458
SHIPPING NOTES.
Something like 1,300 lives were lost by the foundering of the Japanese steamers Gina maru and Nagata-maru, off Chefoo, and a Chinese steamer of 2,000 tons which sank in the same gale three weeks ago off the Elliot Group of islands. There appears to have been only one Chinese survivor. The Chinese ship alone had 600 coolies on board.
Captain R. Swain, the well-known commander of the N.Y.K. 8.84 Kasuga-maru, has been transferred to the command of the Nikko-maru and is succeeded by Captain W. Winkler on the Kasuga-maru. The change was caused by the transfer of Capt. A. E. Moses from the command of the Nikko-maru" to that of the Mishima-maru which is now being completed for at the Kawasaki Dockyard and is to be placed in the European service.
The Mitsu Bishi Dockyard and Engine Works at Nagasaki turned over another fine steamer to her owners on the 1st December, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha flag being hoisted on the 8.8. Hirano-maru, a sister-ship of the Kamo- maru which has nearly completed her maidon voyage to Europe and has won a hích réputation as a comfortable passenger Hmr. The Hientate maru is a twin-screw steamer of 8,600 tons, with a speed of 16 knots. Captain H. Fraser as- sumed command of the vessel on the 1st inst. She is scheduled to commence her maiden voyage to Europe to-day (the 16th inst..
the
A Japanese paper states that the four com- panies British, Japanese, Austrian and Italian therto engaged in Indo-Japanese carrying trade, have renewed their pooling arrangement. The Austrian and the Italian Companies broke away in September, but, in the sequel of conferences recently held in London, the union has been re-cemented, the P. & Q. and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha agreeing to reduce their voyages from 48 to 36 annually. and the two other Companies making 17 sailings per year.
The drop in the rate on flour from Taconia to Hongkong announced a month ago is explained in the Tacoma papers to be due partly to a belief that rates were being secretly cut at Portland, as the Puget Sound shipments had recently been extremely right, and partly to heap off the competition of tramp tonnage. reduced from $3.50 to 83 per
The rate WES ton.
In order to meet the increasing demands for extensive docking accommodation on the part of the large liners which visit the port, the Yokohama Dock Company, Ltd., have just completed a new mooring basin, while a new dry dock, No. 3, is in course of construction. The length of the new mooring basin to the present dam is 477ft. 2in.; it is 100ft. wide, and has a
depth at low water of 26ft. 10in. The dock now being.constructed provides accommolation for vessels 48ft. long; the breadth of entrance at high-water will be 66ft. 10in.; and depth at high water on the sill 22ft. 10in., aud on the blocks 21ft. 4.
on
We are informed that the magnificent new triple screw steel steamer Chiyo' Maru, of the Toyo Kisen haisha, will be due to arrive in Hongkong on the 21st December, and will inaugurate her initial voyage on the Trans- Pacific run starting from Hongkong December 25th. This palatial steamer is a sister ship of the s.. Tenyo Maru, for several months in the service, and is equipped with all the very latest modern improvements known to the maritime world. She is an oil burner of the latest approved type, equipped with wireless telegraph apparatus and luxuriously furnished throughout without regard to expense. This steamer will sail from Hongkong on the run of the s.s. Hongkong Maru, which will proceed to Japan for extensive repairs and improvements before being again placed in the service.
The telegrams to the Indian papers respect- ing the burning of the Payayanni Line steamer Sardinia show that the fire broke out when she
|
|
|
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS ANDTM
Wax
[December 21, 1908
UNEMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN.
PITIFUL PLIGHT OF OPERATIVES,
Was
was but a mile out from Malta bound for Egypt. Two hundred and fifty people were on board. The passengers and crew were seized with panic and jumped overboard. A strong wind inter- fored with the rescue work and many perished. The ship was beached. She was kept off the Referring to the factory operatives thrown harbour owing to the danger of a powder-out of employment in consequence of the magazine explosion. Thirty Europeans and 40 prevailing trade depression, the Osaka Asahi Arals were saved, and 23 Europeans and about points out that cotton-spinning companies in 100 Arabs, mostly pilgrims, were drowned. this country, numbering 39 in all, with a capital The Captain and crew behaved gallantly. The aggregating Y86,500,000 and having 1,600,000 Captain
drowned. The disaster was spindles among them, are reduced to a very try. witnessed by thousands on the shore. Volcano- ing position on account of the depression of The total like eruptions of smoke and flames took place trade with China and at home. when the vessel struck the rock. The high sea
number of operatives employed at spinning 16,671 males and falling sparks made it dangerous for pinnaces mills in January last
and 68.592 females At the end of June to approach, while the terrified. Arabs refused to
had been reduced by about jump into the sea. The Sardinia was envelop the number
The number was further reduced ed in flames amidships within ten minutes, and 14,900. the hatches were blown off, killing 'many. The by the end of October last, when male operatives numbered 14,825 and female operatives 54,893. engine room staff perished below, their escape being cut off. The engines were kept going The rate of wages, however, remained almost until the vessel grounded.
