Early in the morning of Sunday the th instant a severe thunderstorm broke over Hongkong. The lightning was vivid and incessant and rain fell in torrents. The roads in many places were very much cutup. An Indian soldier on duty in coe of the batteries was struck by lightning, but although injured had a wonderful escape from death.
The Dock Conipany and the Proposed New Dock.
For some little time past a feeling of opposition to the idea of extending their dock accommodation has been growing in the minds of many of the shareholders of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Ca., and this resulted on the 4th inst. in the dispatch of a letter signed by a large number of shareholders to the Board of Directors asking that before the Company was committed to the construction of a new dock the shareholders should be afforded an opportunity of discussing the pros and cons Rie any ticular course is decided tthe effect that it had never been To this a reply has been returned the intention of the Directors to commit the Company to extending the present dock accommodation without first submitting their proposals to the shareholders, and that up to the present they had failed to get an offer from the Government of the desired site, on such terms as would warrant their recommending its purchase. The general idea seems to be that a new dock would cost some three to four millions of dollars—more than the whole capital of the Company—and that it would not be possible to make it earn anything like sufficient to enable the Company to maintain its present dividends. Moreover, it is believed that with the new dock in the Naval Yard and'those in course of construction at Quarry Bay by Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, docking accommodation ample for the requirements of the port will be secured for many years to come, even after allowing for large increase in trade, Fires.
6th inst. in Sat Wo Lane, when one louse Fire broke out on Sunday morning, the
was totally destroyed. The premises were ensured for $5,000.
A fire occurred at Quarry Bay at the reclamation works of Messrs. Butterfield Swire, A matshed caught fire and the fames spread so rapidly that in a few minutes thirteen sheds were burnt, not one structure being left star The dam amounts to about $2,500. The cause of the fire is unknown, no doubt the usual Chinese carelessness.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.