October 22, 1904.]
these new discoveries rendered the way comparatively easy. Just one hundred years ago Young had in the light_of_then new discoveries propounded his theory of the undulation of light, and showed how the theory of an universally present ether was necessary for the conveyance of lighting and heatrays throughout the universe. The theory has since niet with general accep- tance, and the existence of the ether has never been called in question. Recent dis coveries have, however, forced us to look upon lighting and heating rays as but units in an infinite series. Modern research proves, in fact, that we know no limit to the number of possible methods of vibra. tion, and that it is only the imperfection of our senses which prevents us distinguish- ing them. The first to establish a claim were the so-called electric rays of HERTZ, but RONTGEN and BECQUEREL have since shown that the emanations that go by their respective names have equal claims to be entitled ethereal, and the discovery of radium demands still more. Some philoso- phic minds demand that gravity itself must be included in the number; and one and all point to the ether as the necessary source. It was therefore a fair assumption with Mr. BALFOUR to hold that in the ether we must look for the essence and reality of matter. Here Mr. BALFOUR's absence of practical scientific knowledge intervened to prevent him carrying further the argument; and be somewhat inconsistently suggested that perhaps electricity itself might be the something substantial at the basis of matter. Mr. BALFOUR is justified by recent dis- coveries in giving expression to the statement that mass, so far from being an attribute of matter considered in itself, is really only a condition second to its relations to the ether as a whole. The ether, in the light of modern discovery, although in no sense of the word matter, may really he the stuff out of which matter has been evolved. At present all we know of it is negative; it has none of the attributes of matter; it has no form nor substance, it is not divisible, it is not impenetrable, it has no mass; we cannot put it in the scales and weigh it; it is not solid, nor liquid, nor gaseous. All we know of it is that it exists, and that it vibra es. Perhaps another may before the close of the century provide us with another work ing hypothesis. Meanwhile the subject is one on which the best informed and most practical worker in the garden of science has made no real advance since the days of ARISTOTLE. It is meanwhile apparently the old battle of the nounena and phenomena reclothed in a twentieth century broadcloth.
SHANGHAI-WOOSUNG RAILWAY.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,
struction of the railway, and it is hoped that His Excellency SHENG KUNG-PAO, who was then unfortunately indisposed, will he sufficiently recovered to cut the first sod of the new line when the time arrives for.that ceremony to be performed.
299
ductive country. As a commercial enter- ¦ prise it cannot fail to prove a great success, and it is much to be regretted that so much valuable time has been wasted since the concession for its construction by the British syndicate was first obtained. Some difficul- ties intervened, and as these have now been happily surmounted, we trust the new lina will soon be completed throughout its entire length to Nanking. This work will no doubt be rapidly followed by the construc- tion of the railway from Shanghai to Hang- chow and Wenchow. and the Model Settlement will in a few years become the centre of an important railway system which will still further add to its commercial importance. The prospect should be a fresh incentive to Hongkong to presa with unabated effort for the long deferred conneo- tion with Canton by rail.
COOLIE EMIGRATION.
The Shanghai-Woosung Railway, which has thus been handed over to the British and Chinese Corporation, has a bit of a history. It is many years since the iden of introducing railways into the Central King- dom was first mooted, and in the sixties a toy railway was presented to the then Emperor in the hope that the innovation might com- mend itself to the Chinese Government. But the Emperor and the mandarins alike looked askance at such a revolutionary idea, and it was not until late in the seventies that, permission having with great difficulty been wrung from the local authorities to construct a road from Shanghai to Woosung, n track was made and a small railway laid. The first section of this line was opened on the 30th June, 1876, and soon afterwards
(Daily Press, 20th October.) it was completed and opened to traffic, being We trust it may be said, though we have much patronised by the natives. But the no assurance on the point, that the huge Chinese Government, who denied the right conspiracy " which it was alleged at the of the projectors to lay a railway on the road, last Criminal Sessions existed with the were not thus to be got over. They re- object of kidnapping ignorant coolies for mained obstinately opposed to the railway, shipment abroad from this Colony does not and at length insisted upon exercising their exist now. We may at least hope that the right to purchase it. This was reluctantly revelations made in the Supreme Court on acceded to, and the result was, that after the occasion referred to have led to greater running it for a short period they closed it vigilance on the part of the authorities who to traffic on the 21st October, 1877. After are charged under the Emigration Con- remaining unused for a few months, a bright vention with the duty of protecting the iden struck the then Viceroy of Fukien, ignorant coolie from deception and fraud, and on his suggestion it was torn up and and consequently from the rapacity of the rails and rolling stock were shipped to unscrupulous recruiting agents. We ob- Formosa, nominally to be laid there to serve that the evidence given in the case connect Takow and Tainan. The little line which raises this general question forms the was never utilised; however, and was allowed. text of a trenchant leader in the Kobe together with the rolling stock, to rust and Chronicle, with the greater part of which decay on the wharves at Takow. The object we are in complete accord.
