Tae Commissioner, begins his section of his report headed " Postal Arrangements" with some remarks on the boon conferred on the port by the opening of the Siberian railway, tion by letter with England in three which gave Weihaiwei communica-pays a high compliment to Mr. Ching, the Chief Clerk and Financial Assistant, The Commissioner's con: cluding paragraphs may be quoted in ull—To sum up, there has been satisfactory progress during the year 1903. The Zdministrative staff, small though it be, has itself capable of efficiently dealing with the affairs of the territory. Regular mail communication with Shanghai has been established. Roads have eon inn The natives have proved themselves orderly and well behaved, the amount of crime in proportion to the population having been very small. The Fevenue, which was double that collected ast year, and three times as large as that collected in 1901, is now sufficient to cover the cost of the administrative staff. The {place there since its occupation b; the British Government." The mul titanousness of the Secretary's duties is shown in the following paragraphs headed " Miscellaneous"
It is not possible in a report of this nature to describe in detail the various miscellaneous work which passes through the office. The Secretary to Government acts in various capacities such as Magistrate, Collector of Revenue, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, in ad-{dition to attending to correspondence on every variety of subject dealing with the internal government of the territory.
is at times called upon to draft "Ordinances, and during the past year two such Ordinances have been drafted, viz, a Pawnbrokers' Ordinance and a weeks instead of five, at the penn: grant-in-aid from Imperial funds has in three years been reduced from £12,000 rate of postage. One thing was still to £6,000. Trade, though still in its needed; that the mail steamers be-infancy, has me: there is every tween Shanghai and Port Arthur sign that the possibilities of this depen-should call ab Weihaiwei, A visit dency as a contre of trade sre being from the Postmaster-General of Hong-gradually recognised, and that capital Kong has resulted in the opening of Gill be attracted to its shores. Its popu-a British Post Office at Port Edward, larity as a health resort is incrossing as the excellence of its climate becomes and the closing there of the Chinese more generally known.
Imperial Post Office. Mr. Lockhart Weihaiwei has, and will no doubt then gives an account of the contract continue to have, many difficulties against entered into for ing the mails which to contend, but there seems to be between Shanghai and Weihaiwei no reason why, by the exercise of patience and perseverance, and by the aid of that A mail contract was entered into last spirit of enterprise, which is alive in year with the China Navigation Com-the British race, those difficulties should pany, under which that company, for not be overcome. The dependency may 'a monthly subsidy of $1,000, undertakes not progress by leaps and bounds, but it to run every seven days at least one does not appear too sanguine to hope that steamer from Shanghai for, Weihaiwei it will ultimately prove itself jon and from Weihaiwei to Shanghai—the worthy of the Empire to which it belongs. steamer from Shanghai to leave within To which we may well add that 48 hours after the arrival of the English and French mails. The contract has the dependency has been exception worked satisfactorily, most of the mails ally fortunate in securing the services reaching here from London in from 34 of such an able and experienced to 38 days, and is certainly a great imofficial as Mr. Stewart Lockhart, who the former contract.
that contract, which cost only has taken up the task as a labour of less than the present one, love, and consistently carried on his ised to carry work with equal energy and geniality.
ween Wei There were originally, we find, anyone wishing to travel to that thirteen appendices to this report, port hud as a rule to approach it by way but Mr. Lyttelton, the Secretary for bf Chefoo. Under present arrangements the Colonies, has ssu) seven of Weihaiwei can be reached directly from them. These include the Reports of Shanghai at least once a: woek, which is 'a great convenience and tends to aid the Mr. Taylor and Sergeant Griffin; the development of the dependency.
List of Men-of-War that visited Wei-Then follow short notes on the haiwei during 1903; the Return of visit of Mr. Oliver of the Customs, Criminal Cases; the Report on Light-who was deputed to enquire into the houses: the Postal Report; the Mine smuggling from Weihaiwei into Chi-Manager's Report and Directors' Re-nese territory which, iti exists at all, port; and the List of Volunteers. must be on a very trifling scale; on The first appendix printed is the Mr. Lockhart's visit with Captain report of the Secretary to Govern-Barnes of the Chinese Regiment, to ment, Mr. R. Walter. He writes Governor Chou Fu at Chinan and of the staff and the samirable Governor Triippel at Tsingtao, with detective work done by Inspector graceful recognition of the kindness Purdon; notes the principal criminal and cordiality shown by both these and civil cases disposed of, and the officials and their subordinates; on the grant of the North China medal condition of the gol, which is highly satisfactory: makes a number of into the Weihaiwei Volunteers; en the teresting remarks on the revenue and improvement of the ferry service, and how it is collected, a noticeable thing the great convenience that has re-being the readiness with which the sulted from the laying of a telegraph taxes are paid and the utter absence cable between the island and the main-of any attempts to evade payment, land; and on the improvement in the He is much concerned at the limited manner in which the accounts of the patronage his office for the registra~ dependency are kept, a consequence of tion of births and deaths and marri-a visit from Mr. Nicolle, the Local receives: "No marriages have Auditor of Hongkong. Mr. Lockhart as yet been registered in Weihai~
Weights and Measures Ordinance. As regards magisterial work, there still remains the difficulty, hinted at in previous reports, of getting the people to evidence against one nother in criminal cases, while in civil suits the magistrate is not infrequently baffled by the complexity and multiplicity of the evidence produced. As no fees of court are charged, the people come to court on every possible occasion, and bring inw suits about the most minute subjects. As far as possible, the local custom forms the basis of judgment, but it requires considerable experience and knowledge to be an fait with Chinese custom and its manifold ramifications.
Owing to the arrival in the police service of Inspector Purdon, the burden of discovering and arresting criminals itted from the shoulders of ate, and the principle of same man as prosecutor and magistrate—a principle wrong in theory ud unsatisfactory in practice—has passed away.
The Financial Returns, which form Appendix LI, show how carefally aod economically the dependency is administered. hen comes the Medical Report on Port Edward, by Major J. G. Black, B. A. M. C.
isa very satisfactory return, There was no plague, cholera, small pox, or enteric fever recorded in 1903. The diseases treated among the Chinese were all mild, and it is noted that \"a number of Chinese women took advantage of the Western methods of treatment." There were five cases of opium poisoning with three deaths, the fatal res#lt being princially due to the period of time allowed to elapse before any notice was taken, Under "Vaccination," Major Black remarks: "This is not compulsory in the dependency and, so far, the native has not taken to it as performed by Buropeans, The question of compulsory vaccination was discussed, but it was considered to be rather premature, and likely to be misunderstood, and an attempt was made to induce the native to present himself voluntarily, This, unfortunately, has not been successfal. It seems that there is a popular idea that vaccination performed in the autumn and winter is "no good,' but it is hoped that next spring may produce some candi~ ates."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.