Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 27, 1901, Page 18

’l Hong Kong==Richest Colony of the World (Copyright, 19 | Frank €. ( nter,) HON G, I pecial Cor respon f The Bee I Kong is the little Chinese giant of John Bull's colonial ereatior If Uncl 1o us well with the Philippines | vill have the greatest empire of the far « wnd will control the trade of the we nop This rocky little Island ' it oun can walk around it in a da It only eleven mile long and the ave tbout three mile wide hen hr I ¥ i wi 50 barren that weeds would not gr upon it I infested be pirate il only in habitants were a few fishermen, who lived in huts on the shore I'he Chinese laughed as they gave it I'h 18 e than ixt year Now Hong Kon I8 one of the chicf ports of the world, The Brit Ish empire has only three which surg i Eight million tons of shipping enter it harbor every year, and it wnnual trad treounts to 250,000,000 gold dollar ity thousand Chinese vessels visit It every twelve months, and it has great steamers connecting It with North America Aus tralia and Europe and all parts of the Pa CABLE TRAMWAY U THE MOUNTAINS BACK OFF HONG KONG cific and Indian oceans. You may count fifty ocean steamers at anchor at one time in its harbor, and it is perhaps the busiest port of the world, Just now there is a big North German Lloyd steamer at the docks loading for KEu- rope. One of the KFrench wail has just left for Salgon and Singapore, on its way to Marseilles, and a P, and O., carrying the English mal left today for Shanghal. Hong Kong b five lines of steamers con- necting it with Vancouver, Scattle, Port- land and San IPrancisco, and it will soon have one to San Diego. There are many ships which go regularly from here to Ma- nila, and two lines which visit Manlia on thelr way to Australia. The fare to Manila is $30 gold, to San Franclsco §200 and to Europe $300 and upward. The world knows this port as Hong Kong, and you frequently see mention of the city of Hong Kong. There is no such thing. Hong Kong is merely the name of the {sland and colony; the name of the city and port is Victoria. It was so named when the land was taken over by the English in 1843 in honor of Queen Victoria, who granted the charter. Victoria is a beautiful city and a curious one, If will imagine moun- tains, 1,800 feet high, rising upward at an argle of about forty-five from a bill-locked harbor, you will have an idea of gite. The city runs around the shore rises in terraces up the sides of the of 400 feet. Thus Beyond are scattered to-do English clear you degrees its and mountains to a distance far it solidly bullt idences of the well to the wop of the peak. Rununing up through the houses and extending to the great hotel on the peak you see two black iron tracks These belong to the Peak tramway, which carries passengers up and down every few during the day of Viet end of Vietoria is at the foot of the hills. Much of it is on land re claimed from the sea. Great stone docks wall out the water and the mountain has been cut down to fill in and form a foun- dation for magnificent buildings. The cen- tral part of the city would do credit to Lon- don or New York. There Is not a finer bank building in the world, 1 venture, than that of the Hong Kong and Shanghal bank. The Hong Kong club cost $350,000 and the Hong Kong hotel would be a blg hotel any- where. Back of these bulldings are many fine resldences, They of the trees moments Business | The business rise out along streets which are so shaded that you an climb the hills and keep out of the ray of the sun. The population of Hong Kong is about 250,000, of whom less than 5,000 ¢ white the remainder being Chinese There are 269 Europeans and Americans, not count ing the Portuguese, 2,263 Portuguese, 1,318 East Indians and 272 Eurasian There ar 74 British, 223 American 6 German 118 French, 105 Spanish and 163 w The Chinese quarter i1s down near the water, al though a great part of it surrounds the nelish business sections, and you find Chi nese merchants and factories everywhere Just beyond the postoffice is one of the most densely populated parts of the world There are 160,000 people living and dolng business there on an area smaller than a 160-acre farm There are more than a thousand to the acre, or 260 to a village lot They are Chinese, and as busy Chinese