Article. III.—This Ordinance shall take effect on and atter the 4th Auwust, 1899, Article IV.—The Imperial Ordinance No. 187, of. 1894 shall cease.to be binding from the, date on which this Ordinance goes into operation.
ho Imperial Qrdinance No. 137 of 1894 places, restriction on the residence of Chinese in Japan.} Regulations concerning. the operation of the above Ordinance have been issued by the Home Minister. They define the labourers mentioned in the Ordinance to be labourers who engage in agricultural work, fishing, mining, building, ' manufacturing or transportation industries, cargo coolies and such like. House cooks and servants generally are excepted from The Japanese Government has decided to send a representative to the International Commercial Exposition to be held Philadelphia. Mz. Kiuchi, the Director of, the Commercial and Industrial Bureau, is the representative selected.
Mr., Didsy having received news of the death of.his mother-in-law, has abandoned his projected.tour to China and Corea, and will leave for home by the earliest steamer.
"Tae Kobe Chronicle says:—According to our vernacular contemporaries, the Board of Directors of the Yokohama Specie Bank has decided to increase the capital of the Bank from 12 to 24 million yen. The proposal will be submitted at a general meeting of the shareholders to be held in September next.
'A Toxto dispatch to the Osakw Asahi states that at a dinner given by Admiral Yamamoto on the 20th inst., Captain Yashiro, a naval attache in the Japanese Legation at St. Petersburg, who has recently returned to Tokio, referred, the course of a speech, to the Siberian railway. It was generally believed, he said, that Russia had started the railway to provide for expansion of the Empire to the south. "The greater part of the Siberian railway was, however, very imperfect in construction, and it would hardly' be" possible to utilise it for war purposes. Eiperia suffered from severely cold weather for niore' than half the year, yet the work of construction of the line was hurriedly pushed forward throughout the winter when' the ground was froze When the warm weather came in the spring, the ground thawed, and gaps were made in the line here and there. At some places the joints of the rails were even broken. The work of repair had taken so much time, that it was hardly expected the line would be completed by the date estimated. Even if the line were completed, it would be impossible to work it satisfactorily. Travelling in a train on the railway, even for a short distance, was almost unbearable owing to the vibration, and so great was the jolting and jarring of the train that one might imagine oneself to be at sea in asterin. It would be entirely impossible, he thought, to transport any large quantity of troops by this line. Anyone who had travelled in a train on the Siberian railway would, he believed, acknowledge that the time mast certainly come when Russia would be wearied of the difficulties of the task undertaken and would abandon the scheme,—Kobe Chronicle.
Tae Eastern World, discussing the future of foreigners in Japan in its issue of the sth ult., says that while some foreigners expect that their position will be intolerable after the 4th prox., when extra-territoriality finally disappears, others believe that the change will be imperceptible. It es on to say:—"Probably the truth Ties between the extremes, as it does in most matters. Consular jurisdiction has not been an unmixed blessing, and the Japanese especially have said a good many hard things about it, but since it is on its deathbed, we shall not enter into the question as to what justice there has been for complaints on both sides. The foreign communities, however, generally are sadly ignorant of the laws and regulations to which they are subjected, and the -devil we don't know is always blacker than the devil we do know. The Codes of Law, with two exceptions, are incomplete or in process of revision or amendment—in spite of the engagement under the Treaties that they should have been in operation a year before extra-territorial jurisdiction was withdrawn—and what is law to-day may bea. dend letter before the end of the next session of the Diet. Our Ministers in Tokio, to whom we might justly look to have obtained from the Government and supplied to their nationals, instructions for their guidance under the new regime, have done nothing. The self-styled International Committee of Yokohama have, we believe, collated some desultory items of information on certitin points of special interest to themselves, but have retained whatever they have learned for private use; and although the Kanagawa Kencho has undertaken furnish information to applicants on such licensing of buriness, etc., the officials do important points as the registration and
not appear to be very well posted themselves, and, though willing tw oblige, are not always able to do so. All the preparations' for mixed residence made either officially or by societies and committees, have resulted in absolutely nothing. What was wanted, is still wanted, and will be wanted for a long time to come, is an official translation into the English lan guage—as the language by far the most widely used by foreign residents of Japan—of the Japanese Codes up to date (we here give public opinion on the subject, as ascertained by our contributor, a5, personally, we have every confidence in Dr. Lénholm's translations), and trade, local and police laws and regulations in' force, with a concise digest of the same. This should have been applied for by the Foreign Ministers and the work undertaken by the Japanese Government and supplied to foreign residents at a moderate cost. 'Mixed residence' however, whether a blessing or otherwise, within a few days will be wu fait accompli, and it behoves all foreigners to make the best of the position and to do all in their power to avoid friction in the working of the new order of things; provided, of course, their rights and privileges under the treaties are not seriously encroached upon.'"
