186
REMARKABLE FLOODS AT
SHANGHAI.
THE HONGKON1 WEEKLY PRESS AND past Woosung. At the latter place, what is called the Beggars' Village was quite swept away. Taking a calmer survey subse quetly, our contemporary seems to consider tunt (with the exception of the damaged godown stocks) Shanghai got off rather cheaply on the whole.
(Daily Press 9th September.) Shanghai folk are apt to speak pityingly of their neighbours in Hongkong, whom they picture as sweltering and miserable in perpetual torridity and unconquerable ill. health. Yet this year Shanghai bas suffered more from heat than Hongkong has done; and now it appears we may extend our sympathy to them in consequence of the typhoon, which hit them much harder than it did us. Certainly these typhoon floods are not of regular occurrence at the north ern port. Their climate goes to extremes every year; but it is only about twice in a century that they suffer from such floods as the one accompanying the recent typhoon, It is over fifty years ago since they had such a catastrophe, and then the inunda- tion was about two feet lower than it was during the opening days of this month. Our contemporary the NC. Daily News, in its issue of the 4th instant, devotes over three long columns to a record of the immense damage done. The greater part of the Settlement was under water, and we can well understand how strange everything looked, and how awkwardly situated the residents must have found themselves. Sampans plying for hire in the streets of this Oriental Venice pro tem! It is also gravely recorded that young men removed their clothing and swam from office to mess! "Bouts were as numerous in the streets as ricshas," we are told; and in such circumstances, we could have con. ceived them as more numerous. At Pootung, the low lying district on the opposite side of the river, hous: 8 were washed away and several natives drowned. Many sampans and junks were wrecked, and, presumaly, more lives lest. In Frenchtown, where the boulevards were beautiful with well-cared-for trees, th se ornaments were uprooted in considerable numbers; and on the English side, "the Public urden looked a wreck." One ricsha coolie was electrocuted by a fallen wire. Cellars everywhere were flooded, of course, und in certain cases the fire engines were used to pump them dry. Goods in godowns were destroyed wholesale, and our contemporary regards from eight to ten millions of taels as a moderate estimate of the loss so sustained. Chinese merchants who had American goods tied up by the boycott must have felt particularly unhappy. "Piece goods, silk, te, flour, rice, stocks of these and other communities have been irrel trievably damaged, and the losses to some firms are very serious indeed. A question has naturally arisen as to the responsibility of the Wharf and Godown Companies, but,' says our contemporary, "without venturing into any question of law, it is difficult to see how preparations could be made to meet such an unexpected contingene, as Friday's flood. Many victims were going about on Saturday trying to argue that a typhoon did not come under what, in insurance parlance, is called au· Act of God.'" In the insurance claims and tigation that may follow, we take it there will be no question of "prepar- ing to meet a typhoon. Clearly, at a place where a river is so prone to overflow, policies ought to be made to cover damage by flood- ing. The Shanghai and Hongkew Company lost their fences, and part of the roof of the local manager's house. For two days Shanghai was without electric fans or lights, the transformning stations of the Electric Light: Works being flooded and damaged. "Hundreds of lives" were lost at Poutung; six dead bodies being removed from one house. Corpses and coffins were noticed floating
45
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THE HONGKONG EXCHEQUER.
(Daily Press, 11th September.) There is little to criticise but much to applaud in the address delivered by His EXCELLENCY the Governor when laying before the Legislative Council the Colonial Budget. It is scarcely more than twelve months since Sir Matthew Nathan arrived in the Colony, and if any proof were needed that Hrs EXCELLENCY has not been a mere figurehead of the administration, a study of the Budget speech will reveal it, for it is obvious that HIS EXCELLENCY has made himself thoroughly acquainted with the multitudinous details of the administration and is directing affairs with a clear com prehension of what is required and with quickness of decision and firmness of purpose which the community will highly appreciate.