as you will find anywhere in Asia They do everything under the sun Some of them have large stores. Some have rice facto ries Some are silversmiths, others are bankers, and there are laborers of every sort, both men and women. Muscle nt Low Prices, I am surprised at the work done by women. Human meat I8 the cheapest meat in Hong Kong and human muscle the cheap st muscle. This town has been made out of the muscle of the Chinese They ar« the pack animals, the beasts of burden, th: drays of the city All the building stone and bricks, all the clay, mortar and sand for putting up the big houses on the hill are carried up in baskets by women and girls. I see long processions of this kind going all day long from the boats up the mountainsg. Every woman has a pole on her shoulders with a basket fastened to each end of it and the baskets are filled with bricks or stone She carried from fifty to a hundred pounds at a load, and her wages are 10 cents a day. It makes one feel like a king to travel about Hong Kong. You get so much for your money I am hauled about in jin rikshas for 2'. cents a trip and for 10 cents I can have a man pulling me througl the streets for an hour. 1 am frequently carried about in a chair on the bare shoul ders of two big Chin The regular charg: is about 5 cents gold for fifteen minutes, but by the law the charge is 25 cents for thre hours, and you can have a chair all day for $1. The men want more when they pull up the steep hills, and the gencrou Hong Kong residents sometimes add 2% cents for good measure. There is a regular charge for boat trips in the harbor and the coolles on the street work for 214 cents an hour, or 17 cents of our money Factories 1 Ch « is fast becoming a and its condition in this gard Is an example of what might be done in the Philippines with Chine tion Ordinary labor in China 3 to 10 cents a day and skilled labor ranges Hong Keng turing center manufa immigra costs from from 18 to 22 cents per day The wages are higher than this at Hong Kong, but till low enough to make a good bargain for manufacturing. There alr: fineries are ly three large sugar re- here They use the raw sugar from the Philippines and refine it for the markets of the far east There is a blg factory, which consumes a quantity of Philippine hemp, and there are rice fac- tories, coment works, glass factories, match and several engineering works mill, fitted out with the best of machinery, is in operation and there s large cotton mill with 000 spindles Much of the cotton u is imported from China, rope factories A paper English a ( 1 some from India and some from the United States The Chi- nese make soap and dyestuffs They have rice mills, bean curd factories, tooth pow der factories and cigar works They also considerable bhoat building, furniture making and glass blowing Hong Kong is one of the financial centers do of the far east It has half a dozen banks all of which have large capital The Hong Keng and Shanghai bank has a paid up capital of $10,000,000 and a reserve of $12,000,000 It has about $80,000,000 of d¢ posits and its stock is quoted at 314 per cent premium The bank ha recently established branches in the Philippine tslands and is doing an extensive business there Another large bank is the Char tered Bank of India, Australin and China and others are the Bank of China and Japan, the National Bank of China, th Agra bank, the Bank of Indo-China and the Tmperial Bank of China Victoria has its chamber of commerce or stock exchange where the local shares ar bought and sold. I see that many of the stocks are worth several times their face value. The tramway stock is per cent above par. The Hong Kong hotel shares of a face value of $50 sell for $118. The Hong Kong Ice comparn face value § fs worth $170, and one of the chief of the dock stocks sells at a premium of 545 per cent. The insurance stocks are all high, gseveral of them being quoted at three times their face value. There is a Luzon Sugav company on the list and half a dozen steam ship companies. The cigar stocks are all above par, and it is the same with many other stocks. The list takes a full column of the Hong Kong Press, showing that there is & great deal of business I have spent some time in learning about the government of Hong Kong. The colony 1s as well managed as any In the British