December 28, 1907.)
Ministers, would be able to continue to maintain gambling. So long as public gambling is permitted, so long, Fay, will piracy flourish. The gambling
revenue amounts to over
$10,000,000 annually, most of which is sent to Peking. It is consequently at that end that pressure must be brought to bear to stop the the principal cause of crime by insisting that gambling be prohibited by Imperial Decree No Viceroy would then dare to revive the monopoly.
EVOLUTION OF HONGKONG.
[Written for the Hongkong Daily Press.)
(Continued from last week.)
XIII.
The trade of the continental nations at the time was comparatively small; Germany as a Lower did not yet exist, and most of the consuls
for the continental F'owers were themselves merchants, often interested in avoiding payment of duties themselves; and the British merchant found himself occasionally taken at a disadvant age by the stringency with which his Consul, so far as lay in his power, fo his nationals under restraint. This system couldnot go on for ever, but no one foresaw the repedy. In 1853 Shanghai was captured by a p of rebels, more or less in sympathy with the Taipings, then ravaging the empire, and the officials connected with tue Custom House one and all disappeared; the rebels had-neither interest nor desire to stop the regular trade, while the native merchants distrustful of the future were more than ever anxious to sell the goods in their possession. The foreign consuls refused to recognise the rights of the reb. ls to collect the Imperial dues, so that there was no one to clear the ships. Under the circumstauces Mr, a tur- wards ir kutherford Alcock proposed to his French and American colleagues that theConsule should step in, and each for his own nationals collect the duties on behalf of the Chinese non-existent government, and clear the ships. The duties, now for the first time collected in full and kept proper account of, were not paid in cash, but by means of promissory oles 10 b.
when the governmeals con rued approved of the temporary step; as the govern. ments did not hold that a government was entitled to any dues, and there were difficulties in disentangling the accounts of the various nationalities, the promissory notes were eventually returned cancelled.
met
non-existent
The rebel hold of the city was loosening, and the titular aotai found his way back in February 1854, and at once began collecting dities on behalf of his government. The new tếbtai had. formerly been a hong merchant at anton, aud commenced his collection in the manner he had been accustomed to down there, by making private arrangements all round. Mr. Alcock remonstrated, but to little account, so in con- junction with his two colleagues of France and the United States it was determined to compel the taotai to place the collection entirely under foreign control. Alcock proposed a Foreign Inspector with two foreiga subordinates, and named a Frenchman, curiously named Smith, as first Inspector. The new lautai on the scheme being presented to him, pro- posed instead that three Inspectors of equal rauk should be appointed, each of the turee consuls naming one, and this was accepted, the three commissioners named being: Wade, British; Carr, American; and Smith, Fench. In the course of a few months it was found more practical to consolidate the functions, and Mr H. N. Lay, at the time Interproter to the British Consulate was selected
as Iuspector Geberal So without flourish of trumpets, and almost in the ordinary sequence of events, came in the world the vast concentrated department of the Inspectorate General of Chinese Mari- time Customs, which more than anything else had soted for good or evil to prolong the life of the Chinese Empire which at the time of Lay's appointment actually,
was
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
418
it may fairly be said, in articulis mortis. | Kiying; but the alternative of miking Hong · The appointment was confirmed by the Chi-kong a great trading port had not yet occurred nese Gor-rument, and Lay left the to the most sanguine. British service, bolding uis uw office directly under the Chinese Crown, and only resigning it in 1863 ander circumstances connected with the refusal of that Government to ratify his rrangements with regard to the Osburng Flotilla, when his lieutenant, at the time Acting Inspector General, succeeded him, and continues to hold the office to the present dir.
Meanwhile it is instructive 14 note that the former importance of Cauton. the head quarters of external trade in China, to a considerable extent returned: there was more than one good reason for this Owing to ОДА blunder after another on the part of Sir Henry Puting rafter the conclusion of the Treaty of Nauking, and of his successor in the Superintendency of Trade, Sir J. Davis, Chinese trading vessela were officially prevented from going to Hongkong, except under impossible conditious, so imposs- ible that for years not a single trading vessel attempted to avail of them, while the Hong. jaoks unless they shoud produce the official koug Harbour authorities had order to prevent authorisation entering the harbour. Hongkong itself, a rugged island peak, ecarce thirty miles in area, afforded no productious of any sort to found a basis for trade, and deprived thus of the one qualification that in the opinion of a large and important section of the Free-l'rado party bad reudered its acquisition desirable, it seemned in the eyes of many a nseless burden on the Exchequer.
Another reason, in part a consequence of the
the natural conservatism of th former, was Chinese which induced them to still follow the old trade routes from the interior, the more especially as the Cauton authorities were astute enough to keep them op n, so that the merchant bringing down tra or silk knew
B
actly how much he had to pay, and was able to contract beforehand, while on the less "xplored routes he was at the mercy of every obstructive official, The vastly larger trade eatring in, Cinton at this period rau ed it to b come the arbiter of the Foreign exchanges so that merchants were able to arr nge their currency, always fluctuating owing to the want of any exactly estiued medium; concurrently with their sales or purchases.
