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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[December 30, 1905.
THE YELLOW RIVER BRIDGE.
move on to the Police Station. The Magis- of 30s. 11d., which leaves 128. per tou as | answers them very plausibly, and we can- trate, Mr. KWAN, a totally untrained officer, net profit. The value is low as compared not do better than quote. "Customs duties bad in fact been retained in office against with the 140s. per ton of Kalgoorlie and the and railway rates between them practically several protests of the local officals, Consular 2058. of Nevado, while, owing to the nature make up the revenue of the Transvaal. The as well as Municipal, with whom his of the formation, the working expenses are reason why the revenue was higher im- ignorance of affairs, as well as his defects of higher than anywhere else in the world.mediately after the war than it is now was mper, liad from time to time caused friction. The industry must of necessity be a because Johannesburg was then heavily Removed for a time by the TAOTAL, the delicately organized one, with a narrow importing all the equipment needed for chief Chinese official in the district, he was margin between success and failure. Hence restarting industry, and this equipment to the surprise of all sent back to the post the question of labour is all important, for consisted of articles paying both the duties a few days before the trouble, evidently with however economical the management and, and the rates. The reason why the a grievance brewing. When therefore the elaborate the labour-saving appliances, a revenue has fallen since is because the BRITISH ASSESSOR in a case wliere on: une certain amount of human labour is indis-shops are full, and there is no longer the side or other there had been a manifest peusable. It is Chinese labour which has sanie import of dutiable articles. The tampering with justice, directed the Police set agoing the wheels of industry, and other question of a rise or fall in the white popu to detain the prisoners, peuding a remand classes of labour have since come forward lation has nothing whatever to do with till the next day, in the Municipal lock-up, | to help to keep them revolving. It is not, this fall in the revenue." Company he did no more than was customary. If the that white men could not do the work directors, if nobody else-and after MAGISTRATE actually on the bench had felt | (although that has been alleged) but all they should know what they are aggrieved, it was quite open to him to pro.because it seemed desirable to avoid the crea- talking about-have declared that the test. Instead of this simple course betion of a class of mean whites" who would Transvaal is now prospering. The Chair- ordered the runners of the Court, probably lower the prestige so essential to the man of the Consolidated Investment neither better or worse than the usual run holding of the land. The Attorney-General Company is reported to have spoken nost of their class, to take the prisoners. A more of the Transvaal, Sir RICHARD SOLOMON, optimistically to his constituents, and attri deliberate insult to the ASSESSOR, and has submitted figures, quoted by Mr. luted the "all-round advance." to the pre- through him to the CONSUL whom he repre- BALFOUR, which show that too much has sence of the Chinese. If a man convinced sented, could scarcely have been conceived. been made of the criminality of Chinese | against his will be of the same opinion still, Bad as was this, it was outdone by what labourers. The number of serious crimes However, it is hopeless to convince the followed. The TAOTAI, who had already following their advent was proportionately radical reformers against their convictions. gained for himself a personal reputation for infinitesimal; the number of labourers who If the Chinaman has to come home again, want of tact and discretion, and whose rule had committed offences entailing more than at the instance of his tender-hearted friends, has been marked by more friction than had six months' imprisonment amounted only it is almost certain they will get no gratitude fallen to the lot of all his predecessors com-
to the minute total of oue-seventh of one from him in general. bined, instead of a judicious protest made per cent. In the matter of desertions the his appeal to the wire-pullers of the late figure is still more microscopic, for on the boycott. The merchants carefully kept ay in September when the ATTORNEY- aloof, and it was plain that nothing was to GENERAL spoke only 257 out of 45,000 be done in the Settlement, so outside aid coolies were absent --or eleven-eighteenths (Daily Press 29th December.) was procured, with the result that for three of one per ecut. Of the absentees nearly We have had the benefit of a conversation days the Settlement, wherein is conducted half were found within five days. There with a gentle in who recently paid a visit the trade of one of the most important ports are no figures availab e for the comparison, to the great bridge which carries the Lu in the world, was thrown into confusion. but it seems safe to say that under the ban railway over the Yellow River, and Fortunately, unlike the rest of China, here| KRUGER regime, desertion and crime among While he modestly disclaimed the right to exists "the force of restraint desiderated Kaffir labour would be much more in pass opinion on its construction, he admitted. by the writer whom we have quoted at some evidence, had there been political necessity having gathered the impression that there length, and the only people to be injured for raking up and massing such evidence, was sufficient ground for the reports as to were those who were caught red-handed It appears, however, that the m. st. its instability. Unlike some others whose amongst the rioters.
