Qd,, 12h 8359 Sed, 197 9288 4th, 9548 Sth, 140 MO 38 bh, 149 M6 28 19 ith 14 287 th, 157 107, EBB
'The rules as to the voting were that one place should have a majority of all the votes cast, and as at the eighth ballot Chicago secured 157 out vf 307, she had three more than the necessary' number. The selection has still to be approved by the Senate, but that body is not expected to disagree with the verdict of the House. At present the sole question appears to be, whether Chicago can get everything ready to enable her to hold the Exhibition in 1892. If she cannot, she will lose face" with her rivals, and the Exhibition will have to be postponed until 1893. 'Those, however, who remember how she sprang up wfter the great fire, place full confidence in the power of the Lake city to accomplish what she has undertaken, 'The Hongkong Telegraph says:-—Mr. Ma of the China Merchants' S.N. Company, Kiewtehong, the popular managing director has been in Canton for several days past making arrangements in connection with the new line between that port and Hongkong. We-understand that Mr. Ma's mission has been attended with great success, He will probably return to Shanghai about the end of the present week.—It appears from the Telegraph's correspondence that Captain Knights has successfully negotiated for a wharf at Canton.
The Hongkong Telegraph learns that Messrs, Butterfield and Swire have put a steamer on the Tientsin-Foochow run, in opposition to their late allies, the China Merchants and Jardine, Matheson & Ca. The Foochow people, it is said, carefully boycotted the newcomers, John Gray, cashier of the New Ori before Mr. Wodehouse on Monday fas Bank, Hongkong, was brought up Mr, Watton, for the prosecution, said he had not fully examined the bouks, and had to wait for further instructions fom London, and he asked for a week's adjournment, which was granted.
The Daily Press of the 22nd says:—! Messrs. Darley, Batter and Ca., the agents at Colombo for the British India line, received the following telegram on the 4th instant regarding the loss of the Quetta "Quetta is @ total loss, struck alleged unknown rock 9 p.m. on 28h February near Somerset, Torres Straits, sank three minutes afterwards, Merrie. England arrived Thursday Islend, second (March), from wreck, reports 282 souls all told including about sixty Javanese, 136 saved, Albatross still searching islands. Quetta's side completely torn out." From Captain Green, of the Guthrie, we learn that he heard at Thursday Island of the disaster and that 150 lives had been lost. A number of Javanese who were on beard, en route for Java, seized the boats and turned out of them the ladies and children who had been placed there. Captain Saunders was saved, but it is not yet known how many of the officers and crew escaped.
The Daily Press says that Mr. Cooke, of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company, left Hongkong on the 16th by the steamer Marie for the scene of the wreck of the Soochow, to ascertain whether there is any possibility of getting the steamer off,—The Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Company, Limited, are applying for legislation to vary the terms of their memorandum of association so as to enable them to carry on business elsewhere than in Hongkong and to invest the funds otherwise than as at present provided for by the articles of association,—The Rangoon Gazette says the commander of the steamer Quetta, which was wrecked in Torres Straits, was Captain Saunders, who was till some three -|mouths ayo in command of th steamer Purnea in the cvasting trade between Cal-cutty, Rangoon, and Singapore. He was called home to take command of the Quetta and this unfortunate voyage was his first with the vessel.—The intention of laying the first stone of the Praya Reclamation Works with Masonic rites has had to be abandoned. The Acting Governor, we considered that as a Roman Catholic he could not countenance a Masonic cere many, and as the absence of Her Majesty's representative from the ceremony would have been regrettable, the Masonic part of the programme has been struck out.—The Bangkok branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which has become such a flourishing and paying concern under its present management, i, says the Bangkok "imes, soon to lose its pioneer J. R. M. Smith, who is about to well earned holiday. He will be superseded by Mr. W. Adams Oram, who has arrived from Singapore. Mr. Smith has made himself so very popular in Bangkok that it is not at all surprising to hear a general expression of regret at his departure.