Accorprxe to an Indian exchange there seems a chance at last of Calcutta having electric traction. Mr. Martyn Wells, resident manager of the Tramways Company, has addressed a letter to the Corporation of Calcutta on the subject of electric tramways, in which he asks that the negoti tions suspended by the Municipal Commissioners in November last be now resumed. He points out that the points in dispute having been practically settled, the company accepts a 30 years' concession from 1901, with the right to the Municipality to purchase at its expiration and at every succeeding period of seven years thereafter, on a basis of 25 years' purchase of the average profits.of the undertaking for the preceding seven years; and agrees to pay a fixed rental of Rs. 35,000 per annum for the existing lines; the rent to be paid for any farther lines to be arranged when the lines are pul hand. The only other point is the time to be allowed for the ical equipment of the present system.
possible for the company to guarantee to complete the work by a particular date: they therefore ask under these circumstances that a period of three years be allowed for the complete equipment of the lines. Provided sanction is now accorded the directors will be able to make such arrangements as will allow of the actual commencement of the work at the beginning of next cold weather.
Tue. following telegram, dated Calcutta, the 8th of July, gives the terms of the new Indian Telegram Copyright Bill "<The Foreign Press Messages Bill to be introduced next Friday in the Viceroy's Council gives protection for thirty-six hours from the time of first publication in British India, or sixty hours, exclusive of holidays, from the time of actual receipt. Protection applies to all Press telegrams from abroad, published in India, provided that they are published under the heading of Foreign Telegeams, and the day and hour of their receipt is stated. Not only the telegram itself but its substance and every individual portion of it, are protected, comment and reference to the news it contains being also deemed a breach of the law."
Is a speech at the luncheon after the Hamburg Regatta, the German Emperor said that the German people was like a thorough-bred horse, which suffers no-one to bridle him, but will maintain the foremost place." Somebody seems to have pointed out that horses without bridles don't win races, for the revised version of the speech rau: The German people is like a noble race horse. It cannot endure that another. should come even up to its saddle-girth,"
We have received the Lontow & Chine Express of the 30th of June.—The House of Lords has excluded women from the Councils under the London Government Bill.—Admiral Sir W. Hornby, R.N., died suddenly at a meeting of the Hotchkiss Ordnance Ca, in London on the 28th.—The great Charing Cross Hospital bazaar is expected to net £15,000.—A statue of the author of Tom Brown's School-days has been unveiled at Rugby.—Silver was quoted e7}3d.—Tea was quiet—The Far East Syndicate, Ld., has been registered with a capital of £5,500 in £1 shares.—The new China Mutual steamer Pingsuey had had a satisfactory trial trip.
SvacEsren by an article in the Pall Mall Magazine an Indian contemporary has an interesting contribution upon the fuel of the future for steamers and warships. It has been for some years in use in the Caspian and Black Seas, and even in the Mediterranean. This fuel is the fifth product of the distillation of the crude oil obtained in the region round Baku in unlimited quantities and is known locally as astatki. Nothing else is burned on the railways of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Southern Russia, on the Black Sea, Caspian, and river steamers, and in the innumerable industrial works springing into existence around the Sea of Azov. Besides its superiority in heating power, it has the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.