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POLICE REFORM.
The Viceroy has received a despatch from the Board of Police in Peking requesting the Viceroy to furnish a census of all the districts that are policed under the new system, with fall particulars regarding the number of in- habitants and their occupations. The Viceroy has issued despatches instructing the responsible authorities to furnish full details within two months.
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CHINESE SPORTS
The Educational department has notified all the Civil and Military Schools and Colleges that sports have been arranged to take place on the 16th and 17th of this month at East Gate parade ground. There are 20 events on the programme and numerous prizes will be distributed to the successful competitors. The sports will be patronised by the high officials.
COVETOUS CHINESE OFFICIALS,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The Viceroy is very disappointed; he had intended to appropriate the funds realized through the sale of Chau Tung-sang's pro- perties for public and other works in Kwangtung. The Board of Revenue has decided otherwise, however, and the funds are to be remitted to Peking. It appears that the Throne has refused Viceroy Shum's request to utilize the funds locally, at the instigation of Viceroy Chang Chib-tung, who memorialized the Throne on the subject. Viceroy Chang stated that when he was in Kwangtung he fined Chau Tung-sang Tls. 200,000, and that the money had [not] been forwarded to Peking. The funds embezzled belonging to the Customs reverue, should be handed to the Throne. The Minister of War, on the other hand, has asked that the funds raised through the sale of the properties seized should be placed in the coffers of the Army Reform Fund." Excellency, greatly aghoyed, has now decided to raise funds by other means and has once more turned his eyes and open hands towards the different monopolists. Thus the cai Kuan Fantan farm has been requested to pay an additional Tis, 10,000 and the Shan Piu lottery concern Tls. 500,000. The former was only recently made to pay an additional Tls. 150,000, and the latter was advised to lend Tis. 1,000,000 | to the Government a short time ago; and to increase the royalty under threat of losing the farm.
His
The Shan-Piu lottery farmer, being a wealthy man, has been the object of the Viceroy's special attention. He has deposited a sum of Tls. 1,000,000 as a guarantee, and finds himself in a nasty corner, as that amount is liable to be seized at any time. This farmer owns fourteen banks here and three banks in Hongkong, and a general panic will be the result should he come to grief.
CHINESE STUDENTS IN JAPAN,
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remarkable town. The city is slowly losing its pure native colour and one only hopes that its evil smells will soon be lost too. From the administrative point of view, useful reforms have been introduced, amongst the most efficient of which the new police system takes first rank, The furtherance of edu- cational matters and an attempt at sanitation are also marked features amongst recent innovations.
MONEY,
[January 8, 1996,
19
the seizure would have been considered legal Why then differentiate? It has further been* discovered that the junk was simultaneously flying the flags of two different nations, viz. the Portuguese and French flags. Can a man belong to two nations? No foreign Power would recognize such a thing, nor can China do 80. If this case is minimized in any way it will be very difficult in the future to guard against salt smuggling. The Portuguese Minister says there are different excellent methods to Financially, the year has been a disastrous one prevent people from Macao smuggling salt indeed. Increased taxation demanded by the into Chinese territory. Let him then make his Viceroy's constant appeal for funds has suggestions through the Consul General here and depressed trade generally. The tottering banks then, and then only, I shall condescend to deal and hongs that withstood the crisis last leniently with this case.' The Portuguese. year are disappearing one after the other, contend that the salt was on its way from Hong- and signs are not wanting that the coming kong to Macao, that the jank was only orossing Chinese New Year will see the end of many Chinese waters, and that it did not make for more. It is rumoured that half of the native any harbour under Chinese jurisdiction, conse. silk bongs will fail at the end of the year, audquently that no treaty rights had been infringed there is very little prospect of things improving and that there was no smuggling. in the near future. The crops have not been good and the prevailing high exchange has dealt the weaker establishments the mortal blow. The provincial coffers are empty and the Viceroy is at his wits end to make ends meet. Loan after loan has been raised, but this policy of filling a hole by digging a bigger one along side cannot last for ever. The provincial credit is not unlimited. Nor can the various monopolists be expected to submit to further official exactions. The public lemon has been squeezed to its utmost and will not yield a single drop more. Any further appeal to the public is doomed to failure, The last loan was a total fiasco in spite of the " guarantees" offered.
POLITICS.
is a
THE CANTON COMMERCIAL GAZETTE, The President and Vice-president of the Board of Commerce some time ago memorialized Viceroy Shum with reference to the establish- ment of a commercial press and enclosed a copy of the regulations drawn up for bis approval and also asked that the district officials may be instructed to exhort, the merchants of their locality to subscribe to this new publica- tion and give the venture their support. The Viceroy has sanctioned the rules and has issued orders accordingly. This paper will be started shortly and will report on all commercial matters of public interest."
THE MIDDLEMAN'S REVENGE.
