December 7, 1908.]
HONGKONG, APPEAL COURT,
T
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT known to reverse on appeal a judgment be has given in the Court of Original Juris. ddiction?
(Daily Press, December 4th.)
The Chief Justice admits in the We reproduce to-day the somewhat lengthy correspondence that he knows the idea was correspondence which bas passed between and we may add still is-current in the His Honour the Chief Justice and His Colony that appeal is a farce" here, but Excellency the Governor occasioned by some the complaint is against the system, and is remarks in His Excellency's speech on the tuinly not intended to reflect on those who Budget, referring to the present emstitution administer it. The public are more or less of the Appeal Court of the C long. By familiar with the patient, Iborious and con- two of the papers His Excellency was scientious work of the Judges in the Appeal reported as having sail that the existing
Cout; they know at least, that tere is Appeal Court must necessarily be a farce. no hing.f the farcical about that, and the His Excelency explains that this does no, public, we are sur, are perfectly satisfied as fully represent what he said on the subject to the absolute sinearity of the le rue bat in the opinion of the Chief Justice Hisjudges e acerned, but whin once a judge has Excellency's own version of his remarks delivered a judgment which he has been at makes very little difference in the general the utmost pains to prepare, it does strike the effect. The Chief Justice admits, as in teed public as farcical to look to that same judge every one must, that the constitution of to quash his own judgment. In short the the Appeal Court is "extraordinary in so
whole position is as Mr. JUSTICE WISE wealthy a Colony as Hongkong"; and says tersely put it:-"As at present constituted it may also be conceded that it is nuo-
"the Appeal Court consists of the Chief malous, and that it deserves the strongest
Justice and the Pusine Julge, from one of hostile criticism. "But that," says His
"whom the appeal necessarily lies, and the Honour, "is a very different thing from
"Chief Justice has a casting vote. The saying that it is a farce: for this implies result is that anyon who has the money that the Chief Justice is obsfinitelyt na- will appeal agrust the de ii of te cious of his own opinions, and that be will
“Puisto Julge (in consequç ice of the never change them whatever new arguments:
casting vote) hat that no oe will app al may be advancel on the appeal." The
against a decision of the Ch of Justice insistence of the Chief Justice on the publi
unless he intens to carry the case to the cation of this correspondente is, we think, to
Privy Council." Nin- men out of ten be regrettel, for it will certainly have the would, we venture to think, regard that unfortunate effect of reviving in the publ e position of affairs not merely as anomalous mind that half-forgotten incident of a few
ut also as somewhat farcical. months ago when the Chief Justice cou- sidered that the integrity of the. Court had been attacked by one of the leading mem- bers of the local Bar. So far as His
(Daily Press. December 4th. ) Excellency the Governor is concerned, no
Inasmuch as we drew : ttention a fortnight one, we can safely say, would dream of meat being made of the reasons
ago to the necessity for some public stat ascribing to him the malevolent intention governet the Attorney-General in ut filing wh cli of attributing to the Chief Justice any
an indictment for manslaughter at the list conduct not in consonance with the high Sessions in the tortland "Street Builling and cherished traditions. of the British Collape case, we wele me the statement Bench. When it is conceded that ti:e made by the Attorney-Genera! in constitution of the Appeil Courts extra-Legislative Counel yester lay ordinary, anomalous and deserving of the strongest liostile criticism, aud when it is further admitted by the Chief Justice that it has not happened up to tie present that he has bal occasion to reverse a judgment he has given, it seems to us that the posis tion is more than merely anomalous, and notwithstanding all that His Honour the Chief Justice has to say on the subject, the the idea that there is something ludicrous public mind will not easily be divested of
in an appeal from CESAR to CESAR. It does not necessarily follow that the honesty and good faith of the Judge whose decision is in question is thereby impugned. Though a Judge is always very properly assumed to have the honesty necessary to reverse his own decision if, ou further argument, it is shown to
A BUILDING COLLAPSE.
SIDE LIGHTS ON CHINA'S
TRADE.
(Daily Press, December 5th.) Scattered here and there in the ninety and niue pages of Sir ALEXANDER HOSIE'S Report on the Trade of China for 1907, are many interesting observations which arrest the attention of the reader.
