February 8, 1908.]
CHINA OVERLAND
TRADE REPORT.
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pleasant; and we mention it only in order | he meddles with its property. All he shirks, interested in concessions granted prior to to introduce a novel point of view that we
1 at some cost to himself of self-denial and the compilation of these regulations will not thereby secured. It was a professional discomfort, is the "demuition grind" be likely to admire that gentleman. trap, a man of intellect, and in his own vividly described by Mr. BLAND. It is of Mining concessions secured before these Owners way a very gentlemanly philosopher, who clear that we have no right to loathe bim regulations were published were in conversation with us deplore the foolish for that; and it is equally clear that he expected to take more than an academic indiscretions of those cisual loafers who deserves a little more sympathy than Mr. interest in them, but Article 8 gʊes as near steal chickens and in other ways annoy the
SMALLMAN of Manchester would give him. being retrospective as was decently possible. public and the police. He regretted these | Just as that gentleman's colleagues hasten. It says: petty crimes and misdemeanours, nut oned to dissociate themselves from his views, It any
of these articles are found disadvan- moral grounds, but because they made let us try to dissociate ourselves from the tageous to, aud a barrassing to, the interest of things uncomfortable for the regular pro- uuthinking mob that judges and condemos fessional nomads who believel in honesty so rashly; let us look al ways for other points mines, the ciromanes may be pointed out to concerns already in operation, or to whom permission has been granted to open and work as the best polic. The professional tramp of view before claiming, like CoxPUCIUS in does not pretend to be looking for work, his youth, that our opinions are fixed; let
the head office, which can submit the objection This one did not. He did not pretead either
to the Board through the Governor for altera- 113 not forget that “audi alteram partem that he was merely a victim to that over-
tion, if such protest is made within six months is always, even in the most vulikely cases, of the issue of th se regulations, powering instinct for wandering, which the a good working rule. It is a rule that Germans have recognized by giving it a works both ways, remember. It is conven- name. He claimed ability to get the barctional to praise unreasoningly as well as to necessaries of life by the exercise of his blame, and to praise without examination is wits, in various honest ways. He did not
as bad as to blame. It is terribly trite, and disdain luxuries, but he loathed work under yet terribly necessary, to keep reminding existing conditions more than he like ourselves that things are nt (always) luxury, and he found it congenial to what they seem.' dispense with some things rather than t› labour for them. His point of view has since been admirably expressed by a newly popular writer called HUBERT 3LAND; aud expressed in such similar terms to leave us wondering if perchance the tramp we left lying on the Hog's Back close by Wimbleden has not managed to find congenial employment in literature. Mr. BLAND writes:
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A certain percentage of us are born with an ingrained preference for the road as compared with the slum or the workhouse. The slum has its diversions, the work house its
comforts, the bigh road its freedom; and to the Tramp-nature fre dom is a fair off-set against
the loss of the diversions and the comforts, Men do not take to the road because they like it, but because they prefer it to the only other alternative with which life faces them. Had Sir Walter Raleigh, for instance [ur friend of the Surrey les, we remember, cited Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher and Co. as meu who would not have made reputable citizens in White- chapel] been born on one of the lowest sccial levels, or come to grief in middle life and been compelled to choose between hard aud ill-paid work in cities, or no work on the high
road, can we doubt what his choice had been? Sir Walter was born a gentleman, bred in the atmosphere of Courts, and he plundered Spanish galleons. The tramp is born & workman's child, bred in an alley, and he robs ben-roosts. Sir Walter ended his days upon the gallows. The tramp will die in a ditch. Both know
I
the insides of prisous
The spiritual stuff of the pur is pretty much the same. find it possible to figure to myself Sir Walter Raleigh trudging along this road clad in rags and broken boots, carrying all his worldly wealth wrapped up in an unspeakable handker chief, soorning with curled lip the road-me- ders by the waysie breaking stones for bread, and determined in his heart that s m iu- dustrious tadesman or poultry-keep-r should provide him his night's refreshi ut. But for the life of me i can't even picture him rising at daybreak ou an autumu muruing and setting off for the factory or worksin there to labour at mouctouous toil until nightfall; and proceeding to do the same thing, day in, day out, until the last day of all, the day of the cheap funeral provided by the burial club. And yet the man who does all these dull things is the good and, worthy oitizen, the intelligent roler upon whom all the hopes of democracy are set, the man we want to encourage, and whose number we want to increase.
MINING IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, February 6th.)
