:
June 12, 1905.]
The speeches of the Hon. Mr. Robert Shewan at meetings of the Legislative Council are always read with avidity by the public. There is nothing dall about the hon. member's speeches, for they always have a tendency to provoke scenes. The above notes apropos the proposed extension of the Hongkong Hotel recall Mr. Shewan's speech to mind because of the following reference in it to the Hotel and the Building Ordinance :----
"We were told ad nauseam that houses must not be higher than one and a half times
OVERLAND
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
BANYAN.
859
If the letter of "Interested" which appeared, the local newspapers, if you will allow me to in the Daily Press on Saturday accurately say so, Mr. Editor, have been very remiss in represents the views of the active "resisters reporting them. of the sale of the High Level Tramways Company, then, clearly, their opposition is on a very insecure basis, indeed. There are more facts to be "admifted" than are set down by ** Interested." It has, for instance, to be admitted not only that the present Tram Company's earnings are $45,000 annually, but it is highly important that "Interested" and his friends should bear in mind that the
SUPREME COURT. Monday, 5th June.
IN SUMMARy JurisdictION.
the width of the street, but look at the size of expenses are $46,000 annually. With the latter BEFORE MB. A G. W188 (PUISNE Juden).
the houses that have since been built, and the amusing part of it is that the very sanitary expert for whom the Government specially made a place on the Council that he might drive it through with the weight of his authority, now sits as Head of the Sanitary Board, and merrily grants dispensations to all and sundry to break its provisions.“
the
It struck me when reading the debate at the Sanitary/Board that no excuse for & departure from the Ordinance was made except the plea that the needs of the community required the additional accommodation. That can hardly be described as an adequate reason for departing from a recently made law, prescribing height of buildings, if it was intended to be of general application; but it would have been more to the point if some one had mentioned the well-understood fact that the great object of the ordinance was to prevent certain dangers to the public health which are not likely to arise in the case of buildings like the Hongkong Hotel or any of the lofty office buildings on the sea front. It is only in the European business centre that these exemptions under the Building Ordinance have been granted.
Concurrently with the heightening of the hotel at the Queen's Road end let us hope the P.W.D. will remove the Clock Tower. It is an eyesore and an obstruction where it now stands. It has previously been suggested in this column that an excellent place for the clook would be on the New Post Office, and I
have heard of no better suggestion.
Residents in the Colony in this century are not quite so "cribbed, cabin'd and confined" as they were in the last. The man who can take only a week's holiday is not now restricted in his choice of a resort to Macao. He may go on a tour in the New Territory or, if he dislikes the discomfort of such an expedition, and prefers a more restful holiday, there is the trip up the West River which, thanks to the enterprise of the Hong kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, be may make with ease and comfort. An excellent little handbook has been issued by the company describing by letterpress and illustration the chief places of interest between Canton and Wuchow-fu. As it truly says, for people realise what magnificent scenery there is on the Si Kiang. The return journey
Wuchow-fu, via between Hongkong and Canton, occupies about five days. Whoever is thinking of a short holiday should procure this little Handbook which will speedily help them to a decision as to where to go and how to get there.
12th June.
June is always a wet month-in Hongkong, but we seem to have had more than our usual
amount of rain so far. Over 15 inches of rain For the whole month has fallen since the 1st. of June last year the rainfall was 19.64) inches. In 1903 it exceeded 25 inches in June.
I don't know whether many people study the water returns as they are published in the papers every month, but it is very satisfactory to learn from the return, published in the Daily Press & few days ago, that on the 1st of the present month there were 175,709,000 gallons of water in the Colony's storage reservoirs (excluding Kow. loon) more than on the 1st of June last year. This, notwithstanding that we have had a full service of water this May, while last year we had only an intermittent supply. It is to be remarked in this connection also that we had less rain during last month than in May last year, so that the water return published last week is an eminently satisfactory ons.
|
item well in mind let TIN now follow "Interested's" method of calculation. Sup-
posing the new line were to be constructed by an independent Company. "Interested" shows us how the shareholders in the present Com- pany, by being satisfied with a division of only $15,000 instead of $45,00 during the next
three years, would be able to meet the com- petition when it came with a fighting fund of $90,000!
*
*
That looks formidable. Then begins the war of rates. "We cut our fares down to one-third" says Interested," and he added jubilantly we still pay
$15,000 to shareholders but lay nothing aside." I should like to know exactly how this is done. If the income is reduced two-thirds, the amount will be $30,333. The expenses will still remain the same, namely $46,000. Thus there would roughly be a loss of $16,000 annually, and if the shareholders were still paid $15,000, as Interested" expects, that would mean that over $30,000 a year would have to be taken from this special fighting fund, which would thus be exhausted in less than three years.