empire. Life and property are safe. and 70 ILLUSTRATED BEE : mnuary 27 1901 this notwithstanding there are less thai 6,000 white people here and about 240,00 i " Chinese, including some of the 1ough elements of this part of the world The head of the colonial government | Sir Henry A. Blake, formerly governor ¢ Jamalca. He was appointed by the ques three years ago, and will remain her I ing her pleasure He receive A la 100 per annum, and has h house roet and other perquisite He is practica supreme, although there | v leg i council, governor mcil and a of other official All offices are held or it the pleasure of the queen. The | tive council can be digsolved by her he has the right to change any ap ment, The laws are made by the legislative courcil, and they are enforced by the police and the court There ar H00 lHeem of whom 156 are Kuropean 350 Indian Sikhs and 100 Chinese There L suprer court, a police court and a marine mag trate's court, all of which have plenty t Many of the Chinese who come here bad characters, and Hong Kong has as bold thieves as any part of the world In o country the eriminal classe ire carefu to keep away from the court root )i AR SIAN ' LR LU IR HONG KON CLUH-IT CORT $300,M other day two Chinese thieve ntered the pag also subsidiat colir imported o important naval station, Hong Kong chief hall of justice in Victoria while the gpgland; the me \ iful of th L being the he Juarten { the China squa court was in session. Onejof them had a cent piece, a little d of Iver I 1ron ladder, \}hh h he placed under the clock. 215 cents in gold In the harbor are wagnificent dry docl He held it there while the other climbed u Come Queer Postind Methods in which not only English, but American and took the clock off the wall. One of pong Kong s the center of the Briti<h and other men-of-war are laid up for re the policemen ,‘{. ked the en wha the postal o fe Chin The | tofl pairs. The rates for such work on foreigu were doing ’.Ihn-\' replied “Wanchee jg on Que toid In th & \tot vessels is exorbitantly high, the expense ;l\:l:-lll' fix.' ‘lh-l I"'ll*"“"“ "““-“‘ they (he « I'her re 1 box he often running into the hundreds of thou iad been ordered to take the « I W orners of t | " sapds of dollars. for repairs and did not object. Since tl et brbisie) ’h " s i AI The l““_lhl:‘:l live well in this part of 'n.-nhnr clock nor Chinese have been f riv ' oft the world Many of them wake a deal ol Fhis is the next thing to stealing a redh rented for ' | money and all sg a great deal. Vietoria stove, a thing that T doubt not the Chine box holder | f 1 tiltmseld is a town of clubs., There is a cricket club, could do if they knew the virtue of asbe two stout T ¥ ofh both les with & foot ball club, a polo club, a If ¢lub, a tos gloves his name in h and Chit Ihese hockey club, a rifle ¢ wd - yachting The courts of Hong Kong have their own bhags re for the coolic vl are ent club The Portuguese ¢ their associa codes of procedure They have regular after t} I | olie m nave his tion, the Germans have a club aud the English have clubs of every kind, Even the women have clul I'hey have their tenni courts and pavilior in which they peri odically go to carve up their neighbor Hong Kong has 1 anonual ra 1S re gattas, its athletic exhibitic md it ] wimming match It h tmateut ! dramatic club, which gives regular per g formances in the city h nd it has two large Chinese theaten It has big hotels, oue of which has 150 rooms It has gas and ¢l ric lights It has good water work It h churches, colleges and schools It has three daily newspapers publishcd in English and four dally papers published in Chinese It gets ‘ its cables daily from all parts of the world and it is on the whole as live and up-to date a colony as can be found on the Light ning Expre of Modern Progre which i . pushing its way through the dead civiliz tions of the far cast FRANK G. CARPENTER Reflections of a Bachelor Every flatters a man she loes it s hor 2 FHE GOVERNOR'S HOUS| I' HONG KONG Nosman has any respect forhis brother terms of sitting, their fees are all fixed by master's bag and also a ticket of wood or 1B-law unle he ds marreied himselt law, and they are, I am told, reasonable. metal bearing his master's name in Eng The only thing that is like tailing in love Rihances of the Colony. lish and Chinese