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November 28, 1908.]
Stands Scotland where she did? One may well ask the question on learning that among the numerous sons of Caledonia in Hongkong there is not one able or willing to come forward and "blow the pipes." At the practice dances for St. Andrew's Ball the music for the reels is supplied by turbaned sons of Ind! Shades of Bruce and Wallace! A dusky piper to play eightsome reels for Scottish dancers: What a degenerate age!
Subscribers to the ball are, I hear, not quite as numerous as in some previous years, but the arrangements will be on the same generous scale. Ladies and gentlemen with experience of former balls have already filled their programmes and sets have also been arranged. Nothing like taking time by the forelock!
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A good deal has been said in the native press lately about the minting of new Chinese coins with a view to fulfilling the "uniform currency obligation of the Mackay Treaty. But, if China is minting all these millions of silver coins, how is it that the price of silver is so low? Has China been hoarding silver for this purpose so that she does not now need to buy? China's resolve to introduce as a national coin the new tael piece, of which it is said millions are now being minted, raised hopes that China would come into the market as a large purchaser of the white metal, and that her demand would be a prominent influence in determining the price of the metal for some time to come. So far however, the prophets are discredited. Silver is lower now
than it was before the reported minting operations began. What is the explana- tion of it?
More administrative changes! Just when the new Head of the Sanitary Department and Mr. Hooper are beginning to understand each other, Mr. Messer is removed, and Mr. J. H. Kemp leaves the Magistracy to fill the onerous post Mr. Messer vacates. Mr. Kemp in the various legal positions he has held has proved a most capable official and deserves the promotion which, I presume, this step means, but it is a little disquieting to learn that the posi. tion of Head of the Sanitary Department is not as much a fixed position for the official appointed to it 83 is the position of Colonial Secretary or Director of Public Works. Mr. Messer will doubtless prove an excellent Post aster-General. He has had pre- vious experience of the work, and filled the position with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. All the same, such an early change at the Sanitary Board is to be regretted.
Every now and then we hear a denunciation of the chit system when its pernicious effects are held up to public view, and it must have struck many as rather curious that the churches should take advantage of a system which has been found so blameworthy. I am not a regular attender at church myself, but I believe in some of the places of worship printed slips and pencils are placed on the book boards for the use of those who have no ready cash. I suppose the defence will be that the end justifies the means, but I am not quite so sure.
Talking of churches, which in Hongkong as in other places are not overcrowded, reminds me of an amusing paragraph I read the other day in which it was related that the Rev. Dr. Baker, formerly pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Oakland, and now manager for a correspond. ence school, declared that the reason the churches do not draw larger crowds is that they do not advertise! "They have the best line of goods in the world," he says, "and they ought to present
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
HONGKONG.
On Sunday last the Colony had warning of the proximity of a typhoon within the 300 mile radius, and yesterday the Manila Observatory advised that another typhoon was travelling W. or W.N.W. from south-eastern Luzon,
44
On Nov. 23 the 3rd Battalion of the Middlesex
Regiment left Hongkong in the troopship Dufferin" for Singapore. The soldiers carry with them the good wishes of their friends. His Excellency the Governor webt board and addressed a few words of farewell to the men of the Middlesex Regiment.
OD
8
Mrs. Raming, residing at the Italian Convent, reports to the police that while she was passenger on the America Maru which arrived in port yesterday she lost on the 21st inst. a gold finger ring set with eight diamonds, value 8350, a lady's gold scarf pin set with a pearl and twelve diamonds value $500, a gold neck chain value $50, the total value being 8900.
His Majesty the King has not been advised to exercise his power of disallowance with res- pect to Ordinance No. 14 of 1908, entitled-An Ordinance to amend The Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, and The Public Health and Buildings Amendment Ordinance, 1903, and to make better provision for the pre- servation of the Public Health.
At the Magistracy on Nov. 21st Mr. J. R. Wood delivered his decision in the case in which Mr. H. Fiedler, licensee of the Café Weismann Ld., was summoned for retailing intoxicating liquor without supplying meals. His Worship found the defendant guilty of a contravention of the Licensing Ordinance and imposed a fine of $100.
On Nov. 24 a gharry accident took place near the Clock Tower. The two Chinese ponies which were drawing the vehicle in which were seated two persons took fright and bolted. They ran for some distance when the gharry collided with a lamp post, with the result that the shafts were smashed. The occupants escaped with a severe shaking. Not so the driver who had jumped down from his seat and attempted to stop the affrighted animals. He was knocked down and received a severe cut on the face.
The special announcement made by the P. & O. Company in our advertising columns that the big liner Macedonia (10,500 tons) is scheduled as a through mail steamer from the Far East for Marseilles and London via Bom- bay is of interest to the large number of residents who appear to be contemplating a trip home next summer. The Macedonia will leave Hongkong on March 20th. She will make a stay of 24 hours at Bombay and is timed to reach Marseilles on April 17th and London on April 24th.
