484
chronicler, besides, as a reward for his good works, his wages in Heaven. He had suc- ceeded in converting not only the King but his brother GAD.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
A TAX ON MANDARINS. (Daily Press, 30th December.) WANG CHIA CH1, the "probationary com Here, however, occurs a narrative more missary of records," in the Chekiang difficult of explanation. An individual prefecture, is a Chinaman for whom we feel named SIFUR, plainly the common Persian obliged to express some admiration. To SHAPUR, represented as a general in the judge from his memorial to TIEH LIANG, service of King MAZDAI, came to visit one of the commissioners whose duty is to THOMAS, and took him away in an ox car- scrape the provinces in order to enrich the riage. Here a difficulty arises as to who Imperial treasure-chests, WANG is an en- was this King MAZDAI, and bere we must lightened, an honest, a fearless, and-it is venture ou conjecture. Amongst the coins to be feared a foolish man. According to of the country recently discovered are some the translation of his memorial, which we that bear the strange superscription Sao- reproduce to-day from the Peking and nanashao Bazodeo Koshano, regarding Tientsin Times, he has realised the differ- which a curious story has been elaborated ence between Chinese and foreign methods of three kings, brothers, bearing the strange of government, and the real use of troops. titles of KANISKA, HUSHKA and JUSHXA, an He points out that foreign nations never evident Mohammedan transliteration simni- oppress and exhaust" the people in order to raise troops. He also sees that in more lar to such forms as YAGUs and MaguJ, &c. Rather do these words seem to be titles of blessed lands, the troops are guarantors of some of the later kings of the same country, trade and good order, instead of disturbers that of Koshaua, the modern Kesb. The thereof. China is asking for more troops, first inscription to be noticed is plain, bad as her present lot has turned out to be, Kshatra khatraoùam, cynisca Kushano,and WANG has a novel, a daring, and withal a sensible scheme to obtain the necessary "Kshatra of Kshatras, king of Kushan the other above described is possibly an funds. attempt at a translation of the same into some Indian vernacular, and the name or title seems to be identical with the Vasu- deva of the Mathura inscriptions. Here he converted many of the principal persons about the Court, whose names so far as
given do not readily lend themselves to
identification.
The result of these recent investigations would seem to be that there is strong ground for the old legend that St. THOMAS really did come to the north-west of India, and that his mission had considerable success in the Gothic Kingdom of the Indo-
Scythe, which up to about the sixth century was the most powerful neighbour of the Persian Empire of the Sassanian, and that he certainly travelled over the lands of the Pamirs, and at least as far into India itself as southern Scinde. · He was pro- bably executed under one of the later so-called Scythian kings, but his body was nevertheless buried in the royal sepulchre at Peshawur; whence towards the close of the fourth century it was removed and reinterred near the present Turkish town of Orfah in Mesopotamia.
There does not appear the slightest evi- dence of his ever having been so far east in India as the city of Madras, and we must dismiss as a late fable the story of his remains having been removed to Goa. There remains one other fact of which we have reasonable evidence. PoLo, as we have seen, sent him to Nubia. Ethiopia was, however, the country of which POLO's informant must have spoken. The Ethiopia intended was not the African, but the Asiatic Ethiopia spoken of by HERODOTUS whose inhabitants in connection with the Indians formed part of the great army which followed XERXES to the attack on Greece. They had, in opposi- tion to the curly locks of the African Ethiopians, straight hair, and are to be looked for in the inhabitants of Beluchistan, and thus near neighbours of the Indo-Scyths in Afghanistan. The Church has fixed his festival on the 21st December, the reason of which is not very plain, but is probably connected with the octave of the Winter Solstice of which it is the opening.
We are informed by a Parsee contributor that Mr. S. D. Setna left Hongkong for Bombay by the English mail on Dec. 31. Mr. Setna, as manager of the Cawasjee Pallanjee & Co. bong, a society man, he has many friends who condole with him on the recent death of his father, the sad event, which occasions his departure.
is a well-known business man, and being also
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His prefatory remarks are evidence of his knowledge of the thinness of the ice over Very often," he says, which he skates.