It is quite clear that there is no prospect for foreign capital in Chinese mining enterpri-e. Taking the case of a coal-mine, the Shanghai correspondent of the Times gives a shockingly suggestive summary of the conditions ou which CHIH-TUNG seems willing to accept the use alone Chase of foreign capital for the mineral develop ment of China. The gist of the rules laid down for the foreign capit dist who wishes to invest in coal mining is thus clearly
set forth:
1. To place himself and his capital under tha laws of China in all matters of civil jarisdio iuu. (Sections 49 and 60.)
8DY
2. In the event of being charged wi h criminal offence, and subsequently acquitted by his Consular authority courary to the wishes or sentiment of the Chinese, to be debarred with all his nationals-from farther mining operations in that proving 1.
3. To divest himself of
Consular and
Diplomatic protection in regard to his vested
interests. (Section 49.)
4. To recoguiza the right of the provincial authorities to stop work at the mue, and involve him in the 1 ss of his capital, without compensation. (Section 49.)
5. To give a bond, and to be officially certified by his Consul as accepting the (Sec ion 59.)
6. To undertake to abide by all amendments which the Chinese Government may bereafter introduce into these regulations (Section 49.)
After fulfilling these conditions and divesting bimself of extra-territoriality and treaty rights, the working of his mine will be subject to the following liabilities and payments:
Government land tar, Government mining rentals and prospecting* fees (small but vexatious).
Tariff duties (and presumably lekin ou out put).
All foreign mining industries must submit the r reports or objctions to the Wai Wu Pa through the 88 110 channel, and, providing China's sovereignty or the public pesca are in in the rules to suit their case. no.way injured, some modification may be made for permission to open mines after the issue of All who apply the regulations must be bound by the terms of the regulations without any alienation or amendment.
Of these regulations, the Times' corros- pondent says "the Chinese themssives do not take them seriously, recognizing that sovereign rights than with mining. Chinese they are more concerned with politics and owners of mineral-bouring properties are als aware that, for then, such regulations are not meant to be taken au pied de la lettre; that their application in any given case will continue to depend on circumstances officials, a matter of customary compromise, and the rapaci y of deputies nod local of give and take. assume the proportions of au industry in Regulation-framing bas Chiun, and the tendency of the Government
to frame voluminous codles of rules bas
recently been accentuated in proportion to the increasing members of its irrespons- ible advisers; witness the endless regulations issued by the Boards of Educa tion, War, and Domestic Affairs. But the foreigner, investing his capital in China, cannot afford to ignore the letter of the law, however unjust or absurd it may be; him. his Consular authorities, and with no means self a nenabile to the strict jurisdiction of
of re Iress in the case of arbitrary treatment except the tedious and uncertain processes of diplomatic intervention, he naturally asks that the conditions under which his
capital is invested may be reasonable, prac. regulations.tical, and clearly defined. To require him, as a con lit on of entering upon operations in partnership with Chinese subjects, to accept Chinese jurisdiction and to obey the laws of China, wheu n man knows what those laws are to-day or what they may be to-morrow, is equivalent to prohibiting all development of the country's mineral wealth by means of foreign capital and sc eutific methods; which is precisely what HI.E. CHANG CHIH-TUNG intended. Looking at the matter from the "Young China's' point of view, and remembering certain of their country's unfortunate experiances with foreign capitalists and concessionnaires, the couservative Viceroy's attitude is intelligible enough. To him and to his large boly of followers the foreigner is identified with forcible exploitation of the country; and they would rather that their mines should
them remain unop ned for centuries than work uuder conditions which admit the European's privileged or superior position. Here in the Chinese patriot derives his ideas directly from Japan, and, forgetting that his country has as yet affected none of the political and administrative reforms which enable Japan to dispense with the assistance (though not with the capital) of Europeans, he proceeds as if China were
Pitmouth tax on
pr ton (which amounts to a tax of, 8·5, 6 per cent, to 1 per cant. on pitmouth value of cad).
Twenty-five pr cent. of me: profits t landowner and 25 per cent to the Chinese Government.
If taxes are ia arrears the mining rights lapse.
Thus it is made quite clear that the latest After looking up and quoting that interest-possible of acceptance, and a the same time Chinese code of Mining Regulations is im- ing passage, we see we must apologise to Mr. BLAND. His peroration proves that it was not be with whom we talked a whole afternoon. Whatever Sir WALTER RALEIGH might have done, the professional tramp will not steal chickeus. All he wants is to be let alone, as we understood him, and he knows that Society will not let him alone if
there is the suspicion that they were never exp cted to be accept d. It looks as if the patriotic objection to foreign capital hat inspired this means of deliberately seating it away. It is stated that CHANG CHIH- TUNG in compiling the regulations had the assistance of the American missionary who acts as his foreign adviser. Those who are
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