$
144
HONGKONG CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE.
(Daily Press, 2nd March.)
It is fortunate that the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce has such a record of usefulness behind it. Otherwise the annual report, and the meeting which passed it, would have disappointing aspects for those who like to think that a Chamber of Com- merce is a business body. After reading | the lengthy report for 1904, with its still lengthier appendices, we are tempted to sum it up as TOBY M.P. used to do in Punch : “Business done-none." The main part of the discussion at the meeting was confined to a contingency that may not even arise, and its purport was to request the Colonial Government to do something that, even supposing it were done with the usual courtesy of the Government towards this important and useful body, would not neces- sarily commit the Government to anything. Possessed of a point whose justice could not be gainsaid that a cosmopolitan body should not have an influential voice where British legislative policy is concerned-Mr. GERSHON STEWART nevertheless seems to have taken the resolution too seriously. If the perhaps carelessly worded resolution involved all that Mr. STEWART seemed to think it did, and all that he so eloquently argued against, its end would inevitably have been felo de se. No Governing Authority would entertain such a large
order
from any Chamber of Commerce, or agree for one moment to admit the principle of submitting all its legislation for the approval or disapproval of any Body so constituted. The point he doubtless meant to impress upon the meeting, and should have emphasised more than, he did, was that iu passing such au aubiguous resolution the Chamber of Commerce, at present in very good repute with the Government, would expose itself to a snub such as the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, which also has a cosmopolitan composition, recently received. The point that the presence of other nationals than British on the Chamber of Commerce makes their representations and advice to the Government on any matter of national policy improper and unjust is a plausible oue, so plausible that it is just the sort of cry to be taken hold of and to work much harm to the prestige and usefulness of the Chamber unless it be somewhat qualified. It has to be remembered that while the Government is always glad to have the benefit of the advice and suggestions of such a Body, it is in no way pledged to accept or act upon them, even if it were the case that the Chamber of Commerce were known to be a purely British corporation. It would not be right to attach undue weight to the evidence and opinious of such a Body, even if wholly British, for in such case the administration of the Colony might as well be entrusted to the Chamber at
once. It must not be forgotten that while the Chamber represents only the Commer- cial interests of the Colony, the Government is charged with the well-being of the people, of the inhabitants at large. The Govern- ment's duty is to hold the balance justly between the traders (whose points of view | the Chamber so ably represents and gives expression to) and the mere consumer, whose opinion is likely to be quite opposed to that of the Chamber of Commerce. We have s ed what a diversity of opinion was possible in connection with the Pilots Ordinance of last year. The object of the Chamber of Commerce was chiefly to obtain a pilot service that would be efficient and cheap at the same time. The Ordinance
|
L
THE HONGKONG WZEKLY PRESS AND
has been interpreted elsewhere to mean that British pilots only should benefit, and all others be discouraged. The British pilots (the term here not including Hong. kong Chinese) have seen in it # chance of trying to raise the charges, a feature which the Charaber of Commerce, commer- cially minded, and composed of those who have to pay the pilots, does not view with favour. Whose advice in such case is the Government to take? We presume it will take all it can get, and act according to its own ideas of the average to be therefrom struck. The business interests of the Colony could not, we suppose, be adequately represented by an all British Chamber; and that is why it is a cosmopolitan body. Any recom- mendation coniing from it must regarded by the Governmeut as pure in trade interests, which are not confined to British subjects. Where the purely commercial interests of the Colony seem affected, the opinion of the Chamber would have great weight; but the Government knows just as well as Mr. GERSHOM STEWART does that it is not a body charged with the care of Imperial interests. When it begins to pass resolutions capable of the construction that Mr. STEWART put upon this latest one, it is ploughing the sand. The danger is not to Imperial or Colonial interests, as patriotic Mr. STEWART seemed to fear, but to the diguity of the Chamber itself, which would thus, in time, come to be looked upon as a prating busybody, whose Tooley-street testimony need not be too seriously regard ed. The resolution was carried by a large majority. Perhaps it would not have been, if its folly and needlessness had been pointed out, instead of a lot of bogie-perils of which no earnest Britisher need go in fear.
HONGKONG FOOD SUPPLY.
Daily Press, 3rd March.