Though outside the Factories, the libertios of the residents were mu:h
restricted, being practically confined to roking ou the river, with
t'e
occasional short walks bout the island of Hou im
or the Fati gardeus. on the whole the local authorities had learn', unless at intervals when some particularly truculeut individual attempt- ed to stir up the feelings of the mb, to let the residents alone, s that social life, al hough more or less of the prison type, became not only b-arable, but even to a certain extent enjoyable --so much so in fact that for long the older residents used to speak of their tim most enjoyable period of their lives. There was no obstruction placed in the way of acess to Hongkong or Macao, and all the linge establish- ments had their fast and often luxuriously fitted boats in which they could tear themselves away from their coufinement to enjoy cooler air and more agreeable surroun lings of the other pli048. Practically, till the opening of the Yangtse River, Cinton continu d the head quarters of the foreign trade of Chisa.
But what of Hongkong ?-It was the official seat of the Superintendency of Trade; it was the terminus of the mail steams which once a month brought letters and news from Europe; it was the head quarters of a small military garrison, as well as of the Flet kept there to afford protection to British trade in the Far East. Incid only it was a British Colony; a sort of left-hand child of the Colonial Office scarcely.recognised, as having newɑ bord out of dus course; and as such requiring according to custom a Governor, it was handed over to the teuder mercies of the Superintendent of British
rade as its foster parent. By the Cobdenite section of the Cabinet it had been earmarked as a dumping ground, whereon our merchants" like those of old described by Pliny were to place their cargoes, when if the Seres approved of the remalia, they might remove them at their leisure. ir leary Pottinger had wrecked this part of the programme, through the wiles of
|
Sull from its mail facilities, from its already being in communication with dhaugbai, as well as from its being the central spot whence the Superintendent despatched his orders to the Consuls at the various ports, the great houses kept here from an early period their head quarters, and the instant the asil steamer arrived, orders were sent by fast sailing boats or schooners, oa in later days by pivate express steamers, to their several agents at the open ports. Various extrinsic cirou astances brought accessions to the colony. It bome to a small extent a place of refigs from the swarms of the Taiping rebels; it was immensely sided by the gold di coveries in California, and rendered material aid in men and materials to the build- ing of san Francisco, whose earliest buildings were modelled on colonial patterns. For a short time it was also intimately associated with the infamous Coolie Trade, from which, however with the approbation of the British residents it almost immediately withdrew.
George Bonham in 1848 the Colony, which bad With all these windfalls, on the arrival of Sir drawn heavily on the British Exchequer, was practically bankrupt.
(Lo be continued).
KULANGSU (AMOY) MUNICIPAL COUNCIL.
Minutes of a meeting of the Council held at the Board Room, on the 3rd December 1907.
Pre ent:- Messrs. W. 1: Wallace (Chair. man), A. P'. Gardiuer, Huany l'x'angohew, W. Kruse, S Okuyama, W. Wison, the Health Officer aud the Secretary.
1. The minutes of the last meeting are read and onfirmed.
2. An application is read from the JapanESO Consul requesting permission to use certain ground near the Lower West Road, below the Germau Consul's residence and in the direction of the Japanese Cemetery, by the officers of HI.I.J.M's bip "Naniwa", for small arm prac. tion on a day to be neufed by the Japanese Consul. The Council decide to grant per- mission, providing the Se ior Officer of the party firing takes every preosation to ensure the safety of the public (persons using the roads and paths, working in the fields, quarries, on board boats near the beach &o) by putting out sfficient look out man t prevent persons approaching within the danger zone.
3. On the motion of Mr. Wallace, it is decided to ask the China Light and Power Co. Ltd. to forward, with as little delay as possible, the conditions of their proposals (in detail) for supplying the Settlement with light sad power.
4 A letter from the Superintendent of Police to the Geman Consul, together with his reply is read concerning a collision between a Li censed Sampan (No 92) and a steam pinnao belonging to 8. M. S. "Arcons," in the harbour ou the night of the 29th Nov, by which an Austrian sailor, belonging to the "Kaiser Franz Josef I.," and two Chinese were drowned. The Gorman Consul in his reply states that fram the report of the 8.M. 1. "Arena" it is evident that the sampan is al no to blame for the cuiden', as the sampan,
without having a light, tried to clo ely cross the bow of the German pinnace which was carrying both red and white lights, whereas she should have passed bohind the pinasce. Moreover the sampaó was overloaded and careful handling was the more necessary,
5
The Superintendent of Police reports the following cases have ben heard in the Mixed Court since the last meeting-
SUMMONSES,
Debt 1, Encroaching on property 1. Contempt of Court 1, Breach of Municipal Regulations 1.
BUMMART ARRESTS. Theft 6, Assault 2, Committing a nuisance 2. Housebreaking 1. Contempt of Court 1.
(Signed) W. H. WALLACH,
By order.
Chairman.
Secretary,
C. BERKELET MITCHELL,
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