The acting governor of Hongkong, Mr. Francis Fleming, has, to the infinite regret of the Hongkong Telegraph, blasted his official career in that colony by a glaring want of tact and discretion for which there is no excuse." Being a Roman Catholic he has felt it inconsistent with his religious professions to allow the foundation stone of the Praya Reclamation to be laid by the Duke of Connaught with Masonic ceremonial, which would have been specially propriate because the Duke is an enthu-tic Mason of high rank, and Mr. Chater, founder of the Praya scheme, is Di trict Grand Master of English Freemason: Fy in Hongkong. To us Mr. Fleming's objection appears simply ludicrous; he would have taken part in the proposed function not as a Roman Catholic, but as acting governor of the colony, and he is obviously unfit for the post if he is going to put his private religious opinions before his public duties, Still we trust our contemporary is painting it a little darker necessary when he says 'For the first time in the colony's history the toast of "Confusion to the Acting Governor,' has ived with acclamation by a large cluding many of the most influential members of the community, and there is not the least doubt that the bitter feeling against his Excellency is widespread and all but universal."
The dangerous nature of Chinese evidence was illustrated in a case at Hong-cong on the 18th, when Mr. Daniel de Jesus was put on trial on the charge of killing a Chinaman by pushing him down stairs. The companion of the deceased, when cross-examined, admitted that he did not come forward to give evidence till two months after the assault was committed, and not until after he had had a conversa tion with the deceased's son. He did not see the prisoner push the deceased downstairs, but he saw the decessed fall. The Attorney-General then withdrew from the prosecution, and the jury found the accused not guilty.
The fifth ordinary general meeting of the Straits Fire Insurance Ca., Ld., was held at Singapore on the 7th. he Chair man, Mr. Th, Sobst, was able to speak The sects were $552,000 against $500,000 very favourably of the Company's position. at the end of 1888; the dividend proposed, 7 per cent., was a fair one, and in the three years $100,000 had been returned to shareholders and placed to reserve, and they were carrying forward nearly $101,000, a great portion of which he hoped would remain at the shareholders' di A telegram in the Courrier d'Haiphong dated Nam-dinh, 8th March, gives an account of a sanguinary conflict between French troops and rebels, The village of Gias-phong, where a redoubtable chief named Do-vau, who had for a long time past wasted and terrorised the district, was supposed to be, was surrounded by the military, and siege was laid to a house, where the rebel band had taken up their quarters. Not a sound betrayed the sence of the band in the house until all at once a lively discharge of firearms killed or wounded three of the military. A severe confit lasting three hours andi a half then ensued. At last the house was set on fire, but the combat still continued, the rebels making a stubborn defence and trying to break "through the surrounding" party, When at last it was possible to enter the house the surviving pirates were killed, but Do-vau himself was found dead already, his body lying on the floor with the face burned. The entire band, composed of about thirty individuals, was destroyed, Of the French force three were killed and three wounded.
Asad death occurred on the Norddeutsoher Lloyd's steamer Braunschweig in Colombo on the 27th February, arising out of an escape of foul gas from the fore hatch. The whole affair is as inexplicable fas are the majority of these cases, The ship was on her way from China to England, At Shanghai she took in a quantity of hides and feathers, and these were placed in the fore hatch, which contained nothing else in the way of cargo. At Singapore, which port the ship touched five days previously, the fore hatch was opened, and no harm resulted; but when the hatch was opened in Colombo and a quarter-master and two stevedore's coolies went down into the hold, there was a rush of foul air which nearly overcome the quarter-master, but he had presence of mind enough to immediately make his way out of the hold again, 'The coolies, not being men of such strong physique, immediately fell down, and with difficulty' were got out; the impure air rendering it difficult for others to attempt rescue. At length, they were both got up in an unconscious condition, and after some time one of the men recovered sufficiently to be sent ashore. The other man, however, gradually sank and died.
The steamers of the Transatlantic fleet of the Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen have traversed in the year 1889 the following distance: I. On the line between Bremen and New York, 726,049 English miles. 2 Between Bremen and Baltimore, 301,345 English miles. 3, Between Bremen and South America, 551,513 English mil 4. Between Bremen and Eastern Asia, 301,600 English miles. 5. Between Bremen and Australia, 341,000 English miles. 6. Between Hongkong and Japan, 44,200 English miles. 7. Between Sydney and Samoa, 65,100 English miles. 8. Between Brindisi and Port Said, 48,360 English miles. Being a total of 2,380,087 English miles, or 110 times the circumference of the earth,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.