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December 26, 1208.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Xmas eve Ye Yuletide Quartette (malement you will see that Mr. A. Gibson was soiola) were waiting upon residents at the Peak, appointed to act as secretary during the absence the object they had in view being to obtain con- of Mr. Woodcock, and that Mr. Woodcock's tributions towards the Cathedral Organ Fund half pay was to be divided between Mr. Gibson and the National Children's Home, London. and Mr. Craig.
Early Wednesday morning fire broke out in a workshed near the oil tanks at Laichikok and quickly spread to adjoining matsheds. The inflammable material rapidly burned and the conflagration was at its height when the Fire Brigade arrived under Mr. Örme. The fire was prevented from spreading further. The damage is not very considerable.
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At the Magistracy on Dec. 23 a Chinese named Lau Fung was placed in the dock charged with the murder of Jewar Singh, an Indian watchman, at Shatin and also with being in possession of an offensive weapon a hammer, and farther with being concerned with other persons not in cus- tody in robbing deceased of 8250 and robbing another Indian of 85 and a silver watch. Another charge against him was wounding the other Indian.
We previously reported that a man had been found dead in a matshed near Shatin under circumstances which pointed to murder. It now transpires that the deceased and another Indian occupied this matshed, and they were surprised asleep in bed on Friday night by a band of men, about ten in number, entering the matshed. The intruders threw blankets over the sleeping men but the nature of the attack which followed is not clear. At any rate when they decamped with $250 belonging to one of their victims it wa found that one man was dead and the other wounded. It is suspected that the assailants were railway employees, and, as the result of police vigilance, seven men suspected of com- plicity in the affair have been arrested.
SANITARY BOARD
A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held on the 22nd inst. at the Board Room, Mr. R. O. Hutcheson presided and there were present Colonel Bedford, Hon. Mr. Irving, Mr. Lau Chu Pak, Mr. H. Humphreys, Mr. A. Shelton Hooper, Dr. Macfarlane (Assitant Medical Officer of Health), and Mr. A. Gibson (Secretary).
THE MISSING SECRETARY.
A letter was received from the Government relative to the appointment of Mr. Woodcock to act as Deputy Registrar and Accountant of the Supreme Court, and Mr. Gibson and Mr. Craig to continue to act as secretary of the Sanitary Board. The letter was as follows:-
Colonial Secretary's Office,
11th December.
SIE-I am lirected to state for the informa. tion of the Board that, owing to the exigencies of the public service, it has been necessary for His Excellency the Governor to appoint Mr. Woodcock to act as Deputy Registrar and Accountant of the Supreme Court during the absence on leave of Mr. Lee Jones, and that it will be therefore necessary for the present to continue the existing arrangement under which the duties of secretary of the Sanitary Board are divided between Dr. Gibson and Mr. Craig. I regret that by an oversight this information was not conveyed to you prior to the last meeting of the Board.-I am, etc.
Your obedient servant,
F. H. MAY, Colonial Secretary. - Mr. HOOPER-I am glad to get that inforina- tion, Sir, but I fail to understand the last part of the letter in which the Colonial Secretary says that the duties of secretary are to be divided between Mr. Gibson and Mr. Craig. The Or dinance only empowers the Governor to appoint a secretary and an assistant secretary to the Board. This is something more than a technical objection, Sir, because I would refer to section
· 95 of the Ordinance which says that certificates and written permission of the Board may be given under the hand of the secretary. I would like to know who performs the statutory duties
of this Board, and who would be amenable for any breach committed. The Government can only appoint one secretary, and I think it would be well to draw attention to that fact.
The PRESIDENT-The letter from the Colonial Secretary says that the existing arrangements shall continue, and if you refer to the letter which announced the present arrange
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Mr. HOOPER-That is as far as the pay is concerned. I have no objection to that. The first letter does not cast any duties on Mr Craig pertaining to the secretaryship, but the second letter indicates that it is to be a joint secretaryship. Of course, if you say that there will be only one secretary, it is satisfactory.
The PRESIDENT-The original letter appoints Doctor Gibson as secretary to the Board, and the second letter says that the existing arrangements
shall continue.
Mr. HOOPER-Then it was unnecessary to allude to Mr. Craig?
The PRESIDENT:-Yes. The paper was laid on the table.
COMPLAINT AGAINST THE CONSERVANCY CONTRACTOR.
Correspondence was submitted relative to a complaint made against the scavenging and conservancy contractor at Kowloon.
The PRESIDENT-With reference to this paper further correspondence which I think should be I should like to say that there is some treated confidentially, and I strangers be requested to withdraw.
propose that
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HONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCH
Minutes of a monthly meeting of the 'general' committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce held in the Chamber Room; St. George's Building, on Saturday, the 5th December, 1908, at 12 o'clock noon. President:-Hon. Mr. E. A. Hewett (Chairman), ・・ Mr. J. R. M. Smith (Vice-Chairman), Hoa. Mr. W. J. Gresson, Messrs. D. R. Law, A. Babing- ton, J. W. C. Bonnar, E. Shellim, G. Friesland, H. E. Tomkins and E. A. M. Williams (Secretary).
MINUTES.
The minutes of the monthly meeting held on the 12th November 1908, were confirmed.
