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February 20, 1909.]
RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
This week Hongkong, to adopt Philippine newspaper phraseology, capitulates to sport. The races wil ldominate everything. Business will only be a secondary consideration and in so far as it interferes with the "Sport of Kings "it will be regarded as an intolerable nuisance. And yet it is still said that as a nation we take our pleasures sadly. When, may I ask, will tho truth leak out? When, like the parson in "The Private Secretary," shall we be discovered?
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Manila did itself proud over the Carnival. Open handed hospitality made numbers of guests from the sisterhood of ports have differ- ent ideas of Americans and if they have not returned to their homes convinced that that city is the pearl of the Orient and that Americans are the finest people in the world it is not the fault of the Carnival Committee.
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Some good stories are coming to hand from Manila. One relates the doings of a local
gentleman who lost all his steadiness and dignity in the environment of American breeziness and good followship, and vied with the city men in their greatest revelries and frivolities. He even enjoyed the giddy' pleasures of the human roulette wheel, but he must have suffered some sort of remorse when he went to the masked ball in the guise of a “holy friar.'
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It is reported too that one of the visitors on being asked if he had brought his wife with him replied "No, indeed; I am here to enjoy myself." Comment is needless.
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They tell me that the men from Hongkong didn't do at all badly at the Carnival Ball. Some good costumes were worn, and one man who refused to condescend to the frivolity of the occasion, or who perhaps begrudged the few pesos for an outfit, had to stand the gauntlet of a few withering comments such as "Hullo, old chappie. Disguised as a gentleman, eh?" His answers are not reported.
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Some military officers there are in Hongkong who occasionally forget themselves in civilian life. One of the breed, travelling to Manila, so far forgot himself at table one day as to throw a piece of bread at the well meaning boy who placed it on his plate. The incident reminds me of the discriminating Hongkong juvenile who, when walking with his father, saw an officer in mufti, and exclaimed 'Father that's not a gentleman: thats' an officer." No, I am quite sure my readers wont fail to make the application.
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Wasn't it remarkable that a bluejacket should beat the landsmen in the amateur horse riding contest at the Circus the other night? He even excelled an Australian bushranger in his equestrian exploits. Possibly the handy man's experiences in heavy seas enabled him to maintain a balance where others failed.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
I am sure I will not be the only one expressing regret should it become necessary for Lady Lugard to leave the Colony again. She has bad a struggle for life, and the joy at her conva- lescence is somewhat tempered by the knowledge that health reasons will necessitate her going from our midst again. We are sorry.
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Times enterprise is strictly American and I can scarcely imagine any Hongkong newspaper emulating their example. I shudder to think of the shock that would be given to our staid folks on getting their news served with American spice.
RODERICK RANDOM.
HONGKONG.
The new Oriental Browery Co. has started in competition with the Hongkong Ice Co., Ltd, and advertises ice at one cent Ib.
per
J. R. Wood committed the four natives for At the Magistracy on the 15th inst. Mr. trial who were charged before him with com- mitting armed robbery at Yaumati.
in the Colony shows for the week ended on The weekly return of communicable diseases the 13th inst. one case of plague (not fatal), a enteric fever. All were Chinese. fatal case of diphtheria and a fatal case of
Well might the devout pray yesterday morning lead as not into temptation. concluded the early devotional exercises at the They had just Cathedral when they were brought from spiritual heights with a rude shock to this mundane sphere by commercially minded Chinese youths meeting them on the church steps and offering race programmes for sale. The shock was too great for most people and no sales wore effected
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Broadwood by his many friends in the Colony Sympathy will be extended to Major-General when it is learned that His Excellency has lost a brother in India, who died following an opera- tion for appendicitis.
Inspector Langley proceeded against a native water policeman before Mr. J. R. Wood at the Magistracy on Feb. 17th for desertion. charge was proved, and the defendant was fined The $100
fixed for Saturday March 20th. It will take The date of the Hongkong Regatta has been place at Laichikok. Crews are in training for interport fours at the Canton Regatta which takes place on the 6th prox.
At the Magistracy yesterday before Mr. J. R. infringing the exclusive rights of the Postmaster Wood a native was proceeded against for General by bringing letters into the Colony without a permit. The charge was proved and the defendant was fined in the sum of $50.
On Feb. 17th a fire occurred on the verandah of the second floor of No. 9, Des Voeux Road Hett. A quantity of baskets on the verandah Central, above the offices of Messrs. Brutton and ignited and the fire would no doubt have been a serious one but for the timely arrival of Mr. place at the time, and when he saw the fire, lost C. E. Warren. Mr. Warren was passing the no time in quelling the outbreak.
