TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9126, 10 June 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It was quite in keeping Jabez Balfour's with Jabez Balfour's past Last Victim. career that, as he left England after having fleeced hundreds of people of their last sixpence, he should when he was compelled to quit Argentina as a prisoner of justice leave behind him at leaat one unfortunate victim of hia wiles. It appears from a letter written by the latter, a Mr Borthwiok, to a Buenos Ay res paper, that Bilf our for some time after bis arrival in the Argentine went by the name of Samuel Butler. Mr Borthwick first met him in the capital two years ago, when the fugitive, who posed as a rich estanoiero, or runholder, lived at his (_r Borohwick's) house. Hiß style and habits, added to his demeanour, which was that of a gentleman, induced Mr Borthwiokto accept the swindler at his own valuation, and when the latter proposed to visit the upper provinces and requested his host to accompany him, he willingly complied. The party eventually reaohed Salta, which seems to have at onoe taken Balfour's fancy as a nice, quiet, little place in which he would have a better chance of escaping the attentions of English law than at Buenos Ayrea. At this period and for some considerable time after there is reason to believe that he was receiving large remittances from friends in England, but like a prudent man and evidently thinking that these supplies might aome day come to an end he determined to engage in business "It was agreed," writes Mc Borthwick, " that he should buy, in company with mc, the brewery of Mr Xlix, a dilapidated and deserted place, and we entered into a formal public contract, and besides a private one wherein all hia obligations towards mc were minutely stipulated. All this was effected under the name of 'Samuel Butler.' Then we returned to Buenos Ayres, and he shortly left with his pretended wife and sister-in-law for Salta." Borthwick soon, after realised his property in Buenos Ayres, gave up his situation, and went north to Salt*. He had not long been there, however, before he learned, to his utter consternation, as he says, that his future business partner was no other than Jabez Spencer Balfour, the noted refugee from English justice. As might be expected, the discovery speedily caused a crisis in the firm's affairs, with heavy losses to Borthwick, who instituted both civil and criminal proceedings against hia partner. These suits considerably impeded the process of arresting Balfour for his English frauds, but in the end he was got away to England, and hia unfortunate partner, who, we should think, got very little satisfaction out of him, was left lamenting the loss of his money, and addine; one more to the long list of Balfour's victims. The little colony of Hong Australasia. Kong is to-day probably the and most cheerful of any of the the East. British dependencies, for its merchants believe it to be oh the eve of an enormotus increase of trade. This, of course, is due to the recent war, the principal result of which, at all events at present, ia expected to be the opening up of China to foreign trade and modern innovations. Hong Kong, as the port of call for ail shipping lines between the south and west and the far east, as the head-quarters of most of the Chinese coastal shipping, as the depot of supply for Southern China, and as having the control of moat of its export trade, expects, so says a recent correspondent, to be the gateway through which will be conducted the greater part of this new trade, and as such the tiny island colony is of no small importance to tbeae oolonies. Hong Kong imposes no customs duties, and therefore, no record of its imports is kept, the unfortunate result of this being, it is pointed out, that there are no mean, of estimating the increase in the demand in China of articles which conld be supplied by Australasia. The merchants, however, have fairly precise information of the extent of certain imports. Among these is flour, of which it is estimated from 80,000 to 90,000 bags are imported every week for locM supply and for transhipment to China, the Philippines and the Straits Settlements. This trade in flour is only of a few years' growth. Until recently, says

the writer, " China did not impart _ B *_ fil artiile of food from 'outside,' yet t*d American flour pours into this great cm J!! by the thousauds of tons ev«rv month, sweetened condensed milk of all" branded though chiefly American—is to be found (_ nearly every Chinese household within eaj! access of the free ports ; and American meat juices or extracts have even found their was into the Imperial Court at Pekin, and j ttm , biscuits, spirits, sweet wines, and other so! called luxurious articles of food are makio_ steady progress." This iargs* trade U-tIJ result of the energetic efforts of the Amer'* cans in puahing their goods, by whioh they have partly overcome Chinese constirvatisa and have created a demand for their ware* Australia, it is contended, can supply fl oa , equal to the best American at 25 per cent less thau the highest and couaiderablv cheaper than the lowest-priced America/ but owing to various causes there ia not* single braud of Australian known in the East. Irregularity of shipping charges ia one of the chief reasons for thia state of affair. Last year the shipping companioa agreed t_ take a certain number of tons at 12a 6i ncr ton to Hong Kong. A trade immediately sprang up, bub was abruptly cut short whoa the rate ot freight was suddenly increased 100 per cent. The Japanese shipping coin, pany which is shortly to Btart a rejuUtf. aervice with Australia is expected to remedy this state of affairs. Iv the meantime Via. toria is taking an early opportunity of extending her trade in the Ewt. 1 Government Commissioner waa reeentlv showing in Hong Kong a fine collection of articles of Vic'.orian produce of every conceivable sort, and great benefit was expected to accrue to the colony from this enterprising action.