---------ཀ
40
THE DEPARTURE OF MR. AND
MRS. ARCHIBALD LITTLE.
Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Little, who have just passed through Hongkong ou the HAL.-8. Hohenstaufen bound for England, deserve far more notice than the average China hand can claim. Their work and position in China may be said to be in a class apart.
THE HONGKON† WEEKLY PRESS AND
t
бе
says:
Jannary 21, 1907.
MUNICIPAL INJUSTICE.
The Shanghai Mercury of January 12th In the last minutes of the Municipal Council, published the other day, was the award of Mr. White-Cooper in the case of a lot of land, the whole of which is absorbed in the
We do not think for a moment that Mr. Major was not entitled to this Tis 1,000, but it seems to us as though the Municipal was making fish of one person and fowl of another.
in the west. Reference has already been made to one of Mr. Little's books. It had a sequel Mount Omi and Beyond”, woich eintains a record of travel on the Tibetan borders, Tu 1904 Mr. Little made one of his longest journeys through Yunnan and Tongking. His latest Far East", a literary work has beag tha most valuable and comprehensive volume, widening of the Ward Road and liable to free which is very
the molesly deserild by
surrender under Art. VI of the Land Regula- author as “a perspective or e aspectus of the Mr. Archibald Little arrived in China in
tinus. Mr. Major, to whom the land belonged, 1859, the year in which work on the Suez Canal geography and history of China and her
was allowed Tfs. 1,000, The land was evidently was reviewed was commenced, and a year prior to the first-ighbouring countrisk,
bought for a mere song years ago and was a occupation of Peking by the Allied British and in one columns about a year ago). French troops. The latter part of his educa- ince her marriage in 1886 Mrs Archibaldong, narrow slip practically only of use as an addition to the properties on either side, too tion had been in Berlin, and it was to one of the
Little has been as thoroughly interested in
narrow to be used as an independeat building Chian ax Mr. Little himself, and she hat early German firms in Canton that he cam·
Site. out as a teataster. The liritish troops werd at į shared in most of nis j urneyings with results That have been 890 1 in the pùbheation of many that time garrisoning the walls of the city. A
volumes. Already a successful novelist, Mrs year later (says the N... Daddy News) Mr.
Little at first continued the form of fiction, Little arrived in Shanghai to find the Taipings. who had been besieged in Ninking, making their but her most popular works have been descrip
tire volumes of travel. Her special gift famous sortie under the Chung Wang, and
is the power to visualize what she has seen for devastating the province in which we live with
her readers. She is the anthor of & very fire and sword. Mr. Little visite: Sanchow, and
full life of the late Li Hung-chang.
い interviewed the Chung Waug, who described
however, in connection with the anti-footbind- himself as a Christian aud spoke of the British
ing movement that Mrs. Littla will be chiefly "brotheres. He expressed a desire even to
remembered in Chins. For ten years, in the come on to Shanghai and ally himself with the
fac. of much ridicule, apposition and apathy, British who were then hattering the Manchu
she has been untiring in her crusade against the Dynasty in the North. As events turned on'.
barbarous, en stom which crippled the women of however, as is well known. British and Fren-,
Chila. Her achi-cement is of too recent date diplomacy decided that the Taipings must be put down. In the winter of 18odal there being to make nossary any further reer I, but she has the immense satis action, before leaving a total cessation of business in Shanghai, Mr.
the country, of swing the Chinese themselves so Little journeyed in Chekiang, Anhui, au4 Kiangsi visiting the rebel and imperialists camps and buying tea and silks, The following year he established a tea firm in Kiukiang and Haukow, and one incident of his stay in those ports was that he was mobbed and knocked insensible by Hunan braves in the streets of Hankow. RA. turning to Shanghai in 1814 Mr. Little, who had been joined by his brother the late Mr. Robert Little, assisted in establishing the firm of Latimer, Little & Co. During the next sixteen years he remained in the Settlement. in whose development both he and his brother took the liveliest interest. He served on the Municipal Council in 1884
earnestly taking up this particular roform that further agitation on the part of foreigners is considered superfluous.
In 18 a Mr. McMurray, a comparatively ́poor man, owned a piece of land just big enough to build nim & house upon, and after he built his boundary wall, the Council informed him that they wanted a slice of that land for road extension, and naturally McMurray told them he wanted it himself and they could not have it He was hailed before the Supreme Court, the Municipal Council having sought for an injunction to restrain him from building as it was alleged it was required for the extension of
road, aul nuder Art, VI of the Lind
Regulations he was asked to surrender the land to the Municipal Council. The late Sir Nicholas Hannen, after hearing the case, delivered judgment in favour of MoMurray and dismissed the petition of the Municipal, with costs, The Conncil appealed the case to the Privy Council, aud in March, 1,900, the judg. ment arrived here which was in favour of the
A SOUTH SEA ISLANDS CONTRACT. | Municipal Council. The ju lgment showed the
COAPPLICATIONS WITH CAPT, O'KEEFE'S
REIRS.
Some thro - or four years ago, an ad con'urus set ptain nam OKE, well know I throughout the Far East, was lost, it is supp sol, in a typha 0. He was known by his autimates as " The King of Yap, an island in the South Seas, and no invidde, peri die vayages in his little schooner fran Yap to II ago with capra, hèche de-mer, aul other island products. It was during one of those voyages that he disappeared from human ken, and the supposition is that he was evight in a typhoon and that his schooner founders with all hands.
