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to the Poon Yi Magistrate, who has since made a very favourable report, and there is every likelihood that the theatre will be in full swing again in a few days.
ANOTHER SERIOUS REBELLION.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
A serious relellion broke out on the 9th instant in the Lo Loong Village, near the Loong Chean City, in Wai Chan District. The rebels after | plundering and killing all the civil and mili tary officers in the village, made preparations to attack the Loong Cheun City. The rebels have established their headquarters at Lo Loong Village On the 10th instant the Loong Cheun Magistrate gave orders to close the gates of the City and posted braves on the city wall to repell the assault. He also sent despatches and letters to the Wai Chau Prefect requesting help but they were intercepted and robbed by the rebels.
are
merchants in
The people in the neighbouring city of Ho Yuen got wind of the rebellion and, fearing that the rebels might also attack the city, immediately wired (14th instant) to some of their countrymen who Canton to at once report the matter to Viceroy Shum and request him to send soldiers to suppress the rebellion. On the 15th instant the Viceroy sent Colonel Li Moong Suit with - two divisions of infantry.
PAKHOI,
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
DEARTH OF RICE.
August 9th.
Following two consecutive years of abundance of this impor'ant staple, there is a very bad prospect for the second crop of the present year throughout the Prefecture of Limchow, partly due to the appearance of myriads of a black hairless grub, which had almost destroyed the young plants. T'aking advantage of this unfortunate circumstance the wealthy proprie. tors of grauaries are making B corner. The merchants on the other hand, who are always equal to the occ.sion, have been importing rice from Haiphong by every opportunity, and this has been the means of preventing further rise in the price of the staple, and I have no doubt that Hongkong will soon be looked upon as another source of supply.
THE FRENCH SCHOOL.
Since the departure of Professor Marc 1 Bondet, who left for France on leave in the beginning of June last, the school has been left without a teacher, with only the direction of a monitor or one of the most advanced pupils with the supervision of the French Consul, Monsieur G. Lecomte.
The new professor, Monsieur Chalamel, having
now arrived the school is again in proper irim with a daily attendance of between forty and fifty boys.
GROUNDNUTS.
circular was sent round by the Acting Harbour Master, Mr. F. Allshorn, stating that zone time having been adopted for public and private use at other treaty por s, zone time at Pakhoi would, in the future, be circulated for the information of the community. Pakhoi zone time is slower than men tim by 16 minutes."
SANITATION.
Through the initiative of the Delegate of Foreign Affairs, the Expectaut Taotai Liang, the principal streets are being daily cleaned. The expose is borne by public subscription, the promoter being one of those who head the list. Mr. Liang, who is a man of sound English education, with a good idea of Western ideas, has in many instances shown himself to be a man worthy of his high position and of more intelligence than many of his rank. While the | office he is now filling had been merely a sinecure under the direction of several of his predecessors, run by their secretaries and underlings, since his adrent here, in January last, things have taken a better turn. He does not allow grass to grow under his feet by trusting to his secretary what requires his personal attention. While he is an undoubted patriot, he is not in the least | anti-foreign, as might be expected from a man who has received his education in Hongkong (sic). Men of his calibre should occupy the principal positions in the Empire.
THE LOST JUNK.
Particulars of this calamity have been received. The los sustained by the eight Piece-Goods shops here amonuted to over Tls. 10,000; Kwong Kie heading the list with Tis. 26,000. The rest of the loss, also some Tls. 100,000, falls on Hamchow. How many of the firms affected will find difficulty in making the two ends meet at the end of the year, the grou settling day of China!
THE R. C. MISSION.
I
Since February last the Roman Catholic Mission (French) has been reinforced by three Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres. These ladies are learning the native lingo at resent in order to be more useful to the natives. I need not enlarge on the merits of those virtuous ladies as nurses to the sick. They are well known, everywhere. Since they came. they have already shown their readiness to attend at
nay.
the bed-side of the sick with the sime self. deni characteri tis of the members of their order. One of the ladies attends regularly at the French Hospital to assist the doctor in surgical operations and to dress the wounds of the patients. Soon after their arrival here, a few littl houses were built on the Mission pr pry to receive the sick and uncared-for among those of the Roman faith. To whom belongs the credit of recommending these ladies here. I have little or no concern, but I am really convinced that missionary labour in China to le successful, if at all. must be carried The harvest of this oily nut has been pleuti- on together with the art of healing the sick, ful here and in the surrounding districts this and housing the hom less. It is next to use- season, so much so that its export, both in the less to force the Gospel down a Chinaman's crude state and after being converted into throat unless he is first convinced of the oil, to Hongkong, Haiphong aud
other genuine intention of the for iguers in attend- adjacent places, has been siced withing to his corporal ned, pre ch what you pleasant surprise. Until as recently as the 6th ultimo, Sesamum Seed, which is a bad sub- stitute for the Groundnut oil, has been imported from Hongkong, but since the nuts were gathered and crushed, the reverse has been the case. Six years ago the exportation of the oil was stopped, owing to the failure of the crop, and only last year the natives began to experi. ment with the seeds obtained from California and Swatow, with such admirable results, that a new impetus was given this year. Whether in the future such satisfactory results will be obtained, I am not prepared to foretell, but the planters are confident that such will be the case. The work of crushing the na's to obtain the oil (a most primitive and tedious process) has been going on for weeks, working overtimą, What with the gathering of the nuts, drying. unhusking and crushing, there ought to be employment for all the idlers, who should not now be able to advance the plea of want of work, when they go abeg.ing and robbing. Unfortunately, these parasites se m to be more active in good times. Ti⚫ planters are better worth robbing.