The community is again disturbed over the rise in the price of butchers' meat. The compradores price lists issued on the first of the month show an increase of two cents per pound in the price of beef and mutton. Enquiries as to the reason for the enhance ment elicit the old familiar excuse that live stock is dearer. Five years ago the Govern ment appointed a Commission to inquire into the rise in the price of food in the Colony. Valuable evidence was collected and 3 short report embodying some useful suggestions was submitted by the Commission to the Government. It is interesting now to recall some of the facts elicited at that Inquiry. The Commission found that during the previous five years, i e., from 1895 to 1900, the rise in whole- sale and retail prices had been as follows:-
ARTICLES. Bread
Fish Beef
WHOLESALE, RETAIL.
per cent. 20 per cent.
13
39
33
50 33
"
11
11
Mutton
25
45
T7
>
Eggs
Fowls
80 40
11
Ducks
50
50
19
**
Potatoes
25
12
}}
Firewood
.90
95
节字
"
100
14
Groundnut oil 110 Rice
33
3+
33
+
Beyond natural fluctuations in supply and demand, the Commission found the main causes of this increase to have been : (a) De- preciation of silver; (b) increased cost of rice; (c) West River piracy; (d) increased rents; (e) enforcement of Sanitary laws.
All these may have been valid reasons in 1900. For the five years 1890-1894, the approximate average value of the dollar was a fraction over 2s. 9d.; in the succeed ing five years it was a fraction over 23.0d. In the first five years of the present century
[March 6, 1905.
the average has been approximately 18. 101. But the revision of prices by the butchers has not been a quinquennial business. The present retail price of butchers' meat shows an increase of at least 50 per cent. since the year 1900. When the Commission took evidence in 1900 the price of beef was stated by one of the butchers in the Central Market to be "15 cents per pound for best beef; medium quality, 11 cents to 12 cents a pound; and the worst-soup meat-about 11 cents a pound." We now find the following prices quoted in a leading com pradore's price list as from the 1st March, and these correspond with prices in the Central Market:"Fillet of beef, 30 cents per pound; roasting beef, 20 cents; soup meat, 16 cents." The few particulars we have quoted as to the course of exchange show that a plea of
depreciation of silver" cannot be set against an increase in the price of beef in- the last five years ranging from 50 per cent. for soup meat, to 100 per cent, for the best cuts. Neither can piracies in the West River be pleaded, nor we believe can any substantial rise in Market rentals, which the Commission regarded as a tax on food and recommended should be kept as low as possible.
The opinion is frequently expressed that a' combination exists with the object of keep- ing up the price of meat, but the Commission five years ago found it difficult by means of direct evidence to prove it. Yet the evidence showed that practically the whole supply was in the hands of two men who acknowledged. being supported by a syndicate and from whom other market butchers bought. There has been no change, we understand, in this respect since. The same monopoly exists and a small combination is able to regulate prices as it pleases. One of the witnesses who appeared before the Commission suggested the intro- duction of co-operative stores as a method of warfare against this "squeeze pidgin” but the idea has never taken root in Hongkong. In Kobe some months ago the European community by way of protesting against an unwarrautable increase in the price of meat, helu public meetings, boycotted the butchers, and started a "Ment Club." They are now able to buy meat at fair rates. It this example were followed in Hongkong, the householder would, we believe, benefit considerably. There is no scarcity of cattle on the mainland. Turning to the last annual report of the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon we find in the opening paragraph the statement that "there appears to be no difficulty in obtaining a regular supply of useful bullocks from the main. land," and the statistical returns show that there has been a large, steady, annual increase in the number of animals slaugh- tered in the Colony. In 1894 the cattle slaughtered numbered 16,898; in 1903 the number was 28,335-this percentage of in- crease being far larger than the growth in The returns of sheep and population. goats show the same proportionate increase, and we take this to prove that the supply of live stock on the mainland is fully equal to the demands of the Colony. We can see no justifiable reason for the increases which are constantly taking place in the price of food in Hongkong, and the time has fully arrived when resolute and effective action should be taken by the
community to put an end to what looks
very much like extortion on this part of the monopolist butchers.
The Chefoo Daily News reports that the German craiser Hansa at Tsingtao filled her bankers with Shantang coal from the German colliery, she being the first large ship to take this coal on board at the dock.
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