116
A
to live with him as his mistress: that she appears to have refused to do so partly owing to her mother, and on account thereof the prisoner made use of threats against the girl's life, and stated that she should die by his hand. The mother will tell you that this language fright- ened the girl, and for some time thereafter she was afraid, and refused to ply the passenger boat for hire. Again on the 19th and 21st of the same month it is announced by the mother that the prisoner returned to her boat and again urged his suit. The girl persistently refused him, and he again made use of threats against her. Some six months then passed during which time the family were apparently no molested by the prisoner; but the mother tells us that on the 19th June last, the deceased having been free from the advances of the prisoner for some time, again commenced to ply the passenger boat for hire. On the 20th June, the day of the night on which we say she was murdered, the girl left the house-boat at niue o'clock and went towards the wharf for the pur- pose of pying the passenger boat. She was then wearing gold earrings and bangles. witness will be called who will tell you that shortly after nine o'clock at night she saw three men, one of whom was the prisoner, hire the deceased giri's boat. We have it then that the prisoner and two other men shortly after nine o'clock went away from the wharf at Shau. kiwan in the deceased's boat. The next witness I shall call will be a priest of the name of Lai Yut, who will say that a little after 11 p.m. the same night, two hours afterwards, he saw three men, one of whom was the prisoner, get out of a boat at Saiwan. Saiwan, it will be proved by another witness, is the place where the deceased's boat was found floating empty. The priest subsequently identified the prisoner as being one of the three men whom he had seen leave the boat which turned out to be the deceased's. In the boat were found the earrings which were certified as those the decease girl was wearing when she left the house-boat that night. There was no other trace of jewellery about. At nine o'clock on the following morning, a foreman of the ship yard at Quarry Bay picked the body of the deceased out of the water near that place. The body then had a tape tied round the mouth, presumably for the purpose of gagging, and all the jewellery the girl had on the night before was missing. As a result of the examination of the doctor to whom the body was submitted, be came to the opinion that death was caused by drowning. From information which the police had respecting the movements of the accused he was arrested, and charged with being con- cerned in the murder. In answer to the charge the prisoner replied-"It is not I; I was sick. It was those two men. When asked if he knew who those two men were he said- No. I don't know them." Prisoner accounts for himself by saying that at the time the woman saw him getting into the deceased's boat, he was playing cards at a house.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY RESS AND
CANTON.
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.
Canton 11th August 1905. BOGUS FOREIGN" FIRMS.
His Excelency Viceroy Shum has given instructions to all the local officials to furnish him with reports of all the foreign hongs that are carrying on business in the Walled City and suburbs in their respective districts. The report is to contain names of each firm, their nationality and the number of employees I presume this is done to engaged by them. suppress those Chinese firms that have assumed foreign names.
**JAPANNING" THE ARMY.
in
Viceroy Shum is, indeed, a progressive man, and his latest idea is to reorganize the army the Kwangtung province on the Japanese system. Hitherto the Chinese Army has been trained under the German system. I mentioned some time ago, that many Japanese tutors have arrived here, and have now discovered that they are military instructors engaged by the Chinese Government on the Viceroy's recommendation. His Excellency intends to start instructing his body guards first, and the various divisions of be instructed the Kwangtung Army will afterwards.
400,000 TAELS SUBSCRIBED FOR RAILWAY.
Capital to the extent of 400.000 taels has already been subscribed by officials geutry and merchauts of the Sun-Ning district for the purposes of building a railway to join the main trunk of Canton Hankow Railway from that district. As soon as the regulations are drawn up the people will petition to the Viceroy of the Two Kwang requesting him to grant them I might mention permission to start the work. that the majority of the Chinese emigrants of United States are natives of Sun-Ning, and the people of hat distriot are more enlightened than countrymen and they know the fellow advantage of having a railway running through their district.
BIG CLAN FIGHT UP-COUNTRY,
I hear that a very serious clau fight is now going on in the Wai Chow District. It is said that over 200 villages are involved in the fight. and each party in order to prevent their own men from being killed by mistake. carries banners-one party red, and the other black Cannons and rifles are used by both parties and thousands of men have already been killed and wounded.
TORTURE.
Torture of prisoners during trials of cases has been abolished by the Nam Hoi and Poon Yu Magistrates some time ago. Lately the Poon Yu Magistrate discovered that bis work was in arrear, as he had difficulty in getting witnesses to appear and give evidence. His list of cases has been growing longer every day, he was compelled" to fall back to the old rut of applying torture to obtaiu confession from prisoners. The matter of fact is that the people have no confidence in the officials, and if they do appear in court to give evidence they are afraid of being detained and squeezed by the officials. The way to get people BEFORE MR. BASIL H. TAYLOR (MARINE to appear in court to give evidence is to give
Evidence was led and the case adjourned.
MARINE MAGISTRATE'S COURT.
Thursday, 17th August.
MAGISTRATE).
SEAMEN REFUSE SALT JUNK,
them some sort of guarantee that they are at liberty to leave the court premises as soon as the case is over and that they will not be Thirty-three of the crew of the s.s. Courtfield molested in any way by the officials or their were charged, at the instance of Capt. Martin subordinates. I suggest that if His Ex- a proclamation of the said vessel, with disobeying his lawfulcellency Viceroy Shum issues commands on the 16th June last at Nagasaki.
