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A bandicap billiard tournament, in which there were twenty-four entries, has been con- oluded at Kowloon Docks. In the semi-final W. Crawford, owing ten points, beat G. Humphreys, owing sixty points, by 200 to 175; E. Herton, owing eighty points, beat J. Parkes, owing a hundred points, by 200 to 195. In the final Herton beat Crawford by 200 to 85, Humphreys beat Parkes for third by 200 to 175. Mr. and Mrs. F. Howell have sent out invitations for friends to be present at the marriage of their sister to Mr. Arthur William Hill, of the Supreme Court, at St. John's Cathedral on the 21st December. A reception will afterwards be held at No. 6, Morrison Hill Road. The bride. Mrs. Emily Flora von Reiffenstuhl, is a daughter of Mr. Jonathan Howell, of Cambridge. Her brother, Mr. Fred Howell, is head bailiff at the Supreme Court.
The Russian Government has sent, through the Italian Foreign Office, the decoration of 8t. Stanislaus to Chev. Z. Volpicelli, the Italian Consul-General at Hongkong, for services rendered to the sailors, from the two sunken Russian men-o'-war, who were on board the
Italian cruiser Elba. The Elba, it will be remembered, remained for some time at Hong- kong daring March last.
Mr. Gordon Stafford Northcote, who was married recently to Miss Amy Pay at St. Peter's Church. Budleigh, England. was for many years in the Registar-General's office in Hongkong, and was for some time Private Secretary to Sir John Pope Hennessey. At other times he filled the positions of Sheriff to the Supreme Court, Coroner, and Assistant Postmaster-General in Hongkong. He is a brother to Mr. Mowbray S. Northcote, of the Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Co.
A merry evening was spent at the Warrant Officers' lub on December 3rd the occasion
being the send-off of Gunner Ansall, Vice- President of the Club, who leaves with the Leviathan for the Mediterranean Station. Mr. Casey, President of the Club, spoke of the esteem in which their departing friend was held, and had much pleasure in presenting him. on behalf of the Club, with a handsome silver tobacco case, for which Mr. Ansall thanked the comrades he was having behind. A suitable programme of music was gone trough during the evening.
We have received from the Editors of the Victoria Recreation Club Mogazine, a record of local sport, the first (December) number. It is a promising little magazine. H.E. Sir Matthew Nathan was invited to write a message; an extract from his reply is as follows-" Sport for sport's sake, and in due subordination to the more earnest duties of life, promotes physical fitness, good fellowship, and strenuousness of purpose." He assumed that the magazine was intended to keep up interest in rowing, swim. ming and athletics. Thes had attained a high, and might attain a still higher, standard of excellence at Hongkong.
A meeting of the Hongkong Volunteers was held at Headquarters Dec. 7th, when there were 25 members present. It was agreed that a dance should be held, and that circulars should be sent out to ascertain the general opinion of members of the corps in this respect, and if favourable to arrange a date for holding the same-probably during the latter part of next month. The Commandant stated that he wished to have a similar rifle meeting to the one whi h took place two years ago. The matter was discussed and held over till a subsequent meeting. The plans for the new headquarters, the Commandant said, were in his office, and he was in hopes the Government would soon make a start on the work.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
(December 12, 1904.
The Hongkong Tramway Electric Company In a report of the rescue of a battery, the advertise their intention of applying to H.E. Manchurian Army Messenger, a bulletin cir- the Governor in Council for power to constructculated among the Russian troops, says: "This and maintain a siding, fifty yards long, between remarkable rescue of the guns as well as of so Yee Woo Street and Causeway Bay Road. many human lives of this battery, is to be ex- plained by the fact, that, in the first gun-limber, was carried the ikon of the Saviour, handed over to the 43rd Brigade by H.M. the Tear himself."
P.-C. Williams is at Government Civil Hos- pital. but progressing favourably, suffering from injuries sustained by a collision with an electric tram. He was riding a bicycle at the time, and his wheel must have skidded. The car knocked him down and he was caught by the life guard. He was cut and bruised.
The Masonic Quadrille Club held an unosten. tations but enjoyable ball at the Masonic Hall on December 3rd. An excellent supper was provided. Members of the Committee deserv. ing special mention are Bros. Harry Wolfe (chairman), J. J. Sibbit and W. H. E. Smith. The next dance will be held on the 3rd January. Three Europeans are under arrest. It is alleged that
on the morning of the 23rd ult they hired a sumpan
at Blake Pier, and shortly after learing threw Chinese youth overboard because he defended his mother and sister with whom they wanted to take liberties. The boy was picked up and made a report to the police. It was subse- quently reported that the boat had been capsized in the harbour and some of its
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Chinese occupants had made their way to Lantao Island, where they reported to the Cheung Chan Police that the mother and a girl aged 16 years had later been thrown out of the boat by the Europeans. On the following day a search party was organised and the surrounding police stations, together with Macao, Canton, and the coastal port authorities, were communicated with and asked to look out forthe Europeans. On Friday it was reported that the men had been seen in the New Territory Dear Ping Shun, and Sergeant Kerr set out to look for them, with the result that he arrested there men on suspicion. The police have picked from the water the body of a Chinese woman, recognised by the children as their mother.
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FAR EASTERN ITEMS.
The Caledonian Ball at Shanghai rivalled in maguificence the St. Andrew's function at Hongkong. Our Shanghai contemporary refers to it as "the ball of the year."
