First Village Over the Chinese Border from the Hongkong New Territories SHUM chun is the frst village over the Chinese border from the New Territories and can be reached by train within the hour from Hongkong. 1:
said to have arisen in response to the demand for such facilities as a result of the Hongkong Government's decision to close its licensed houses, but this is not quite true, for the chief feature of Shum Chun at present is certainly not the licensed houses or flower boats, though these Tatier are present, but the generous provision that is made for gambling. The scheme yet in the embryo stage for the business is all carried on in matsheds which suggest a fair that might be here to-day and gone to-morrow. Yet there is evident of expansion and @ suggestion of permanence for a new and substantial block of buildin is rising to which all the present activi-tes will be transferred in the near future.
When the whole scheme is complet~ it will prove a serious competitor fare shouted out, It is obvious that, if nota menace to Macao whose the ways of betting on the result are premier position in this connection very numerous. If one successfully In the Far East has rer predicts that four threes will tur up, Tenged for so roarly decades. then he is rewarded with a thousand Tt will do this for the transport dollars for his one: or, of course, for facilities from Hongkong to Shum Chun are $0 easy, so rapid and so heap: #0 much so' that those operat Ing the gambling tables find no diftculty in offering patrons second class fare as an inducement to come and speculate and especially to go after they have lost all they have.
As the gamblers object is to gamble and not to admire beautiful scenery or take a sea trip that involves several hours, st would seem that the death knell of Macao has been sounded, Jany four same numbers successfully predicted. Then there is a reward of Seven to one if the stake is successfully laid on a total number below fourteen and s0 on. At this table the rewards can be very high for the successful gambler: but as the tables. have to contribute 1,000 dollars per day to the authorities as well as yield a large profit to the proprietors, the failures are naturally by far the more numerous.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.