Captain Kofe was, we believe, an Irish American. He was an ali suturer of the 18th century type, and many are the yards tol about hiin. 630-
that he angitur sd
Is
Seas. For, though an adventurer, O'Keefs had succeded in acquiring a good deal of this world's goods, and he had some leasehold property in tongkong which, realised a goodly
sum at public auction.
1
¡
These early services to Shanghai its 4f have been overshadowed, as far as Mr. Arebibald Little is concerned, by his acti-rom ut in the far west. The Yangtza gorges had been passed and the rich and beautiful province of Szechuan visited by other foreigners before Mr. Little made his first visit there, int as far as trading relations of any importance are concerned he can justly claim to be the pioner in that part of China. His book Through the Yangtze Gorges" has familiarized all the world with those magnificent and dangerous river passes, 1t was the opteome of a visit to Szechwan in
island of Yap with als queen. who sub- 1883; another outcome was that in 1884 Mr.
squently bore him children. When he died, ¦ Little inaugurated a winter steamer servic - bar
his legitimate widow and family apparel from tween Hankow and Ichaug: hitherto steamers had only run in the summer. In 1887 Mr. Little the United states as caimants of his valuable established himself in Chungking, and travelledperty in the Far East and in the South extensively in the province, though the port was not formally opened until 1890, It was in February 1895 that, accompanied by Mrs. Little, but acting as his own captain and engineer, Mr. Little made the first steam voyage upwards through the rapids, in the launch Leechuan. He applied for leave to fo in a company to improve the navigation of the rapids, by levying a toll on the traffic. This was refused, but by arrangement with the local officials, Mr. Little was enabled to open up his first mines in Szechwam. In 1894 he took the paddle-wheel steamer Pioneer to Chungking and made four trips with her between Chungking and Ichang, but as the Chinese Goverum...ut had refused to allow the improvement of the rapida, this project had to be abandoned, as pre- mature, Last year a Loudon syndicate revived the proposal. under the auspices of the Asiatic Petroleum Co. and is now making application for Chinese consent. The Pioneer was sold by Mr. Little to the British overnment, which couverted her into the river gunboat Kinsha, still patrolling the upper reaches of the Yangtze, The Chungking Trading Company has continued to prosecute successful business and from it has grown the Kangpeh Coal and Iron Mining Co., Ld., which. armed with what may prove to be the last con- cession directly granted to foreigners, is begin ning to operate coalfields and other enterprises
This is not a full and particular history of an interesting figure, however, but only brief outline to intendue, the following Pragraph from ons of our Netherlands India cont-mporaries, and to mix-statements :
•
American
som of ***
Now
|
value of Art. VI of the Lad I Regulations as a means of acquiring free land for road-often. sions, so long as the land is scheduled previous to Consular registration.
As we said before, we quite agree that Mr. Major is morally sutitle to the Tis. 1,000, but if Art. VI of the Laud Regulations stand good, why should the Conucil pay the rich man the mney for his land whilst the poor man had his laud grabbed from him? We may be told it was a test case, but it does not som to us fair
that a por man should have been picked out
for the test case, as was the one to whom we refer.
BUYING A STEAMER.
INTERESTING LITIGATION AT SHANGHAI.
At H.M. Supreme Court, Shsughai, ou January 10th, before F. 3. A. Bourne, Esq., Ating Judge, (In Admiralty) was decided the cass of Buchheister & Company 1. 8.8. Draco or the proceeds thereof.
His Lordship said :-The facts in this case are as follows: In December, 1905, Mr. John Baessler, shipbroker, a German subject, went to the plaintiffs, Messrs. Buchheister & Co., merchants, German subjects, and invited them to act as his agents in employing Messrs. John Palmer Junior & Co., of London, to purchase from Messrs. Thomas Wilson. Sons & Co., of
Hall, the str. Draco; and in this manner the
Dracs was purchased on December 30th, 1905,
for £5,00), drafts for which sum were handed to Bichheiser by Biessler, £4,000 on January Recently an
Trailer nam.
12th and £1,000 in February, 1906, and by remitted to Palmer in fail Keefe died in the cellew islands, leaving Buchbeister riches which his heirs Ага disputing for. | payment. The Draco is a British steamship trale with regestured al Hall. Palmer WAS then From there, he used to carry un the Mapia islands, a
authorized by Bachbeister at the request of group off the (ruinea coast, within the jurisdiction of the saesder to find freight and send the ship out Sultan of Tidore, a vassal of the Netherla ids East. She arrived in Shanghai on June 5th last. India Government. O'Keefe bound the Mapia On January 3rd, 1906, that is foar days after he Chiefs to supply him, under contract, with all had purchased her, Mr. Baessler entered into a the e pra produced on the islands.
a contract with Fong Tai, a Chinese firm, who described themselves therein as agents for Japanese, to sell them the ship, delivered in Japan, for £8,250, £6,000 to be paid at once and £150 on the arrival of the ship at Kobe, Japan, where she was to be made over. The contract provided that the bill of sale was to be made ont in the name of Fong Tai & Co, c/o Buchheister & Co.; but this was not done. Wilson transferred to Palmer, who forwarded the bill of sale taken in their own name, dated January 17th, 1996, to
AN
The bold of the Netherlands lodia Govern- ment on the islands is very sight indeed, and is only manifested by occasional visits of men of war. Ja O'Keefe's death, his contract rights in the islands pissed over to his widow, a Filipino, and their children The Government
hare directed that O'Keefe's contract with tue
Mapis chiefs should be confirmed to his heirs, on condition that they allow no other foreigners to settle there."--Straits Times.
|
|
t
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.