When the Court of Summary Jurisdiction sat on the 25th inst. His Honour the Puisne Judge was informed that the action in which the Ham Sun Wing firm sued Tang Chee, as representing the Kowloon Cricket Club, for the recovery of $744 due under a contract for the erection of a pavilion, had been settled. The terms of settlement were that $144.03 should be deducted from the claim in respect of work alleged to be unfinished, and the defendants are to pay to the plaintiffs a sum of $600, and 850 towards the costs. On fulfilment of these considerations each side will withdraw its res- pective action.
a
Householders cannot be too careful of loafers on their premises, whether they be dismissed servants or friends of their servants. In sup port of this attention has only to be drawn to the case which we reported on Nov. 24 in which Chinese was sentenced to six months' hard labour for stealing a gold watch and chain the Elias reported the watch and chain and a pocket property of Isaac Elias of 6 Chancery Lane. Mr. them in an attractive manner. There seems to be something in that, comments the journal book containing 835 as missing to the police on which published the statement. A few lines of the 21st inst. and next morning a Chinese advertising in the classified columns might do detective arrived at the Central Police Station much. But the wares would have to be as good holding a youth by the queue with one hand and as the "ad." There is a popular impression that carrying in the other the missing gold watch church services and sermons nowadays appeal and chain and pocket book. Some of the money only to the really devout and that the wicked find had gone to furnish the delinquent with a new, in them little to attract. As the wicked presum.
outfit. The youth was, as stated, sent to prison ably need them most, perhaps Dr. Baker can
for six months. The police are anxious that indicate how they might be changed.
householders should see that no visitors are harboured by their servants on the premises,
RODERICK RANDOM.
383
The Colony was able to show a clean bill of health for the last week, no cases of plague or communicable disease having been reported.
A hawker was at the Magistracy on Nov. 25 charged with being in unlawful possession of three cheques to the value of $68 which are believed to have been stolen from the Dairy Farm office. He was remanded until Friday. but nevertheless it is reported to the police here It seems difficult to realise how it was done
that a lighter belonging to the Kowloon Godown Company while in shelter at Causeway Bay on the 22nd inst. lost 45 fathoms of three-quarter inch chain value $200 which was believed to have been stolen.
Coolies who are paid on piecework down West Point sometimes attempt loads for which they are incapable. It often happens that they load a truck with so many bags that when the wheels enter the smallest rut they are unable to move the coolies had the misfortune to have their the truck. This happened on Saturday, but
truck stick in the car rails and block the traffic. For this obstruction the principal was sum- moned before Mr. Wood at the Police Court yesterday and fined $10.
It is notified in the Garette that the following druggists under the persons have been registered as chemists and Pharmacy Ordinance, 1908-Messrs J. R. Capell, of A. 8. Watson & Co.; Cheng Kam Ming, Government Civil Hospital; A. T. Duncan, Watkins, Limited; H. Humphreys, A. 8. Watson & Co.; E. Neid- hardt, German Dispensary; W. M. Nish and A. P. Nobbs, A. 8. Watson & Co.; F. Sönksen, German Dispensary H. S. Spurge, F. W. Stapleton, J. R. Suiter and W. D. Sutton, of A. 8. Watson & Co.; G. A. Watkins, Watkins, Limited.
Another tragic death is reported as having occurred at Wanchai last week. Mr. H Ho- warth, late storekeeper of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, who occupied a flat in Arsenal Street, had been absent from his work since the 18th instant. Messengers had been sent to his residence to make inquiries, but on each occasion found the door of his flat locked. Then the police were communicated with, and on proceeding to the flat and forcing the door, found deceased lying on his bed with a bulle, wound in the head, and a revolver lying by his side. Deceased was buried at Happy Valley yesterday, when many of his friends followed the cortege.
HOLDING FOR RANSOM.
An interesting charge was heard before Mr. J. H. Kemp at the Magistracy on Nov. 26 when Mr. G. N. Orme on behalf of the police prosecuted two women for unlawfully detaining a child by force. It appears that about midnight on October 14th a man named Hing Lee residing in the Shan Tuk district was awakened from his sleep by three robbers, armed with rifles and revolvers entering the house. They took with them his so, a boy of ten years of age, and after keeping him in the country for some time brought him to Hongkong. He was subsequently found at 81, Station Road, Yaumati, where, according to his story, he was kept for six weeks in the company of the defendants, one of whom taught him to call her mother. He was not allowed out on the verandah or stairs. When the police went to the house the men were absent but in a box belonging to one of the defendants a fetter was found addressed to the boy's father asking him to hurry up and produce the ransom. "We want 82,000 ransom was a sen- tence in the letter. After hearing the evidence of the father and the boy, his Worship convicted the younger defendant and sentenced her to one said that the other brought the child to her year's imprisonment. The second defendant
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house and said that he was her son. against her was remanded.
The case
It is understood that H. E. the Governor of the Straits Settlements will proceed home on short leave in the spring of next year, probably about the end of March, and that he will return to Singapore about the close of July. We also note that Sir Henry McCallum, the Governor of Ceylon, will likely be proceeding to England about the same time also on short leave.
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