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THE RENOVATION OF CHINA.
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The Foochow Echo of Nov. 11 reports:-The Rev. Arthur H. Smith, D.D., the eminent author of that fascinating work Chinese Characteristics" arrived here a few days ago on a short visit and on Thursday the 9th instant delivered the following very interesting address at the Masonic Hall. Dr. Gracey having in. troduced Dr. Smith in a few well-chosen words, the reverend gentleman received a cordial wel- come from the excellent attendauce which occupied the Hall.
China is one of the great Empires of the world's history, its origin being lost in the unfathomable mists of antiquity. The Chinese are the only people who have never been dis- possessed of their ancestral seats, and who continue on from age to age essentially un- altered. The reasons for this undeviating con. tinuity are not easy to give, but the phenomena are indisputable. Chinese institutions are the slow output of a social evolution working under unique conditions. It was a saying of an Emperor of the great Tang Dynasty, more than a millenium ago that Confucianism is adapted to the Chinese, as water to the fish. generation or two ago we used to bear much about the "Eastern Question." It related to the Sultan of Turkey and his dominions, to the Black Sea the Dardanelles and the Mediter- ranean Sea. These are longer matters of world wide interest, for modern issues are far larger, the "Far Eastern Question has taken their place and it concerns directly all the civilized peoples of mankind, all of whom are connected with China, a term which connotes one fifth- possibly one fourth-of the population of our globe.
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[November 27, 1905.
THE HONGKONG WEEDLY PRESS AND
external face of the Chinese prople is how to | ANNUAL LICENSING SESSIONS. open up China with the consent of the people, for without that consent it can never be done at all. China is now, under our immediate observation, coming has indeed come to national self-consciousness. She is moved by forces which she does not understand and these forces are often mutually irreconcilable. This greatly complicates the problem.
The Renovation of the people" mentioned in the "Great Learning" cannot be accomplished by Diplomacy as we once thought. The interests of different nations are divergent and, as we saw in 1900-1901, the total result of action by a "Congress of Powers" may be, as nearly as possible, nothing at all. China cannot be renovated by Commerce excellent-indispen- sable-as that is. There is in it, however, no moral quality whatever. The Chinese them- selves are the greatest traders in the world, even surpassing the world-surpassing Jew- but foreign Commerce with China while it has caused friction, bitterness and sometimes war, has not made either party any better, and it
never will nor can.
Education cannot by itself renovate China, The for education is a two-edged sword. mixers of dynamite bombs are chemically "educated" but if their knowledge and their appliances were widely diffused throughout China in its present stage, the lives of no foreigners and of no Chinese would be insurable, at no matter what rate of premium.
The Renovation of China can be accomplished, then, by moral forces only. To these, consul, customs man, merchant, traveller and missionary may all alike contribu'e.
In
The annual meeting of Police Magistrates and Justices of the Peace to consider applications for publicans and adjunct licences was held at the "magistracy on the 20th Nov. Mr. F.A. Hazeland presided, and there also present: Captain Goddard, Dr. Clark, Revs. F. Î. John- son and C. H. Hickling and Messrs. F. J. Badeley, A. F. Aroulli, A. Craig, W. T. Davis, A. G. Morris, C H. Grace and T. H. Hanmer,
Mr. H. W. Looker (of Messrs. Deacon, Looker and Deacon) appeared on behalf of D. Dorabjee, of the King Eward Hotel. He said there should be a slight amendment in his client's application as the hotel was now situated at Nos. 3 aud 5 Des Voeux Road Central. The new premises had been completed and the proprietors desired their licence to be extended to such premises.
His Worship-Do they propose to have a bar at both establishments ?
Mr. Looker--Yes.
Mr. Craig-The premises are under different roofs.
Mr. Looker-The same thing might be said of the Charing Cross Hotel.
His Worship-But they have only one licence.
Mr. Looker--They sell liquor in the annexe. His Worship-Is there any police objection? Mr. Badeley-It is not a question of police objection. The question is whether they ought to have two licences without paying two fees.
Mr. Looker There is a great necessity for hotel accommodation here, as visitors have to be continually turned away during the busy this crisis of China's history they seasons, and it is desirable in the interests of certainly ought not to antagonize one another--
the Colony to offer every facility to hotel a useless and fatuous proceeding. in the pre-keepers. sence of such great evils and mighty problems. His Worship-If you send in a formal ap- If, as we are convinced, the type of civiliza-plication stating particulars, I will refer it to tion which we represent, is the best for China the Police. Meantime, I will adjourn the and the only one which will save her from application until the 30th November. impending evils, we should put forth our best efforts, by word and by example, to do what we may to aid in the great and vital work of the regeneration of the Chinese people."