unchanged, the males being paid between 40 and 50 sen each per day and the females between 24- and 30 sen on an average, a little higher than last spring. Meanwhile thousands of discharged operatives seeking employment do not know where to turn for a living. The pruning-knife of dismissal has not only been applied to spin- ning operatives, but also to those engaged in shipbuilding, who have suffered severely. A simtar fate fas also overtaken those emplyed in the manufacture of matches and knitted goods, in dyeing, weaving, making hemp-rope, and other manufacturing industries. It is very hard for so large a number of poor operatives to be thrown out of employment now that the winter is coming k-Tsuruga and Vladivostock-Shanghai. on. Fortuntely, society is not so cruel as might chipowners, remarks a Glasgow correspondent, be supposed. Trained operatives and even un- are vidently of opinion that freights will im-skilled labourers are finding employment in
various directions. Government works prove with the spring, and that it will be the newest and best equipped that will fare best in attracting the unemployed to a large extent, and the competition for trade. At all events, with employment is being found at the Military and some shipbuilders willing to build serviceable Naval Arsenals, the Printing Bureau, the cargo-boats on the basis of £5 per ton, the Imperial Mint, and the tobacco factories. investment would appear to offer not a little While many Government works have been temptation and promise of a good return in postponed, certain parts must be carried out at normal times.
The substantial orders placed for new ships with Clyde builders have been the primary cause of a better aspect of affairs at Glasgow. Orders to the aggregate of 120,000 tons were known to have been placed in September, but October did not come out so well. Perhaps the most outstanding orders were the
by the Russian Volunteer Fleet. five vessels of
8,000 tons cach having been contracted for hy a Greenock firm. The money value will be £360,000. The steamers are fo form part of two servicus by the Volunteer Flot
Vladi
THE NEW POWER IN CHINA.
The story of the likin incident at Foochow furuishes food for reflection. In its original conception the boycott did not inflict any loss on the boycotters, or, at all events, it inflicted only an infinitesimally small loss. The sufferer was the boycotted, who found himself practically ostracised. But the boycott, as used by the Chinese, has boomerang-like power: it causes mainly loss to the persons practising it. That was not ab- solutely true of the first boycott, namely that directed against American articles.
Those were not without rivals in the markets of China, and consequently it was only a case of turning from one class of manufactures to an- other. The second boycott, however, namely, that directed against Japan, hurt the Chinese very palpably, for the marine products which they purchase from the Japanese in very large quantities do not find any sufficient substitute, and thus not only the Chinese dealers in such commodities but also their Chinese consumers, were subjected to heavy loss, and seriously inconvenienced: A climax was reached in the case of the third boycott, however. There the Chinese merchants of Foochow may be said to have decided upon committing deliberate suicide and slaughtering their foreign confrères at the same time, for the sake of slightly embarrassing the local officials. They declared, in effect, that they would cease to carry on
the trade by which they earned a livelihood, merely for the sake of preventing the officials from levying a small tax upon it.
Yet they counted justly; for the authorities surrendered incontinently. Is it pessimistic to say that this Amoy spectacle suggests grave ground for uneasiness? Against what grievance, real or imaginary, will not the Chinese direct the
new
weapon which has appealed so strongly to their fancy? They are the only people, with the solitary exception of the Irish, that have ever had recourse to the boycott, and it is strange enough to find the Chinese taking a leaf out of the book of the Irish agitators. Diplomacy evidently has to reckon with a new 'factor.-Japan Mail
once.
aro
For instance, large tobacco factories are being built in Tokyo and Osaka, and the construction of these is providing employment. Moreover, the latter prefer Government works to private factories, as they feel more secure at the former. The extension of the northern factory of the Osaka Tobacco Works has been completed, and the announcement calling for over 300 workers was quickly responded to by operatives recently thrown out of employ.
ment.
The wages paid at the tobacco factory are nearly the same as at cotton-spinning mills, but when two months have elapsed during which the workers will learn the business payment is to be made by piece instead of by time. -Japan Chronicle.
LIBEL ACTIONS IN CHINA AND JAPAN.
The action for libel brought by Mr. E. T. Bethell against the N.-C. Daily News, which was concluded on Thursday in the Supreme Court at Shanghai, with a verdict in the
our
plaintiff's favour, $3,000 damages being awarded, is, we gather, one of several actions con- Three Hong- templated by Mr. Bethell.
from reproduced kong newspapers Shanghai contemporary the Tokyo telegram containing that libel. It did not appear in the Daily Press. In view of the general unreliability of the news being sent at the time by Japanese press correspondents at Seoul, the statement made in the telegram seemed to anyone knowing Mr. Bethell so highly improb- able that we deemed it more prudent to wait the arrival of the full report of the case. When that came we found our doubts were fully justified. •
In Japan actions for libel have been filed against two newspapers by Mr. W. T. R. Preston, Commissioner of Trade for the Domi- nion of Canada, and 20,000 yen is claimed from each. The newspapers concerned are the Japan Herald in Yokohama and the Japan Chronicle in Kobe. The ground of action is the publica- tion of an extract from the Victoria Daily Colonist, in which it was alleged that Mr. Preston was in Japan working in the interests - of Japanese emigration to Canada.
Page 20Page 21
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.