ZONE TIME.
At last it has been decided to adopt the Zone time here as elsewhere. On the 4th instant a
EARTHQUAKES AT MACAO.
DISTURBANCE EXTENDED TO HONGKONG,
14th August,
Au carliquake, as Mr. Dyer Ball in his Things Chinese remarks, is not a phenomenon often experienced by the foreign r-silent in China. Slight shocks' however, have at times been felt at Hongkong as well as in the Treaty ports, but they come at such long intervals and are of so mi da caricter that they exci'e more wonder th to alarm. The sins of earth-tremors which the inhabit nts of Maca have lately been experiencing are certaiuly more alarming than any previous experiences of the kind record d in this part of China.
On Friday night at nine o'clock very severe shock was experienced at Macin cu ing large numbers of the inhabitants to leave their houses, and as th's first shock was followed throughout the night by a series of minor oscillations, crowds flocked to the parks and other open ground in the purlions of the city, and spent part of the night in the open air. ' Altogether sixteen shocks were experienced
i
|
|
[August 21, 1905.
during the night. Many residents of Macso have become SO alarmed by the 100ent frequency of these earth-tremors that they have come over to Hongkong, and it is said half the population would have come here on Friday had there been steamers to take them.
But Hongkong is beginning to feal the earth tremors too. Many residents, especially on the Peak, noticed a slight shock about nia, o'clock on Friday night, and a much sharper one was experienced at 8.25 p.m. on Saturday. That of Friday night was scarcely perceptible but there was no mistaking the shock on Saturday night, an undulating lateral motion of the earth being most unpleasantly percep- tible and causing momentary alarm to a good many people. Damize to house property, it might be supposed would more likely be caused by Saturday's shock than by that on Friday. yet the only damage we have heard of is the fall of the roof of a verandah at the back of one of the houses in Belilios Terrace on Friday night, the crash giving residents in the neighbouring houses a great fright. The movement of Friday night's earthquake shock appeared to be vertical, while that of Saturday was lateral. It is ten years since & shock of earthquake 80 noticeable as that ou Saturday night was felt in Hongkong. It was then recorded that people in the upper stories of the Hongkong Ilotel felt dizzy and concluded that the building would fall, and that many Chinese were much alarmed,
It will be interesting to learn what effects are no iceable at the hot springs of Yung Mak, about twenty miles north-west of Macao. The tempraturs of the water coming from these springs is usually about 170 degrees. They are. situated in a valley surrounded by high mountains, and from the position of the springs at the centre of the circle of mountains it is generally considered that the site is that of an extinct volcano. It is rather curns however to note that thongh Hongkong is mentioned several times in the list of Mr. Dyer Ball's, as having experienced earthquake shocks, Macao is not mentioned once.
MACAO.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
Macao, 13th August.
THE EARTHQUAKES. Yesterday (Saturday, there were several severe earthquake shocks here, which frightened us all very much. There was a very violent shock at half past eight, one which cracked the walls of the Leal Senado. The gaol w&3 totally
rained, necessitating the removal of the prisoners at eleven o'clock at night to the police barracks. The fantan house in Rua do Jago was cracked from top to bottom, while another in Rua da Cadeia, just in front of the gaol, also suffered. Many people were to be seen lying down in terror ou the mountain paths. Here the shocks were n t felt so much. It seams that the full force of the earthquake was felt in the Largo do Sanado, and in the Chines. quarter, which is commonly known as the Bizaar. About two thousand people sought refuge at the Avenido, where they spent a miserable night. After the first shock at half past eight there were a dozen more. Everything was quiet after two o'clock in the morning.
Tw wal's of the Moute Forta were very much shake. The quarters of the Commandant were cracked from top to bottom.
The gate sentry houses of the Guia collapsed, and the chapel threatens ruin. Several other houses, alo, are badly cracked.
No casualty or loss of life has been as yet recorded; terror s'ill prevails, however. There is a tremendous exolus from Macio to Hong- kong, while other pa ple are talking of living in mat-heds on the hills.
The mean tempe.ature for July was 82.3; the maximum was 87.8 and the minimum 78.1. There were 243.5 hours of sunshine, and only “ about nine inches of rain. Apparently it wasn't (as some supposed) the hottest July in twenty years.
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