Captain Martin stated-On 15th June I told the steward that as the ship was likely to remain in Nagasaki another month, having been there already one month, he was to give the crew fresh meat one day and salt the next. On the follow- ing day the steward offered the men salt beef which they refused to take, and also refused to do any work. The British Consul at Nagasaki advised them to return to their duty, which they did next day.
The spokesman of the defendants stated that when they signed articles the steward promised them fresh meat every day in port, quence of being offered salt meat they refused
work.
In conse-
His Worship sentenced defendants to seven days' imprisonment with hard labour, after which they are each to forfeit two days' pay.
|
to that effect the Canton Courts will have no
difficulty in getting witnesses to appear.
EMPRESS DOWAGER PROMISES ON CONDITIONS.
PARLIAMENT
A telegram received hero from Peking states that in an audience granted by the Empress Dowager she made the following statements "I have heard that if a House of Parliament were to be established in my country it will |
very firm make the Ching dynasty
and everlasting and that all revolutionary delib- cease and my country will eration will enjoy peace. I have sent the following officials viz:-Tai Hing Chi, Tsoi Chak, Tun Fong and Yan Sai Kai's son to go abroad to study the parliamentary methods of different nations and, on their return, should they report favourably on the subject, then I will grant the establishment of parliament to my sabjects.
K
[August 21, 1905.
Canton 14th August.
CHINESE TRICKE Y AND THE WAY IT IS PUNISHED.
Last week Kwan Man Yum, a military student of the Cheong Pin Hok Tong (college for training officers at Canton), who has been in the habit of inventing stories to obtain leave of absence from the college, was most severely and cruelly punished by His Excellency Viceroy Shum. It appears that on Wednesday last Kwan again got tired of schooling, and in order to obtain leve he concocted a story by telling the Professor that his grandmother was seriously ill, and requested leave of absence for five days to go home and nurse his poor Leave was granted to him, and grandmother." in the afternoon he was enjoying himself most gloriously with " Sing Song" girls in a flower boat. Somebody coureyed this piece of news to the professor of the college who on the following day sent for Kwan and abridged his leave. The professor was puzzled because he could not think of any punishment to impose on Kwan which would deter the incorrigible student from repeating his tricks, so he reported the matter to Viceroy Shum. His Excellency was very angry and directed the professor to hand Kwan over to the Poon Yü Magistate to wait his orders. On the 10th instant the Viceroy ordered the Magistrate to cut Kwan's left ear, and deported him to his native village (Shim Tak) where he is to be under vigilant servei lance of the local officials. An intimate friend of the Viceroy at a levee yesterday, broached this subject and the Viceroy remarked that it was the most lenient punishment he could impose on Kwan for an offence of this kind.
A TLS. 3,0 0,000 LOAN.
Owing to difficulties experienced by the Provincial Treasury in meeting the enormous I hear that Viceroy public expenditure
loan Shum has been trying to obtain a of three million taels. His Excellency bere has approached a European Bank which was quite willing to advance the amount at a very cheap rate of interest, but demanded certain large railway concessions in the Kwang- tung Province to which the Viceroy would not agree, and the negotiations eventually fell through.
Yesterday I was informed that the Viceroy is negotiating for the loan through a certain very wealthy Chinese gentleman of Hongkong. The interest off-red is 12 per cent. per annum, and the loan is to be repaid in ten annual instalments of 300,0 10 taels each.
He is willing to float the loan provided the Viceroy obtains consent from the Wai-wu-pu.
MORE EARTHQUAKES.
Another earthquake took place here at 8.30 on Saturday night. The shock lasted about twe seconds and was felt by most of the residents in Shameen. Furniture and articles in the houses were seen to move, but fortunately no accident resulted. $
Canton, 14th August.
SERIOUS FIRES.
About 7 a.m. on the 12th inst. a serious fire broke out in Yow Wah Sam Yeuk (West End), ́ It originated from Tso's residence, No. 13 Yew Wah Stre t, and gradually spread round the neighbourhood. The brigades worked up to
noon.
Altogether 38 houses were destroyed by fire. The origin of the fire is unknown. At 10
p.m. last night another fire broke out at Ng Sin Moon. The Fook Hing Loi tea ship and four other shops were burnt down. Several men in the street were seriously wounded by earthenware water jars thrown from roofs of neighbouring houses to put out the fire.
THIEF ARRESTED.
Yuen Kwai, a house coolie employed by Messrs. Carlowitz & Co. was arrested for steal- ing a trunk and other articles belonging to the of the firm. He was sent to the Nam manager Hoi. When the trial took place (12th instant) he denied having stolen the things and refused to sign a confession.
IMPERSONATING VICEROY'S DEPUTIES. Several notorious sharpers, now at large, are representing themselves as deputies of the Viceroy and have been successful in perpetra- ting large swindles. It has now come to the knowledge of Viceroy Shum who has given orders to have them promptly arrested. His Excellency the Viceroy has also issued a
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.