T. Times believes, paid for land inTi tsin. They hope to see this enterprising
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University man.-N. C. Daily News,
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