We
quote in full to-day the general summary which prefaces the British Commercial Attaché's report, confident that it will be real with interest and advantage by all actively e nered with commerce; but in this article our object will be to draw atten tion to what we may ten a few side-lights on the trade possessing an interest for all readers. Take, in the first place, the re- ference to the woolleu imports. It is safe t5 predict, from, your to year, says the Report, that the value of woollen goods. imported into China will be between four and five million Haikuan tels; "it has been so for the last thirty years, and there seems little hope, for the present at least of any great expansion." What is the ex- plasation? Sir ALEXANDER HOSIE supplies more than one. In te. first place, he says the ordiny Chinese cannot afford to have clothes for the winter and clothes for the sum- mer;,ke prefers to have several tin cotton suits which he can wear, one over the other, discarding suit after suit as the weather ges warmer till in the middle of the summer little is left! Bat can this be attributed wholly to piverty? Das not "olo custom," for-should we say 7-the tyranny of fashion count for much in this connexiga? One might imagine, Sir ALEXANDER proceeds to like would appeal to the well-to-do classes, say, that good blankets, carpets and the
but-and here he strikes the right explana- tion -Oceid ntal and Oriental leas of eufort lie far apart. The Commercial Ataché regards as remote the possibility of a relaxation of the conservatism of to-day in th se matters, for just as good, roads, for in replyin Peking, and elsewhere, so must decent instance, had to precede foreign carriages to the question pu to him by the Hon. Dr. Ho KAL
flors precede the use of carpets, and as We can, however, regards clothing, the increasing contact scarcely consider high st degree satisfactory. It is t o vagu
with foreigners, and more especially with Where, for instance, was this exp rt evidence Chinese ideas of dress. There is even now Japanese will tend to gradually modity of taised as to building construction? the Prosecution go yond the Public and c toon mixtures. chi fly alpacas, lustres stea y advance in the import of woollen Works Departin ut for it? There are, we believe, at least half-a-dozen experts in
and Orleans, aul clothing including hats and
Department, and we are left to wonder why and among Chinese ladies there is a great building construction is the Public Works trimmings goes on increasing. European umbrellas are also gaining in favour and this important information to which the demand for jewellery. The author of thể Attorney-General refers was not tendered at the Coro e's inquest, and shave saved Report, remarking that one has few oppor- the Jury fr in returning the verdic thermites of seing the adornment of Chinese as against the arohiset? happ to be the case that t is important each hand were smply covered with gold It it shoul ladies, me.tions meeting in a railway train a lady whose "thumb and four fingers of expert evidence as to the construction of wrong, it is admitted { buildings was obtained from sources outside rings encrusted with stones of every by the Chief Justice that he has not had the Department, what are the public to descriptio, from diamond to torquoise, occasion to reverse a judgment he has given. think of th - competence of the Government
If this is an example of what wealth and We can however, recall instances of His experts? These are a few of the que-tions | | sition demand in China, Sir ALEXANDER
be
On
Honour's judgments being upheld merely by his own ca-ting vote, and in one or two cases, at least, reversed when taken appeal to the Privy Council. These facts go, rightly or wrongly, to create the very impression the Judge is so anxious remove. The alteration in the constitution
to
of the Appeal Court, announced in the recent speech of His Excellency the Governor, better meets the public notion of the fitness of things. However open-minded, however honest, a Judge may be, must it not be with a sense akin to hopelessness that a case is carried to the Appeal Court as at present constitutel against a judgment delivered by the Chief Justice, since His Honour has not been
the auswer
the
as in the
Dil
which occur to us. However, we can con- gratulato Mr. BIRD
on the Attorney- General's announcement that the evid uc.
19
did not establish such a degree of negligen-e could justi y a prosecution for man- slaughter, and that in his opiniou no jury could
pssibly have cvicted having
regard to it.
Several meetings were held by the Chinese community at Rangoon in connection with the death of the Emperor of China. A telegram was sent to the Waiwupu protesting against the appointment of the infaut Prince Pu Wei as Emperor. Some of the meetings were clearly Anti-Manchu, that is, against the present dynasty, the feeling being in favour of China for the Chinese" and not for the Manchus.
to
HOSIE is surely right in saying that the jeweller need have no anxiety as
t. e di-posal
his of
wares. Per- fumiers have not the same consolation unless they are more careful to study Chin se tastes, as our sweetest perfumes do not
to appeal
Chinese." Passing from clothes and personal adorn-
.
the
ment to other things affecting the comfort of the people, we may note the great business HOW done in kerosene oil, the import representing a value of about twenty million tagls or three-and-a-quarter million pounds sterling er annum. Ker sene oil, the Report tells us, is an article which is very keenly pushed in China; the facilities afforded now by railways for forwarding it
I
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.