Kuling, Aug. 16.
'The Kuling Annual Landrenters' Meeting was held in the Kuling Auditorium on Friday, August 14 under the chairmans jp of Dr. J. R. Graham, who has for many successive yerrs been chosen to take the chair on this annual occasion. More than two hundred landrenters sembled, to receive and the annual report of the Council, including the accounts of the Kuling Estate, ud to enable the Council to sense the pinion upon various. questions which affect the running of the Estate affairs for another year.
The meeting this year was characterized by a" spirit of good! will and harmony that has sometimes been not quite 80 manifest.
There have been times in the past when the policy of the Council hax been a little bit under suspi or when, the management of the fatare has been rather severely called in question, Not so this year. It is evi ent th at present the management commands the full respect and con= foreigners are not able to make use In particular, there are several occasions each season, when young Chinese men and women are travelling up to Y.MLC.A. Conference, or to a Blaxton Convention, snd at' such a time the resthouse and all the traffic facilities are absorbed to such an extent that no foreign visitor to Kuling has a chance.
These things are manifestly un-Kuling was acquired by the foreigner for foreign residence. The resthouse was built at great expense with foreign money. Its up-seep, and the upkeep of the road to are paid for out of foreign yesourees. Consequently, it would seem that foreigners should in all justice have the first claim upon their accommodation. The report of the Council contained a resolution, that in future the accommodation' at the resthouse in Kiukiang shall be available for foreigners only, and that the Chinese visitors to the hill shall either provide their own resthouse or cive make use of the numerous hotels which exist in fidence of the Landrenters. There {he was no acrimony in the debate, and Kiukiang.
When questions were asked" the}, towards Chinese feelings just at But it is necessary: to be, tender Council had no difficulty in replying present, and it wae suggested by to the general satisfaction, several members of the meeting that Good Terms With Chinese anything in the nature of a blunt Yefusal would be a mistake, For The Rev, 8. H, Littell, Chairman instance, a notice at the door of of the Council, in introdi the the resthouse stating that Chinese report for the past year, made are not admitted would certainly "special reference to the happy. relations that have been maintained apace Ju eco n the case of Chinese between the Council and the local foreigners, the necessity of se Chinese officials of Lushan, Although ing in Kiukiang would be very awkresidence on the Kuling Esta: ward. Tt was even suggested by limited to foreigners, there are some that perhaps the accommoda areas which are becoming more and more the summer rt tion afforded by native hotels was not such as any decent Chinese of Chinese, On the further side of would care to avail himself of. the newly developed West Valley, in the so-called Lily Valley, Pay and Then Use the neighbourhood of Lushar or the Russian Valley, the number of The problem seemed insoluble, until'a resolution suggested by Mr. our Chinese neighbours. is eontinally increasing, and. thi fact in-Coa, "he Tea mended to sel traduces problems which were never asa happy way out of the contemplated in earlier day difficulty. The resolution was, that Mr, Littell related how, in several the use of the rest-house shall be cares, owing to the friendly action open to travellers to Kuling only of the Chinese official, Kuling has after they have paid the registra-teen preserved from unpleasant tion tax. This tax is a payment croachment. For instance, it of one dollar which is imposed by discovered during the year that a Yegulation upon every-one who umber of tradesmen were planning travels to Kuling each year. Its to build a row of shops on the far Purpose is to provide for the up-Leurdary of the estate, near the keep of the resthouses in Kiukiang Rovsian Swimming-pool between the and Lien Hwa Tung, and of the Keung and Lushan Estates The] motor-road between. Its collection foundations had already) has always been a matter of diffi-in, and it appeared that culty. Of foreign visitors, perhaps freet was about to grow about 50 per cent. condescend to up, which no doubt in dirt and in- pay it every year. It is a question sanitary conditions would have been whether any Chinese has ever been repetition of the old "Gap." The known to submit to the tax. The Undesirability. of this was pointed resolution commended itself to the cot to the Chinese magistrate meeting as a perfectly fair and just Mao, and the new project was stop-solution of the difficulty. The only red at once. doubt that obtruded itself was as Anew association between Chine to whether, after all, it will be any eve und foreigners has been form-out this new regulaed, known as the "Kung I huei tion than it been to collect the re-(Public Benefit Association) This gistration tax in former years. Association consists at present of t] The question of the new auditor four Chinese and four foreign jum occupied the landrenters for a members, with Mr. considerable time, and had to be Little a® acting chairm Tt stoned over the Iuncheon inter-already been instrumental in vemov- v and continued in the afternoon. several causes of mutual' grievance between foreigners and Chinese. For instance, the disfigure ing of rocks and trees by ugly advertisements has been put a stop to, and so a great many beauty. pet around Kuling have been saved from desecration.
On the other hand, to show that the "ecblesse oblige" was not all upon one side, a misunderstanding owing to the conduct of a certain foreigner who had a row in the Gap ws put right on being reported by the Chinese.
The Rest House Problem Tie question of the use of the Hiukiang resthouse is. another one which has come up in this connexion, and which caused some debate in the meeting. Now that Chinese ure using the road to Kuling: in treater numbers each year, the accommodation at the resthouse is frequently overstrained, end ' it' hap-irene sometimes that Chinese guests re. there' n.fvel? "numbers Chat This building, which is not yet Jcompleled, has already cost $38,000. Of this sum, part has been raised by private subscriptions, and part by the issue of debentures to the value of $15,000, all of which have Deen taken up. But the account shows that who cum of $6,100 is owing to the estate. Last year, foreseeing this deficit, the landrenters gave permission' to the Auditorium Committee to raise still further $4,000 in debentures. The proposal now was to increase the $4,000 to $5,000 and to pay off the remaining $1,300 from this year's auditorium receipts.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.