1
a.
cori
March 5, 1906.]
1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Most of the houses are said to have been insured ↑ NETHERLANDS TRADING SOC ETY Yuen Hang alone carrying, it is said, policies to the value of $20,000, One life was lost, an old mau, the owner, it is said, of the tea shop where the fire originated.
THE HOPPO'S SEAL.
March 1st.
As the Hoppo's post has been abolished, Deputy Fong Yin has been instructed to take the seal to Peking and to deliver it to the Board of Revenue.
THE RAILWAY.
The Chamber of Commerce yesterday received a telegraphic reply from the leading Cantonese merchants in San Francisco concerning the question of inviting the Chinese residents in America to subscribe for railway shares. The merchants inform the Chamber of Commerce that they have alr ady made arrangements to take shares, but that before actually doing so they are desirous of seeing the statutes of the Company.
On the 11th ultimo the 72 Guilds telegraphed tr Board of Commerce requesting the made by memorialize the throne on their behalf manager papers hero have now been advised by that the spondents at the capital that the Kingoard of Commerce has not yet complied with the request.
March, 3rd.
RAILWAY SHARES. The Cantonese residents of Haukow have sent a telegram to the Chamber of Commerce here to inform them that at a meeting held at their club in that city it has been decided that they will take up 100,000 shares of the Yuet- han Railway if the concern is to be under the merchants' control; otherwise they will not contribute a single cent. They also ask that
the conditions be made known to them.
THE SEIZURE OF COAL.
The Viceroy has sent a dispatch to Peking declaring that the coal seized in the Yin-cheoug godown at Ho-nam is the bona fide property of Chow-tang-sang. His Excellency adds that he has in his bands the account books kept by Fang Wah-chuen's accouutant, a man named Kwang, to prove that be is right.
THE SILK TRADE.
Owing to the high exchange prevailing there is a slump in the silk trade and many of the filatures are still closed. Labour is cheap, how ever, and the filatures that are working find hands at 10 cents per diem as against 30 cents when the business is brisk.
MACAO.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Macae, March 1st. TRIAL OF MR. DA LUZ.
The trial of Mr. da Luz for accidentally shooting an old Chinese woman at Taipa, reported by me some time ago, took place to- day before the Chief Justice, who, after hearing the evidence, duly acquitted the accused and reinstated him in his old place in the Govern ment service. This decision has given entire satisf-otion to the friends of Mr. da Luz and to the people of Macao and Taipa, both Europeaus and Chinese, by whom Mr. da Luz was well- known and highly respected.
THE CARNIVAL,
The annual carnival which is usually a gay event in this city passed off very quietly this year. There was nothing particular to mark the occasion, There "Gremio Militar" and another at the Club de a dauce at the Macae, both of which proved enjoyable,
Was
THE PROCESSION OF THE CROSS. This religious fixture will come off on Satur- day and Sunday next. The procession will, as in former years, start from the S. Agostinho Church to the Sé Cathedral on Saturday evening, and return to the former Church again on Sunday evening. This procession generally attracts many people from Hongkong, and I believe that such will be the case aguiu this year, provided the weather be favourable.
The Ven, Archdeacon H. M. E. Price was consecrated Bishop of Fu-kien on the Feast of the Purification in Westminster Abbey. The Bishop hopes to leave England for his diocese in a few weeks' time.
OPENING AT HONGKONG.
On March 1st a branch of the Bank known as the Nederlandsche Haude-Maatschappij, or Netherlands Trading Society, will be opened at Queen's Buildings.
This Society, which was established by Royal Charter in 1824, occupies a prominent position among leading companies. Its head office is as Amsterdam, while branches are established throughout the Netherlands Indies, and in the Straits Settlements, British India, Chin、 and West India.
June
From the balance sheet to December 31st, 1904, which was presented to shareholders at the annual general meeting he'd on 20th, 1905, we note that the coupiny has a paid up capital of 45,000,000 guilders, or £3.750,000, and a res rve fund of 5,000,000 guilders, or £116,667. In addition to these figures the fixed deposits with its head office and Eastern branches aggregate £3,790,207. The net profits for the year under review, after deducting current expenses and writing off bad debts, and with the addition of the balance carried forward from 1903, were £123,488, out of which a dividend of eleven per cent. was paid.
SHANGHAI'S BUDGET.
Council has sent us an advanos copy of the Tue N.-C. Daily News says: -The Municipal
Estimates for 19:6 The ordinary expenditure for the year is estimated at Tls. 1 774,000, a surplus of Tls 26,00 is expected. surplus with the surplus from 1905, some income; but as the extraordinary expenditure to extraordinary
Tls. 2200 0. is carried
This
is estimated at Tls. 529,5 10 000 --80 that there will be & deficit at the end of 1906 We bave reached the two-million-tael mark of Tls 47,500. The Budget also contains sterling extraordinary income and expenditure, but they do not require comment at present. There is to be no change in taxation proposed. so that there is nothing sensational in the Budget, and the proposed increase in the Indian branch of the police force will only call for a sum of Tls, 30, 0) this year. The most interesting part of this pamphlet is the section headed Extraordinary Expenditure. There is a long record of work to be done during the year, work that must be done, and still leaving much to be done iu succeeding years.