important reason adduced for the threat-experiences have been angrily ventilated in
ned action is the alleged econ-
the press, he was courteously given permis- omic failure of the experiment. There sion to cross the bridge. He did go part of were promises, perhaps too lavish, that the way, and then found that the "water white labour would benefit rather than jumps were wider and more formidable suffer by the introduction of Chinese hau he cared to essay, although his coolies labour, as white labours in old California seemed willing enough to proceed. undoubtedly benefited by it. The answer
turned back, and crossed the river by boat. is that just as white labour was at first only Tuis meant weary walking first through CHINESE LABOUR AND TRANS-enabled to exist by the presence of Chinese shifting sand, and a six hours struggle with labour in the Californian mining fields, so torrential current. It appears that while it bas been lately at Johannesburg., gaily decorated train did cross the bridge (Daily Press 28th December). On the resumption of industry after the war at the official opening, as mentioned in our If, as has been said, the central problem the white population flock...«l Ŭack to Johan- telegrams at the time, it was a special train of the Transval is economie-the restora. uesburg, not all, by any means, to engage in a special seuse; and that the feat has not tion and development of its main source of in work belonging to the mines, but all been permitted since. It would, perhaps, wealth, on which the progress of the rural without exception to engage in business be possible to be too severe upon the districts and the general growth of popula- which can only be carried on if the mines engineers of this longest bridge in the world tion depend, then we shall be able to are in full working. Coloured labour was for if former prophecies are taken into disentangle the vexed question of coolie then defective, and if the shortage had not account, they may fairly claim to have labour from many of its embarrassing been made up, by Chinese as well as Kaffis, achieved the impossible. They were warned relatives, and be the sooner able to appreciate it is pointed out that the white population that the project was an impossible one; the importance of the news which was would have had to go. They are able to their auswer is a bridge in being, even telegraphed to us the hr day; that the stay because coloured labour on the mines though it may not be thoroughly trust- new British Government proposes to stop has been largely increased. Of this increase, worthy. So far as we can ascertain, how- at once the supply of coolie labour to South therefore, a large proportion must be reckou-ever, the bridge builders are in a distinctly Africa. We need not then consider whethered as simply enabling the white men whom, the Chinese emigrant makes a good or a bad bargain; and we can certainly dissociate the subject from any party question what
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The lesson is instructive. China is yet far off that ideal state in which she can be safely trusted to take care of herself, and her officials are too untrained, and too much afflicted with the disease of swarmery, to be entrusted with the interests of a great port.
ever.
VAAL PROSPERITY,
It becomes a purely national issue, not even international; for no one will admit that the supply of labour can be divorced from the supply of ore. Frein au authoritative account of the Witwatersrand beds, which since they were first worked in 1887 have produced a total of more than £126,000,000 worth of ore, we note that the ore is essentially of a low grade, averaging 42s. 11d. per ton, mined at a working cost
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in Lord MILNER's words, "the mining industry provides with a livelihood directly," to subsist in Johannesburg. It must be written off, so to speak, against this white population; and only when that has bẹen đông cân we begin to talk with any fairness or accuracy about comparing the increase in the coloured unskilled labour and the white skilled labour which is actually employed in the mines. Then the opponents of the experiment have seized upon the fact that the Transvaal revenue has been falling since the war. The Times
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meeker frame of mind now than they were when the critics first began to pick holes in their work. They are not so cocksure that they know all that the Yellow River is capable of; and have even got to the stage of admitting that in the event of an abnormal but not impossible rise, it may be necessary to re-build! This, if it should be necessary, will be a sad blow to the railway, and to the Chinese conception of foreign works. Of course the Peking-Hankow rail. way, even without the bridge, is a distinct gain; but with a successful transit of the Yellow River, it would be an object lesson
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