UNITED STATES · MONetary coMMISSION.
Government House, OTTAWA, Oct. 26th, 1908.
The President,
Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong.
DEAR SIR.It is evident that the report of the United States Monetary Commission will bring up once more the entire question of silver and the exchanges,
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I enclose copy of a letter I have to-day re
from Senator Teller of that Commission and I think you may like to lay it before your Chamber.
Mr. HOOPER--But the public acknowledg ment you would get, I think, would be effective. I am not alluding to anything else, but it strikeceived me that, if we published the monition, we would matter for the Board entirely. perhaps. find it more satisfactory, but that is a
The REGISTRAR-GENERAL-My recollection is that on the last occasion we considered such a matter confidentially.
Mr. HOOPER-No.
The PRESIDENT Some other points will arise which I think should be treated con- fidentially.
The Pross then retired.
MORTALITY STATISTICS.
Based on a death rate per 1000 per annum the mortality statistics of the whole Colony for the week ended 28th November was 21-6 and for the week ended 5th December 22-5 as against 21.5 for the corresponding week of last year.
LIMEWASHING RETURN.
The limewashing returns for the month of December showed that 2040 houses have been limewashed in the Eastern and Central districts.
GOVERNMENT HO SE.
Hongkong, December 23rd. There was an official dinner at Government
House last night to which the following guests were invited-
Korvettenkapitin Ackermann, Captain Baird D.S.O, Mrs. Baird. Staff Surgeon and Mrs. Baiss, Colonel Bedford. C.M.G., P.M.O., Mrs. Bedford, Fregattenkapitan Bödicker, Mr. and Mrs. Boulton. Comdr. B chanan, Capt. Brier. ley, D.8.0. R.A.. Capt. Baron R. de Cervin, Mr. and Mrs. Montagu Ede. Dr. and Mrs. Evan-Jones, Capt. Findlay. Rev. and Mrs. France, Dr. and Mrs. Grone, Mr. and Mrs. J. Hastings, Mr. King (Hongkong Police). Mr. and Mrs. Mackay, Miss Mutter, Mr. and Mrs Scott, Capt. and Mrs. Worthington, Captain. Wurmbach.
The following received invitations, but were unavoidably prevented from coming
Mr. Fox, Mr. and Mrs. Crofton, Fleet Sur- geon and Mrs. Beadwell, Capt. Clino, R.A., Brother Christian. Commander D'Estienne,
Mr and Mrs. Belilios.
His Excellency yesterday morning received Captain Baron W. Hohenberg of the Austro- Hungarian cruiser Leopari and Captain Mar quis L. Cusani Visconti, of the Italian cruiser Puglia.
Fo-day at 11 am. His Excellency will receive Taotai Liang Lan hsiu, the Chinese Consul General of Australia, and also Mr. Harris, Commissioner of I. M. Customs.
It is stated that the Chinese Garment is in hopes of making a start with the re-organiza- tion of the navy. It has been arranged that the Board of Finance will be requested to raise ten million taels for the building of dockyards and purchasing of warships and the Provinces to defray the annual expenses.
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We in England have no longer any organisa. tion such as before 1896 provided us with in- formation from the Far East; but if it were possible for a representative of your Chamber to attend at Washington between November and April 1908-1909, 1909-1910, the Commission would, I am sure, greatly value such evidence,
Meanwhile any statement addressed to the care of Senator Teller, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., will be valued and very carefully con- sidered. Yours faithfully,
Enclosure.
MORETON FREwen:
United States Senate,
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
October 20, 1900. DEAR Mr. MORETON FREWEN,-I am obliged to you for your note. While the Monetary early as possible after the date of its sittings Commission would prefer your evidence just as
(November 10th) I follow that you would like to give it the latest returns you can procure in England as to prices, and wages in the Orient.
I quite agree the real storm centre of our enquiry will not emerge either from our cur rency or from yours, but from the deplorable collapse in the gold price of silver: In other words, our troubles .come not from our currency but from our exchanges. In the world's history of the two precious metals, we hitherto experienced two and only two great variations in their prices interse the fall in the price of silver in 1893 occasioned by the closing of the Indian Minta, the collapse last year which resulted from the failure of the rains in Hindustan. On each occasion the suffering and disaster was un- speakable, and that given the same cause we shall have a recurrence of the affects I have no doubt. For thirty years past the conviction has been borne in upon me that any collapse in silver, or in other words, in the silver exchange with all Asia must cut down the purchasing power of one half the human race, upset our exports and especially yours to Asia, and culminate in a money panic. To-day a Chinaman must giýe 12 Taels for 5 Gold Dollars; a year ago he gave '9 ; at the old rating he gave 5 Taels only for 5 Gold Dollars. We know that the wages of the Chinaman at his home, and the silver prices at which he markets his produce, are no higher than when he bought 5 Gold Dollars for 6 Bilver Taels; the consequence then of such a collapse in silver as we had last year must be to destroy. all our export trades soross the Pacific. We know that by comparison with even two years ago no ship now leaving. San Francisco, or Portland or Seattle for Asiatic Ports can get any cargo at all
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Secretary Root has sent a ciroular to all cur Consuls in Asia saking them whether since the collapse of silver in 1907 those firms which
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