but the Committee have now succeeded Jr has often been remarked that if equitably apportioning the tax of proper statistics of imports and ex-providing stamps between buyers and ports were collected in Hongkong, the sellers. 'The Committee confess in the' China Customs Retwms would be next paragraph that they were too' perfected, but as long as that is old-fashioned in the view they first not done, these returns must be in-took of the Canadian Pacific Mail' complete. We therefore hailed with service, that it would be of no value to' satisfaction the news that the Hong-the colony. They subsequently agreed "kong Government were bringing in a to join in recommending the Imperial: pill with the object of establishing the Government to support the service, pro-' desired system, and when we heard that Viding that no portion of the expense there was some opposition to the bill, {was thrown on Hongkong, a condition headed by the Hon. P. Ryrie, we could Which, it will be remembered, caused ' not believe that the opposition was of much amusement when the Postwaster-! any moment, We need not recapitulate General referred to it in the House of; the arguments with which the advan-Commons. Apparently the Chamber's tage of such a system has been sup-indisposition to take action in reference ported, for it hardly seems possible that 0 the working of the uew opium any person of ordinary intelligence. Tegulations is a studiously calculated could dispute them. It is very disap-one, for they refitted to intervene in pointing then to find that, as we stated Chamber some time since to endeavour getting the rates charged by the Cus-to prevent the American mail days eoin- toms for storage at Fouchow and Amoy ciding with the European mail days; reduced, the ground stated by the Chair-hut the Committee declined to interfere, man being that it "is a matter which on the ground that "it appeared to particularly concerns the merchants in them that the real cause of grievance opin;'—rather an important part of arose from the absence of the necessary Hongkong's commerce; and as such fwilities on the part of the Post Office surely a proper question for the General tu meet the exigencies of the public, Chamber of Commerce to entertain. The service." Mr, Lister, on the other haud Committee are urnable to sive any faras we noticed the other day, declares ther information about the Telegraph he cannot provide the necessary Convention, as to which they backed Decause the Government will the Shanghai Chamber in opposition to not give him a sufficient establishment. it. It is mentioned that the Hongkong The Committee of the Chamber dis-vited the attention of the! couraged the offer of the Japanese British Minister at Peking to the sub-Government to coin silver yen for the ject; but, as might be expected, no colony, not from. any international feel-answer seems to have been vouchsafed ing, but because they are not current from Pr 3 and no doubt Sir John yesterday, at the recent meeting of the General Chamber of Commerce in Hongkong, which was farther attended by two merchants, not members of the Chamber, a resolution was passed, stating "that this Chamber is opposed' to the Bill, especially in its present form." The Hon, P. Ryrie, who as Chairman of the Chamber had previously moved the adoption of the Chamber's annual report, in which the Bill was approved, was the mover of this resolution condemning the bill, and Mr. Chater was the seconder, and as far as we can make out from the report of the meeting in the Daily Press, the argument that really moved the majority was Mr. Ho Amei's; "For more than forty years this little island of Hongkong, a'mere rock, has gone on in Kuangtung. The antiquated notions of the local government: are freely cri-_ticised in the paragraph on the duration of the voy we between Hongkong and la. The voyage is now regular accomplished in ten days; but althous! the unofficial members of the Lo; i classifying it as a thirty day voyay involving to the shipowner all the ex: pense and annoyance that the emi tion laws in this case require. This is sufficiently annoying; but as next appears in reference to the proposed system of collecting the statistics of trade, antiquated notions are not. the sole property of the government; for, though the Committee of the Chamber recommended the proposed bill, at a special meeting of the Chamber, which followed the annual meeting, a resolution was proposed by Mr. Ryrie and seconded by Mr. Chater opposing the Bill. We must treat this subject note at length hereafter, The next subject was Quarantine, with which no pro-press has been made, but it will no doubt be farther considered, as Hongkong shipowners have had a good deal of experience of its annoyances, during the last few months. From the next paragraph of the Report, it appears that since July 1886, the Banks in Hong-Kong have succeeded in making their Walsham would refer Hongkong to Mr. you Brandt's pleasant aus rer to the) {Shanghai Chamber. Those who hoped that the Home Government might see its way to the coinage of a British Trade dollar for the Far East, are deftuitely disappointed; for the Singapore Chamber, which has taken the lead in the matter, has Slow definitely shelved it. The Americans, the French, and the Japanese, have all introduced their own dollars; only the British Government, which has much larger interests in the East, and an rely larger trade, jcanuot undertake the task. 'The other treated in the Report, and ly in the Chairman's speech, are of merely local interest. 'The question {of a light on the Gap Rock is still engaging the active attention of the Government.' ancially the Chamber lis in a flourishing condition, beginning the New Year with a credit balance of $574.65, exclusive of $5,000 on deposit at 5 per cent. interest with the local bank. There was no comment on the Report at the meeting, except the Chairman's, and the remarks of Mr. Belilios, to which we have already referred, on the Opium Ordinance; and the meeting passed off as unanimously as most meetings do in Hongkong and Shanghai. growing to its present prosperity without any statistics of imports and exports whatever. Ido not see why the existing state of things should be disturbed." Mr. Ryrie didn't put this view of the matter in quite the same terms, but the idea was the same. He said Jas little tramnelled as possible. We colony owes its prosperity to trade being
are now going to impose more trammels upon it. I entirely disagree with the argument that it will improve trade or do it any good whatever." Mr. Ryrie has been' many years in Hongkong, and has attained a high position in that colony; he is a member of the Legislative Council, Chairman of the Chamber of Commetce, Director of a large number of public companies and Auditor of some of the remainder; and we presume he must. be taken as a representative of the merchants of Hongkong; and practically the only arguments he can find against a measure which it is a reproach to Hongkong not to have ed it long since, are that it will " trammel " the trade and cause infinite trouble and expense. We can hardly believe that he was speaking seriously when he explained that the trouble would be caused "to importers of various goods of complicated nature, of such a nature that they arrive in very stall packages, and sometimes with perhaps three or four different tions of goods in one case." Apparent!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.