The Earl and
、ountess of Meath and their
daughter, Lady Violet Brabazon, passed through on the German Mail Prinzess Alice on Feb. 13th. They are proceeding to Japan. The Earl is well known as the founder of the Empire Day movement, and during his brief stay in Hongkong hs lordship lost no opportunity of making known the objects of the movement in the hope that it may be more generally encouraged here,
Some months ago a Chinese employed at the DisinfectantStation in Hongkong was robbed of a talk with a previous employee, and during the box of clothes On Sunday he met and stopped to conversation this man pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket which the complainant recognised as his. He taxed the ex-employee with stealing it, together with the rest of his clothing. The defendant denied the theft and told the com- plainant he could search his house. Complain- ant went to the house, accompanied by a lukong, and found other articles belonging to him. The Kemp at the Magistracy yesterday, was found ex-employee was charged before Mr. J. H. guilty, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
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American
Mr. Willard D, Straight, formerly Consul-General at Mukden. has been appointed Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs in the Department of State, succeeding Mr. William Phillips, formerly secretary of the American Legation in Peking, who has in turn. been appointed_Third Assistant Secretary of State. Mr. Huntington Wilson, who is succeeded by Mr. Phillips and who will be re- membered as Secretary to the Legation and appointed American Minister to Servis and Embassy at Peking for nine years, has been and Roumania and diplomatic agent in Bulgaria.
death of Mr. Thomas Howard, announced a Monday's Mail brought particulars of the month ago in a special telegram to the Daily Press. Mr. Howard had been in bad health for some time, and his sight failed him entirely last year. He passed away on Sunday morning, the 10th January, at his residence, No. 7, Castle Terrace, Cowes, Isle of Wight. Mr. Howard, who was well known in this Colony in the themselves at West Point, and when, many sixties, first settled here as a partner in the firm of Howard and Moss, who established·· years later, the partnership was dissolved, he carried on the business under the style of Howard & Co. Mr. Howard was a director of the now defunct Punjom Mining Company, in which he was largely interested, retaining the existence of payable gold fields in Pahang, his holding to the last, as he had great faith in
shareholders. Mr. Howard retired finally from and would have prosecuted the search for a payable reef had he been supported by the business in 1903, the condition of his health rendering a change imperative. He leaves a widow and several children to mourn his loss.
CORRESPONDENCE.
CHINA AND MACAO.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE ** DAILY PEE88."]
HONGKONG
Excellency the Governor of Macao in reference SIR,-I am in receipt of a despatch from His
to a paragraph reproduced in your issue of the
ment of the Portuguese Colony in an unfavour- to certain allegations which place the Govern- 8th instant from a Peking contemporary relating
able light before your numerous readers.
of Chinese territory by the Portuguese and the I am to point out that the alleged occupation stated infraction of Treaty stipulations are assertions which have no foundation in truth. As to the statement that the Portuguese are insisting on the acceptance of their National Bank notes by the Chinese in the districts in the vicinity of Macao, under threat of punish- ment in the event of refusal, I am desired to bring to your notice that it is entirely false. It is self-evident that no foreign Government can compel the acceptance as legal tender, of its Bank notes by the subjects of another Govern- the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient ment within the territory of the latter.-I have
servant,
JOAO J. LEIRIA,
Consul for Portugal. Hongkong 15th February, 1909. [The paragraph to which allusion is made in- this letter purported to be a summary of & dispatch received by the Wai-wa-pu from the Viceroy of Canton.-ED.]
FIRES AT MACAO.
notes have been circulated in the Colony of late
A number of cleverly counterfeited bank The inner harbour of Macao was never so and the police have been making strenuous
well illuminated as it was on Thursday night. efforts to apprehend the counterfeiter.
A very destructive fire broke out at Wanchai Last (Lappa) and many houses and matsheds were One of the features of the pressmen's pleasant woman to a money changer at Yaumati. He fire the Monte Fort gave the alarm for another week end one of these notes was handed by a destroyed. While the crowds were watching this stay in Manila was the production of a British did not notice at the time that it was a forgery, fire. This one occurred in the Bazaar. It Times." The management turned their journal but on discovering this fact later he reporte the originated in a shop occupied by Tang Cheong ove to the visitors who gave the Manila folks matter to the police. From inquiries instituted and before the flames were got under control ten the mild sensation of reading plain unvarnished Inspector Dymond was able to trace the alleged shops were destroyed and others badly damaged. tales instead of the usual flamboyant head-counterfeiter to a brothel. When arrested the This is the second time that a fire has occurred lines and picturesquely written stories. The defendant refused to tender any information, on Tung Cheong's premises within a year. people seemed to like the novelty but once would but it was learned that he resided at 2, be quite sufficient for them. Their palate has
· och- rane Street. A search of these premises been so long tickled by highly seasoned stuff that then was made, and a number of bogus 10 bills they could not go back to the plain diet such as
found in a box. The case will come on for is offered by British newspapers. The Manila hearing before Mr. J. H. Kemp on Saturday.
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H. M. the Emperor of Japan has been pleased various decorations for their services during thứ to honour Korean officers, 152 in number, with
late war.
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