14
**
ROYAL HONGKONG GOLF CLUB.
The monthly competition for the Captain's Cup and May Cup was held on the 25th Febru. ary, when the following returns were made
CAPTAIN'S CUP. * Mr. W. W. G. Ross
Mr. T. B. Norris Mr. J. Clarke...
Mr. O, M. G. Buruie Mr. H. Wilson
I
+8 90
12 76
9
81
83
82
82 + 101
18
83
* Winner of Cup aud Pool.
Mr. P. Tes'er..... Mr. C. H. Gale
83
MAY CUP.
105 18 106 15
87 91
* Winner.
"CAN'T HUSTLE THE EAST."
Congressman D. L. D. Grange, of Rhode "We have tried the impossible, Mr. Chairman, Island, discussing the Philippine tariff, said:-
we have tried to hurry the East; we have tried to turn into "hustling" Yaukees an Oriental race that had for three centuries been under the moulding hand of the slowest and most conserva- tive country in Europe. Let our Commission go a little slowly out there; let them set their own house in order and cease to pay to Americans brought there with no knowledge of the islands or familiarity with Eastern colonial methods salaries three times those paid to educated Filipinos for the same work; let them cease to strive to make the little Filipinos ory for flannel petticoats and moral pocket bandkerchiefs," and perhaps they may be able to run the islands somewhere near what it costs Great Britain for similiar work, and then there will be no deficit from loss of import duties.
|
161
A SHANGHAI NATIVE CONSUL- ATIVE COMMITTEE.
committees of the
formed at Shanghai. It is composed of seven A Native Consultative Committee has been persons elected by the of the Municipal Connoil, in acknowledging the various guilds. Mr. J. O. P. Bland, storetary letter sent to the Council notifying the election
wrote: "I am to sat that. the Council wel. ̈ comes this organisation of so representative a body intended to express the opinions of the Chinese community of this Settlement, and has reprosented, will be exercised in the best no doubt that the influence of the Guilds, thus
interests of the Settlement. In preventing questions of general interests, and in expressing misunderstandings of native public pinion on
for the information of the Council the views of the Chinese community, your Consultative Committee will be doing excellent work, and pathetic consideration for its representations." may confidently rely on the Council's sym.
Commenting upon the appointment of a Native Consultative Committee at Shanghai, the seen that the Guilds attach much more import- N.C. Daily News remarks:-It is readily to be
ance to this innovation than the Council intended, and this is confirmed by the notice that offices have been taken where letters, etc., will be dealt with, and by the reported appoint. ment to the Committee of foreign legal advisers. It is not at a I improbable that the Chinese will be led to believe that forsiguers have consented to the appointment of a Chinese Municipal Council to act concurrently with the Foreigu Council, and there may be dissatisfaction and discontent when they find that this is not the case, which tin of the Native Consultative Committee had might have been avoided if the intended limita-
been more clearly defined. We cannot under- emphatically protest in his letter of the 15th stand why the Secretary of the Council did not inst. against the term "Executive Committee," when one of the first stipulations must be that Mr. Bland uses the words "your Executive it is to have no ex outive capacity whatever. Committee," and this apparent admission may cause the Council trouble hereafter. Tho claim of the Committee to any executive power should have been firmly and promptly repudiated.
GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN.
The Nippon makes the following reference to the visit of Prince Arthur of Connaught:-- "The Russo-Japanese war is over, and the nego iations with China have concluded, but the Japanese nation has still many causes for anxiety in connection with Mauchuria and other matters. Great Britain, too, is passing through a period of growing uneasiness with regard to the security of her Indian Empire. That in both cases there are real grounds for anxiety must be apparent to all who have watched the recent attitule of Russia in north Manchuria and in the neighbourhood of Afghanistan. Under these circumstances, while it is not desirable that Japan and Great Britain should become too dependent on each other, there is good reason for providing for mutual defence by the strengthening of the Alliano. The visit of Prince Arthur is a good opportunity for rendering still clo er the reations between . | the two Empires."
An extraordinary menge from Tokyo to the N.-C. Daily Neurs says it is reported that Russia contemplates retaining her army in Manchuria on the ground that China is being encouraged by Japan to prepare for war with Russis. Russia is bound by the Portsmouth Treaty to withdraw her troops from Manoharis within 18 months of the ratification of the treaty. The condition of the troops and of Russia herself is such that she is anxious to find any pretext to delay their withdrawal. To break the treaty with Japan is an act of war, not only war with Japan, but war with Japan's ally, Great Britain, and it is difficult to believe that Russia can consider it safe to put forward the pretence that Japan is encouraging China to go to war with Russia,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.