The steamer Inverness, which left Tacoma on the 15th of October for Yokohams, and which put into Muroran, Hokkaido, for coal, on the 15th ult, has gone ashore on a dangerous sandy bottom. Her captain has applied to the authorities for asistance. The Inverness is a British steamer of 3,734 tons gross, and 300 nominal horse-power, belonging to Newcastle, and built by W. Doxford & Son, Ld., Sunder- land, in 1902.
The Shanghai Health Officer's Report for October says: During October the number of deaths among the foreign resident population was four: there were in addition four deaths
among non-residents, Among the native · population the number of deaths during the month was 600, a figure which indicates the absence of epidemic disease. There has been a remarkable absence of infectious disease throughout the month.
A correspondent writes to the Rangoon Times to say that the young Chinese party in Ran-- goon have circulated a notice among their friends calling a meeting in one of the temples in the Chinese quarter for the purpose of discussing the question of re-dressing their heads without queues. The opinion amongst the Rangoon Chinese, of whom a great many are British subjects, seems to be generally in favour of the removal of the pigtail,
A simple and apparently excellent method of recording a ship's course is that devised by Mr. W. Whiteman. The compass is provided with 360 electric contacts, and is connected by nine wires with a registering apparatus, in which a strip of paper is moved forward one millimetre every second by clockwork. The paper is ruled with 360 lines, one for each degree. The registering pen always indicates the degres toward which the compass needle is pointing
and the line drawn shows the extent and time of every chance of direction.
The Chuchou correspondent of the N.-C.practically the Tsar's first war ship on the Daily News, after an inland tour, reports that the probabilities of another "boxer " rising are practically nil. The party was everywhere courteously received.
A newspaper in Tientsin publishes a letter containing this harsh comment: Probably in no other port is snobbery so highly developed as amongst a certain shoddy clique of young bounders in Tientsin."
The Weihsien district of Shantung is con siderably excited over the proclamation issued soliciting recruits for the industries of South Africa. There are daily enquiries, the proposal seeming to attract quite a 1 rge number of the natives.
A most orante Chinese wedding is reported from Luchoufu in Anhui. The bridal chair alone was said to have cost a thousand dollars, and the entire wedding more than fifty thousand taels. The bridegroom was a grand-nephew of the late Earl Li.
A Shanghai property syndicate has offered to swop some lind with the municipal Council, mow for mow, по money. The exchange, making the new Hongkew Recrea- tion Ground more compact, has been agreed to by the Council.
The Foochow Echo on Nov. 26th welcomed Mrs. Dew and Miss C. J. Lambert, returning to the port; and announced the immediately approaching marriage of Dr. Davenport of anton and Miss Ida Chambers, a nurse at the Foochow Native Hospital.
Sir Matthew Nathan has presented Efficiency Cup" to the Hongkong Volunteers It is to be competed for by the half companies of H K.V.A. and the H. K. V. Engineer Com- pany, and be held for one year by the unit A Kaifeng letter states that Governor Chên obtaining the greatest number of marks for Kasi-lung of Honan has made all arrangements efficiency, proficiency, and musketry. he total for the establishment of a Military Academy in marks scored by each unit will be multiplied that city, on the Japanese model, and recently by the number of men in the largest unit, and instructed the Provincial Treasurer to divided by the actual number in the unit co-preside over the entrance examination of candi- cerned, and one mark will be added for each efficient member of a unit on the muster roll on the date of the annual inspection. Officers and men will be reckoned separately to allow the proportion of proficiency marks to be accurately calculated.“
dates for that institution. Nearly eight bun- dred young men competed, one of the topics for examination being an essay on the comparative merits of Chinese and foreign army organisa- tion. Only sixty youths were accepted out of the large number that competed.
The old Russian sloop, the Zabiaka, that was
Asiatic Station, is no more. She received. a Japanese shell amidships while lying in Port Arthur harbour, and sank. The story is told how poor Admiral Makaroff used to joke his staff by saying-"Ha, ha, so the Japanese are coming. We must send the Zabiaka to drive them off." For the past four years the Zabiaku was the desparch vessel of Admiral Alexeieff; although she could steam only nine knots.
As an illustration of the incompleteness of the Corean Government records, the following story, given in the Korea Daily News, is rather interesting. For some time past the Home Office has been extremely annoyed at receiving no reply to their despatches to Mr. Kim Ro-kiu, recently appointed, according to the Official Gazette, to the governorship of North Ham- kyeng province. Eventually, a brilliant ides occurred to a member of the department, and the following message was despatched to the Governor of South Hamkyeng province: "Has Kim Ro-kiu arrived at the northern province ?" The reply was terse, but to the point: "Kim Ro-kiu has been dead for a long time."
Peking is probably one of the hardest diplomatic centres on the diplomatic list; but there is alway's the danger that the well- known Chinese trick of procrastination is allowed too much elbow room. All the diplomats appear to fall too readily into the habit of playing patience. There was once a Minister in Peking who played table thumping instead, and his name is still mentioned with some semblance of respect in Chinese cirales. There were many who upheld. the Ru-s'an refusal at Port Arthur a few weeks ago-to allow the Japanese time to bury their dead; maintaining that any such concession under the circumstances would have been poor strategy by afforiling the Japanese an oppor- tunity to make new plans. On the same prin- ciple we fear, says the Peking Times, the diplo matic body are frequently at fault in allowing the Chinese time, not only to "bury their dead," but engulf the living too,
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