faithful advice cannot be given to high
C
I am
authorities for fear of giving offence. well aware that my unworthy words will be of no service, but cannot help speaking You are 'frankly to you about this matter. here in the South with the order to raise funds for drilling troops in Peking. The Southern provinces are generally known as fertile and rich, but in reality they are wealthy only in appearance, and nine out of ten houses have been empty for a long time." Among the causes he enumerates for this state of affairs, he is bound, being a Chinaman, to mention the foreign in- demnities; but he does not, as he might well have done, attribute the poverty of the South to the disorder which it has continued
to suffer so long. His proposal is nothing
less than a tax upon mandarins. The Throne may be "hard up" occasionally, the people may be starving, but the pinch was never known to be felt by the high officials. "For the past 300 years the dynasty has had thousands of officials, and the ministers in the court have lived on the fat of the land at the expense of the people. They have every luxury that can be enjoyed, yet they complain. They are the most ungrateful people in the world. These are the people from whom WANG would funds should be raised." assess the mandarins forty per cent. of their incomes, and thus this HARCOURT of Sinim sees a prospect of millions of taels without "At first it would be a great difficulty. surprise to the public generally, but the people would be pleased." We are told that this scheme has found favour at Peking, and that the proposer has been summoned to an audience. We hope no harm may befall him, but we cannot repress some anxiety. For one thing, the memorialist was indis- creet enough to suggest that half of the money so raised would be sufficient to send to Peking. The other moiety he proposed to distribute among the commercial bureaus in the provinces, to be spent in encouraging inventors to improve implements and tools. "In this way the spirit of the people may be roused, and the resources of the country developed." This will not be popular at Peking, and the whole thing is likely to be pigeonholed in oonsequence, while the en- terprising and enlightenel WANG will pos- sibly meet a similar fate.
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income.
[December 31, 1904.
If it were made to apply to capital, as well as to income, there might be a surprising disgorging of funds that bave no business to be where they are at present ; but it is a dream unlikely of fulfilment.
t
WANG is against Sir ROBERT HAET'S scheme, of course, and he remarks: "The tariff of likiu is five per cent., but owing to its passing through so many hands, it amounts to fully thirty per cent." Man- darins would no doubt do as better men do in other countries, and misrepresent their incomes, when WANG's collectors came round. If they failed to persunde the in- come tax people of their poverty, they would also soon recup themselves, in the old sweet war, and so the groaning tax- payer would be no better off in the end. There must be nothing short of a revolution of some kind before the status and well- being of the Celestial hoi polloi can be really made good. Taxing the mandarin is not at all a bad idea, bit suppressing him, as MARK TWAIN would say, with a club, would be cheaper, and more efficacious in the long
ruo.
HONGKONG
JOTTING ':
27th December.
dry Here's to our next Merry Xmas!"
To the Reader each and every, all and sun-
When we read what Router has to s y about
our souls
the weather in England this Christm18, we
can take the fatterin unction to that we in Hongkong have half much to be thankful for. True. the weather on Christmas Ere was what the ladies t rm 'horrid," but we were favoured with a fine, clear, bracing atmosphere on Xmas Day, and the weather yes- terday was just the thing for the necessary ramble over the hills to digest the proceedings of the day before. It is interesting to note that the lowest temperature recorded on Christmas Day at the Observatory was 45 degrees; the highest was 58 degrees. So far, then, Christmas Day may be set down as the coldest day of the
year.
Being Christmas time it is permissible to
ask a conundrum. What is the difference
between Monkey Brand and a British Tar?" I see it all ged in a home paper-not The Statist
that this conundrum was recently chalked up in a prominent place on Admiral Noel's flag- ship, and the answer is said to have much While the roa ter amused the gallant Admiral. is guessing at the answer. I shall have time to mention te rumour that on taking over the command of the China squadron Admiral Noe, regarded the putting of the laundry work into the hands of the Chinese as an act of laziness and prohibited it. Following upon this order, some Mark Tapley propounded the comundram presented above. Give it up? Well the answer "One won't wash clothes, and the other --has to ! "*
18:
A cricket match was played at the Happy Valley in the rain on Saturday. The players duz up a lot of the turf, but the morrow being Xmas they were not interred in the pits they had made. The next teams that use the pitch will probably think they ought to have been.
The turncock, I suppose, like the other ser- vants of the Government, rested from his slept off Day, and
Now that
labours
on
Xmas
the effects yesterday morning. the day for preaching peace and good will to all men has passed by, the bad habit of indulging now and then in a little grumble is upon me again. Why didn't the turncock rise on Monday morning in time to give the com- munity water for the matutinal tub? It has not yet been officially announced that there is any scarcity of water, but the turncock has been playing fine tricks during the past week. Must we put it all down to the festive season ? It is a great I would with all humility call the attention pity, for he has undoubtedly put his finger of the official responsible for the condition of on the most proper and profitable source of the roads to the need for some repairs on the
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