A certain wealthy Chinaman surnamed Ng instructed a matchmaker to find him a pretty From the political point of view, the year girl as. a concubine. The middleman was record one. Official obstruction to anything promised $1,000 reward if his choice were foreign has been the dominant feature of the year satisfactory. The matchmaker introduced Ng under review The Viceroy is one of the most to a very handsome maid a few days ago and ardent exponents of the motto, "Chies for the the would-be husband expressed entire satisfad- Chinese," and but for his extraordinary severity, tion, but paid only $300 to the discoverer of his would undoubtedly be a very popular man. It belle. Perhaps on second thoughts he found is a well-known fact that his relatious with the the maiden representing only 30 per cent. of representatives of the different Powers here his ideal! On the 31st, Ng sent à grand chair have been far from cordial. Sickness is a to bring his new concubine to his home. The dodge often resorted to by officials who desire chair arrived; but lo! on opening the curtains, to evade discussions on matters annoying (from the amorous Ng looked into the mischievous the Chinese point of view), and in this respect eyes of an ugly old amah who had been our present Viceroy is a past-master in the discharged from his service some time ago! art, as he has succeeded in keeping foreign The neighbours are still laughing over Ng's visitors away from his yamen for the last eight discomfiture, and think he was very neatly months.
punished for his meanness.
A PESSIMISTIC OUTLOOK.
Signs are not wanting that the awakening of China has commenced, at any rate at this end of the Empire The Japanese, who benefited for a time through the prestige they gained by their victory, and who had so carefully sown the A letter has been received here by a member patriotic and anti-foreign winds, are the first of the gentry from Japan giving full_parti- to feel the storm. Students are leaving Japan culars concerning the students' strike in Japan. and the instructors here, I understand, are The scholars are highly indignant to see their thoroughly disgusted. Meanwhile, drilling liberty restricted by the new regulations and goes on everywhere and the much-despised have made up their minds to return to China.yellow-peril may eventually turn out to be some- It appears that two scholars surnamed Wu and Wang have been trying to influence their schoolmates, advising them to submit to the new order of things. They made speeches and raised the students' suger to such a pitch that their assassination was planned by the more hot- headed lot, and they only escaped through timely warning. They are now in hiding in the interior,
January 3rd.
The year that has just closed has been from the political, economical, and financial points of of view as momentous as any in the annals of the City of Rams. It has seen the end of the troublesome Kwangsi rebellion and the restoration of order in that turbulent province, Important works have been audertaken, amongst which the removal of the obstructive barriers and other dangers to navigation ou the Canton River, and the extensive reclamation
works carried on both by the Government and private concerns rank amongst the most useful from the public point of view. Canton city has undergone a remarkable change within the past year. The introduction of foreign caps and uniforms through the influence of the Japanese; and the tendency acquired by land- lords to build semi-foreign style houses are fast transforming the general aspect of th
thing more than a bogie. The boycott is as active as ever and the day is perhaps not far distant when a general boycott against the rest of the world will be the order of the day.
THE VICEROY.
January 4th.
Viceroy Shum's sick-leave has expired and His Excellency has now reported to the Throne that his health has gradually improved and that be is well again The Viceroy has asked the Throne to grant him leave to proceed to Peking for an audience.
· ALLEGED SALT SMUGGLING FROM MACAO.
Viceroy Shum has received a cable from the Canton Government instructing him to try and settle amicably with the Portuguese Govern- ment, the recent salt smuggling case in which Lo-Wa-Fu, alias Lo-Ku, a Portuguese subject, was implicated.
The Viceroy has replied by wire informing the Central Government that the investigation has disclosed the fact that the cargo of the Man-Fu junk was Chinese salt and not Hongkong salt as contended; that moreover, Sam-kok-to, where the junk passed, was in Chinese waters and that the guard boats there when searching the junk found it to be fully loaded with salt. The Viceroy further states that "had the junk carried arms instead of salt
STILL ANOTHER NEWSPAPER.
The editor of the Sze-Man-Po states that the newspaper business is steadily increasing, there being a great demand for them at present the number of subscribers is growing more numerous every day and the different papers are making handsome profits. It is now reported that a member of the Viceroy's foreign office is about to start a new press“ under the style of the Tung-Yuet-Po. The first issue will appear after the Chinese New Year.
PIRACY.
Piracy is rife in the neighbourhood of Ching- yuen. A likin station has recently been robbed by a band of over a hundred pirates and in the scuffle that ensued several brayos and Jikin officials were shot.
MACAO.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
January 3.
SANTA CASA DA MISERICORDIA.'s The rumour current last week that the Government is going to appoint a committee to take charge of the affairs of this institution turns out to be correct. The confirmation came by last mail and the order was published in the Diario do Governo. The Government wil appoint three nominees, while the members will have the right of nominating two to the com- mittee; in one word, the institution will be turned into a government institution. It is not yet known what remuneration the three government proteges will receive, but I believe they will draw handsome suma yearly,
MYSTERIOUS: HOUSES.
There are at present in various parts of this city some houses, which cannot be termed
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