Without this ticket he After a man is 30 is being shot in the Hong Kong 18 a free port and the y ‘,‘:::"‘” i "}‘ “1‘”. '“l% local postage Lomagh: " ernment has to raise its revenucs chiefly " It At l',“ ; > By 0k QU DIO00Y PEF I'he most useless husband in the world (o by stamps and by taxing its citizens. Ther I\,;””:" o “‘ N : “‘ s ; "’“ ”i""‘”’”' Lowoman is worth sitting up ui i are stamps upon everything. You pay §0 .. ;hl‘ o4 ) :' v Il I“‘ ‘,“"“‘ ll'; H::['::;;“ ewing buttons on [or on every contract, $2 on every deed and $2% mppis is so in the banks, the Chinese clerks Lot of mou spend @ lot of time wonder in stamps if you make your will. Every the b ; : 8 ing why it Qs women always want to know bank check has its 2-cent stamp, and the iTors 1 : : the why of everything bank must pay 1 per cent per annum on _ . OME B¢ e & v oaogarrison of - you can always get a woman mixed up in the average amount of its bank note circu British soldiers. The R 1 island has, an grgument by using some word (hat she ‘ lation. Bonds of all kinds pay 10 per cent '» .‘”'“““r'\ time thout 4,000 men, and gesn't krow the meaning of ‘ taxes, and every broker's note pays o0 more now on account of the war. There I'he experience of ery married cents. Auctloncers-are charged $300 a year °'® ”“"f companies of garrison artillery, & 00 g that he found his v m“ nl“ | d ) for their licenses, billlard tables must pay S FF ot englnect "[" » battallon of fn- 1oy g0y expected to fit 1‘[.‘( SR $60 each, and every pawnbroker must giv m“lr_’\. There is ol YOIRDLAGE- 001D, It ‘ s $360 annually to the city if he would do gonmisiing o batt of light ficld artil- B NSVAR Bata to makeup to g gINk LilLat et :fl-vv three achine companie an in- 'vi ll ‘;\ leu]ml;- alte xl hie Zu “r up her antry company engineer company and Mind that she has nothing left ive for In addition to this the government gets " N something out of mun«-p.-l:‘. 8. It m-.-.'f\ “x\'il.lm(l‘ ”‘l‘):'d “,"I‘ '] !“‘, tothe harbor-ars o '”}:'“ A gl W ROt 0 pronosaita g ey $15,000 a month from its opium farms and <o) op ol \ 1‘ e ongisiing of - Aho hogins by telling dim how tereibly un less sums from other factories, With all r R antihrgess ‘““““ Wwith the happy 1t makes her fesl to have a mun T IR e S Y L PR T latest of breechloading guns, The colony is propose to her that she can't loy Its revenues are about $3,000,000 silver ever year and | expenditures are considerably v —————— less. Its debt is less than $2,000,000, and it | AGAIN pays an interest rate of only 3'% per cent, | We talk to bout And what kind of money do they use in " (hix English colony? Pounds, shillings ani | First New Ccntury Walst pence? No. They use the silver dollar, | ol ol e s el i which is worth just as much as the value | . 't Fhe stor b _‘ DIDE 2% W) ,"‘ of the silver it contains Many of the to keep his skilled workn b ring the dollars are made in Mexico and many ¢ th h t h these in circulation have been plugged and | 1l | s sweated until they are worth less than par. | L \ ri VT Nearly every dollar that you get at the | Remember the bank has a black mark stamped upon K, with bo ,.”‘ guarantecing its circulation by h la We } man who passed it If you want clean vk 1 Mexicans, that is new dollars, the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank will charge you - 2 per cent extra for the All Kinds o Hong Kong money are at a discount in " Shanghai Even the bank not of th Hong Kong and Shanghai bank are taken a . : a discount by the Shanghai branch of thi ‘\ same bank if presented at Shanghai .S There is a great deal of speculation ir de i money. The silver dollar ranges in v lu Wi \\‘ i from 43 to 50 cents gold, and it bobs up i s and down, according to the rise and fall| . Ale of K 1 Fall Suit of silver. Some Chinese merchants deal ir o3 i PROKTORS 81 halt Qpim prices—and - Furs at silver in bulk, taking everything by weigh e it In the tael, containing one any g -*".‘I' BDF 151 0 one-third ounces avoirdup and worth ;"“ 'lll\ Douglas about 70 cen Their copper coin is the Sold only 1 ol o Street, cash, of which it takes more than a thou 0. K ofield Cloak & muha clflAK&SuITrn Omaha, sand to make one of our dollar Hong | | Suit. Co, Exclusive dealers ir eady-to-Wear Kong has a mint, where it now makes | 'vum-v'\ dollars and half dollars of its own I -