Hongkong, Aug. 30.
From the journalist's point of view Hongkong has been unusually dull this summer. There has been nothing in the way of exciting news to arouse the interest of residents: little controversy in the papers: very few attempts, even, to prove that our Government is not all that it might be. Every now, and again there is a querulous outcry regarding the shortage of housing accommodation, but there is a hazy notion that attempts are being uiade to solve this problem and we have apparently decided to wait patiently to see what the gods provide.
Occasionally, we are brought into touch with the outside world by an urgent appeal from some far-away field to help in the work of restoring districts ravaged by war." We may be momentarily troubled by the details given of suffering and destitution,-and, if there is any. one sufficiently energetic to collect subscriptions, some money is forwarded. But there is nothing in which the people are particularly interested. A Legislative Council meeting, which occasionally provides topic for conversation for a few days, has not been held for some months past.
Speaking generally, business not brisk: at any rate, to use the familiar phrase, "it is nothing to write home about." In Hongkong just now it is a case of "the daily round, the common task," with. on account of the prevalence of typhoons and the frequent. rainstorms, a considerable diminution of the usual relaxation to be derived from, bathing picnics or week-end golf.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.