$
**
There is another point in Interested's" letter which also strikes me as a misleading factor in his calculation. The writer of the
letter assumes apparently that the opening of a new line, with a station in the Queen's Road, would not in the slightest degree affect the volume of the traffic which the present line enjoys. I am inclined to think that the opening of the new line would immediately reduce the volume of traffic on the present line by at least 50
cent. How many Peak residents I per wonder, would walk from their offices or take a chair up to St John's Place, if they were able to get into a car in the Queen's Road which would carry them to precisely the same spot on the Peak? And how many would come down from the Peak to St. John's Place, when they could be taken on the other line down to Queen's Road? Though at first inclined to sympathis with the objectors, I am, on a fuller considera- tion of the whole question, convinced that the policy of the Directors is a sound one. present line could not successfully compete with the one projected. It will be generally con- ceded, I think, that it would not have the ghost of a chance against it so long as the
terminus is where it is. Some weeks
The
I Bgo
YKUNG KWAN HING . NG WAI CHI
AND OTHERS.
Mr. Dixon (of Mr. John Hastings' office) appeared for the plaintiff in this case and for the defendant in a cross action. Mr. H. Hursthouse (of Messrs. Dennys and Bowley) appeared for the other side,
The action, said Mr. Dixon, was brought to recover $718.12, being the amount of damage and loss sustained by the plaintiff by reason of a breach of contract dated April 19th, 1905. This contract was entered into between the defendant and plaintiff under the following circumstances:-The defendant is the compra- dore of the Messageries Maritimes Company; and during the five days set apart for the celebration of the Birthday of the Goddess of Heaven, April 23rd to 27th, defendant chartered two river steamers, the Paul Beau and Charles Hardouin, from the Messageries Maritimes Company to run between Hongkong and Shekwan. On the 19th April the plaintiff was approached by a friend of the defendant and asked if he would agree to act as steward; and sell refreshments to the passengers on board the steamer. The plaintiff had an inter. view with the defendant on the 19th April, when it was agreed that the plaintiff should have exclusive right, for $25 a day, to sell refreshments.
He was to have the use of the
kitchen on board the steamer, and an agreement was drawn up showing that the plaintiff was to have exclusive right. The cross action was in respect of this $25 a day. The plaintiff on the first day found a good deal of opposition going on against him. The steward of the steamer was selling meals and drinks. The plaintiff remonstrated with the defendant, and the defen- dant admitted that the steward ought not to be
selling in opposition. Furthermore, the plaintiff promised that the opposition should but it
cease, continued for the five days. The plaintiff not only suffered directly by reason of the competi- tion, but a considerable amount of provisions had to be destroyed.
The case was adjourned.
Tuesday, 6th June.
IN ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE ME. F. T. PIGGOTT (CHILĮ JUSTICE),
EXTRADITION CABE-RE WONG KA CHEUNG.
mentioned the rumour that the Directors were Sir Henry Berkeley (Attorney General) and considering schemes for the extension of the Mr. H. E. Pollock, K. (instructed by Mr. line to Queen's Road. The only possible scheme F. B. L. Bowley) appeared for the Crown in was for the line to be carried straight down, this case, while Mr. N. Ferrers (instructed by and for the station to be at the junction of Mr. Otto Kong Sing) appeared for the accused, Garden Road with Queen's Road-opposite the Cricket Ground. I understand (unofficially) that this would be a costly piece of work, and, when done, would it put the Company in a much better position to hold its own against the com-
The Attorney General sail he appeared pursuant to leave given to support, with the assistance of Mr. Pollock, the motion which the Crown was making for the setting aside of an order absolute in the first place for a writ of
petition of the new line with a terminus at habeas corpus made on 23rd May last. The Battery Path? I have understood that for a grounds upon which the application was made were: (1) that no writ of habeas corpus such as long time past the Company has been run- ning as many cars as it is possible to run,
was directed had been issued in pursuance of the and any extension of the line will pre-order absolute made on 23rd May; (2) that as a sumably mean a less frequent service-uoless
the whole of the line were doubled. That, it is scarcely necessary to say, would be an exceedingly costly undertaking, but it is one which, had there been no opposition line in sight, would have had to be con-idered before long.
All things considered I think the
Directors and General Managers have been wise in their day and generation.
The Hongkong correspondent of the London Daily Mail, I observe, wired home last month the alarming intelligence that the local naval authorities had held a secret conference! If they ever held public conferences in Hongkong
consequence the proceedings for the surrender of the prisoner, Wong KaCheung, to theGovernment of China, in accordance with the terms of Chinese Extradition Ordinance has been unduly and
improperly delayed. The motion was supported by an affidavit made by Mr. Bowley. The appli-
cation on behalf of the Chinese Government for
the extradition of the prisoner alleges that the prisoner committed an extraditable offence within the dominions of the Emperor of Chins, Mr. Bowley had searched the files and found that an es parte order had been made for the issue of a writ of habeas corpus. Further Mr. Bowley alleged that no such writ had been issued. A letter addressed to the Captain Superinten-
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