The Chinese, the most homogeneous of races, are now the problem of the 20th century. Many think that we cannot get on without them, others that we cannot get on with them but all agree that the Chinese people furnish a mighty problem in what the Germans call "World politics." The question of the renovation of China is a two-fold one, an external and an internal. The former concerns the country, the latter is related to the people. Three hundred and fifty millions of Chinese (or four hundred millions if any one prefers) have grown up in organized China and by a slow process it has come to be what we now see. They have stum- bled upon a great variety of important facts in all lines of activity; they have learned now to doing the use of their ball closed the proceedings. many things, but they are ignorant of the laws which underlie what they call "the ten thousand things "the universe. On this account, QUARRY BAY BLASTING FATALITY, viewed from the standpoint of economics, we cannot fail to have our sym. pathies drawn out for an industrious and an ingenious people hampered by such limitations.
modern
Fukien, for example, is a potentially rich, but an actually poor province. Cattle plough the ground that admits of it and spend the rest of their time in eating. Men and wom-n do the work of beasts of burden and have done
Bo for ages. Inexhaustible wealth lies buried in the earth, unused because of prejudice and ignorance. A single river, like that flowing from Ku Ch'ong to the Min. with its glorious waterfall of 25 to 30 feet and a rapid decent of many hundred feet in a few miles, would bull all the rice in the province, ruu an electric railway to transport all the burdens both ways and a hundred times more, and at the end be just as ready for use again. This state of things is heart breaking to the disinterested spectator and back breaking to the poor natives of a country naturally rich, but the surface of which has only been scratched. This is but a specimen of what, with variations, is true everywhere.
Baron Richtofon a generatiotion ago, after the most scientific and exhaustive survey of the
Empire yet made by any foreigner, declared that even at the extravagant rate of consamp- tion of that time, the province of Shansi had coal to last the world 2,000 years! Every province in China has coal and nearly all are rich in many other minerals, for the most part unworked.
Railways are an absolute necessity for China but at present she will not build them herself not a single mile has yet been done in that way —nor suffer others to do so. There is in China a well-grounded fear of Western nations, which is based upon some centuries of history, largely though not entirely to our discredit.
The
At the close of the address the chairman pro- posed a hearty vote of thanks to the Rev. Arthur H. Smith for his very interesting lecture. Needless to say the proposition received a warm support from those present. A vote of thanks to the Masonic Lodge for kindly allow-
An inquiry into the circumstances surround. ing the deaths of the three coolies who were killed as the result of a blasting accident at Quarry Bay on the 9th instant was held before Mr. F. A. Hazeland and a jury at the Magistracy on the 23rd November.
James Young, blasting superintendent at the Quarry Bay shipyard, deposed that OD the afternoon of the 9th instant he had charged thirty-three small tan large holes with dynamite The coolies on and the work lit the fuses, and then went about a hundred yards distant. With the exception of one, all the charges exploded. This was a large one, the hole being about eleven feet deep, Three gongs were going all the time, and before they stopped ten or twelve men rushed to the scene of the explosion. Witness called them to come back, but they did not hear, or heed. Just as the foremost of the men got near the charge it went off and three of the coolies were killed. One man was blown 50 feet, and the other two about 20 feet away. The practice is for the drill coolies to light their own fuses and then get a safe distance off. The reason they rush back to the spot so quickly is to get a good place to bore a hole on the following day. return to the scene of the explosion until the The men had been constantly warned not to gong had ceased beating.
Dr. Hunter's evidence proved that death in each case was due to multiple injuries, which could have been caused by a dynamite explosion.
Other witnesses corroborated the testimony of Mr. Young, after which his Worship addressed the jury, who found that death in all three cases was due to a misadventure.
FIRE IN DES VEUX ROAD.
Another fire, the origin of which is unknown, occurred on the 22nd November at the premises of the Wing Fuk Tai firm, peanut and conji dealers, of No. 462 Des Voeux Road West. The brigade, under Chief Inspector Baker, responded to the alarm of the fire bell, and after two and a half hours' hard fighting succeeded in controlling the fire, but not before the stock-in-trade and the building had been destroyed. The stock in the adjoining shops was also seriously damaged by water. The premises and goods of the Wing Fuk Tai were insured for $15,000 in th Preussen National Insurance Company, and for $12,000 in the Meiji Insurance Company. The value of the stock on the premises, so far as can be ascertained
present, was from $500 to $1.000.
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connection with this affair, in addition to the $27,000 insurance on the goods of the Wing Fuk Tai shop, Des Voeux Road, believed to be of a value of from $500 to $1,000, the police have since ascertained that the premises were insured for a further $8,000.
The adjoining medicine and tobacco shop, 460 Des Voeux Road, carrying a large stock which was considerably damaged, had effected insurance to the amount of $32,000. The policies were taken out with the South British (2) $3,000 each; L'Union, $15,000; The Sun (2) $5,000 and $3,000, and the North German, $3,000.
$10,000 STOLEN.,
What would appear to be a daring robbery took place on the 18th November in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. The details of the occurrence have not been allowed to become public property, but so far as can be gathered a shroff from a native bank went to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank to deposit a sum of $20,000. He had counted out a considerable sum, about $10,000, when the receiving shroff bent down to pick up something from the ground. When he resumed his original position, he found that the notes counted out had disappeared. It is said that a protracted search failed to reveal the where- abouts of the money.
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