But when our of the Chinese Government had, however, contemporary, proceeding from the parti. been attained; the dreaded innovation of cular to the general, says that the case in the iron horse was got rid of for the time. question shows conclusively that, despite Meantime in the adjoining Empire of Japan all safeguards, coolie traffic from China it was introduced in the year 1872, and a is always likely to be accompanied by really great system of railways now spreads kidnapping and to end in slavery, we from north to south of the Mikado's dissent. dominions, along which vast armies have lately been transported-armies that have made the world ring with their prowess, and which after first pricking the great Celestial bubble have now shattered the feet of the Russian Colossus.
The froward attempt to set back the clock of progress by the Chinese Government in 1876 served to delay the inevitable for nearly twenty years, but it did not avail to banish the railway, as they had hoped, for all time. Events marched, and pressure grew weightier, as the ninth decade of the nineteenth century commenced, but it was (Daily Press, 19th October.)
not until nearly the close of 1895 that the The simple function at Shanghai on the 9th Throne consented to the construction of a instant, when the control of the Shanghai-line from Shanghai to Soochow by the Woosung Railway was formally taken over provincial authorities. This line, about from the Chinese Imperial Administration eighty miles in length, was soon afterwards by the Board of Commissioners of the commenced, and on the 1st September, Shanghai-Nauking Railway, though un- 1898, the first section, from Shanghai to attended by any great public demonstration, Woosung, was opened to traffic. Owing to was a matter of no all interest. The want of funds it has not been continued, handing over of a few miles of railway does but the British and Chinese Corporation, not of course appear a very important pro- who in 1900 obtained the concession to ceeding in itself, perhaps, even in China; make the railway to Soochow and Nanking, but as it practically marks the commence. have taken this pioneer line over, and thus ment of active preparatious for the con- it comes about that the first railway made tinuation of the line to Soochow aud Nan- in China has been repeated after an interval king it acquires an interest that a mere toy long enough to enable Japan to construct a line could not otherwise command. The whole system throughout the islands. The representatives of Messrs. JARDINE, MATHE-line thus at last, let us hope, permanently SON & Co. and of the Hongkong and inaugurated, will probably prove the most Shanghai Banking Corporation were present prosperous and important in the whole of on behalf of the British and Chinese Cor- | China. It will connect four great cities poration, who have undertaken the con- and pass through a highly fertile and pro-
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"The Hongkong Emigrants "Ordinance," our contemporary remarks, " is a measure which was devised with "the object of protecting the coolie "and preventing such scandals as were "associated with the traffic in Macao; yet "we find that in the Colony itself, and "under the very nose of the officials ap- 'pointed to guard against the unwilling shipment of coolies to the plantations and "mines, kidnapping has apparently been flourishing for years, the abductors bat- tening on the ignorance of the coolies. It "is not to be expected that any different
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result will follow from the system which His disguised by the name of indentured "labour." The way to stop this kidnapping traffic is simple enough. The Emigra tion regulations include a stipulation that the Emigration Officer shall in no case give his certificate until he shall have mustered the passengers and have ascertained to the best of his power that they understand whither they are going, and in case they shall have made any contracts of service that they comprehend the nature thereof. This regulation ought to afford the neces- sary protection to the coolie, but from the statements made in the Supreme Court, it appeared hat it often happens that the actual coolies who are sent abroad are not brought before the officials, the places of tliese “emi- grants" being taken by long strings of men, accomplices of the boarding masters, who p raonate the labourers supposed to be seeking work in the South. If that be the 'case, the obvious remedy is to have the
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