administration
its
on
There is no need for us to dwell at any length on the details of the Colony's revenue and expenditure 80 succinctly reviewed by Hts EXCELLENCY. The financial statement is an eminently satisfactory one. On the revenue side practically all the items which (to use HIS EXCELLENCY's words) "indicate general development show increases amounting in the aggregate to close on half a million dollars. On the expenditure side of the statement we have to expect increases due to the expansion of the Colony, but if this growth in expeudi- ture leads to greater efficiency in the justification must be admitted. As the Colony develops the expenditure on public works must necessarily increase. Of late years the Colony has been spending freely permanent public works; it is still com- mitted to beavy expenditures on that account, and schemes of some magnitude loom in the distance which will call for con- sideration as the state of the exchequer permits. Our heaviest expenditure on any single work in the Public Works Extra- ordinary list at the present time is apparently on waterworks. We note with much antisfaction the announcement that the coming financial year will see the completion of the waterworks at Kow- loou as well as the first section of the Tytam-Tuk scheme.
second section of this latter scheme involves an expenditure of four million dollars, and as the colony is spending in the next financial year half a million on the water- works already in hand, HIS EXCELLENCY has decided to wait until 1907 before putting this second section of the scheme in hand. We have no doubt that HIS EXCELLENOY has well assured himself that no incon- venience to the Colony is likely to result from this postponement, but it is well to point out that this is one of the schemes which has long been before the Colony and we should be sorry to see it unduly delaye 1. The reason for the delay suggested by His EXCELLENCY serves to remind us that it has long been one of the articles of faith of Unofficial Members of the Council that permanent public works should be paid for by means of loans. Here, it seems to us, is a case in which that proposal should receive the fullest consideration, for the scheme is a big one and the expenditure of the Colony is growing not perhaps alarm- ingly, considering the increasing prosperity
The
[September 18, 1905.
of the Colony, but it is at least rate growing at such a rate as should give us pause. It is evident however that it has been decided. to allot the funds from the annual revenue for His EXCELLENCY points out that this, waterworks extension scheme will involve an annual allotment of half a million dollars for seven or eight years. At the same time we shall be required to furnish a quarter of a million dollars a year as interest on the proposed loan for the coa- struction of the railway which is to connect us with Canton. It is evident, too, that the big q lestion of providing for the continuously increasing shipping by extend- ing the deep water area of the harbour cannot be indefinitely postponed, nor should the project for providing a larger typhoon "for the increasing number of shelter, junks now have prematurely to leave their work to ensure not being shut out of the limited accommodation in Causeway Bay:" It is obvious that this results in great delay and financial loss to the shipping of the port every time the typhoon signal is hoisted. HIS EXCELLENCY recognises the urgency of all these projects, and we also have from his speech the assurance that the Government is fully alive to the necessity for a continuous policy in the matter of the resumption of insanitary property, which is another undertaking involving a large out- lay. The community, we fancy, would be interested to learn precisely what that policy is. SIR MATTHEW NATHAN's pre- decessor, in his farewell address to the Legislative Council; aunounced that it bad been decided to recommend the formation of a body of trustees at whose disposal funds would be placed for the necessary operation of remodelling this over-crowded city, and he estimated that this great and important work would take twenty years to complete. Has that recommendation been. adopted? If so, some information as to how the Trust Fund is to be formed would be welcome. The unofficial view has been that non-ys derived from land sales instead of being treated as annual income should form the Trust Fund for the sanitary im-> provement of the Colony and for the resumption of insanitary properties, but we do not gather from the Estimates that this proposal has yet commended itself to the Government. Whatever may be the nature of the information which the Government will doubtless in due course give as to their financial arrangements for this work, the public, recognising the advantage to the public health of the Colony derived from the Taipingsban resumption, will accept with pleasure the assurance that the Govern ment is fully alive to the necessity for the continuance of that work.
we
The brief references to the general policy which HIS EXCELLENCY announced would guide the framing of the Estimates imme- diately in front of us will, we are sure, commend itself to the approval of the com munity. We have at last the prospect
the certainty of can almost say seeing the Kowloon-Canton railway con structed after six or seven years of delay The concession has apparently passed out of the hands of the British and Chinese Corporation, at least as far as that part of it which now lies within British territory is concerned; and the Colonial Government pro- poses to raise a loan of ten million dollars for the purpose of constructing this part of the line. We believe no difficulty will be found in raising this amount in the Colony and neighbouring ports. The construction of this line is certain to promɔte very rapidly the development of the New Territory and it is the opinion of His EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR that if the Colony is to advance
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