IN THE FAR EAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2691, 11 October 1905, Page 69

IN THE FAR EAST.

111. -CANTON.

SOMETHING ABOUT THIS OLD CITY AND ITS HISTORY.

A NEW ZEALANDER'S NOTES BY THE WAY.

By H. Pemble. Waikaka

(Far the Witness.)

Canton is situated on the right bank of the Canton or Pearl River. It is about six hours' steam from Hongkong, and a most interesting six hours too, when the ■weather is calm and th© sky clear. The points of interest are many, and the memories of past events that crowd upon I the traveller -as the- steamer glides into the quiet waters of the great river are, and must ever be, as varied as the islands that dot the course. There are so many islands and passages that the eyes of the traveller w-ander over the heaving waters, and finally rest on the Island -of Macao, as the island where the history of the European spoliation of China first began. Macao is only about 40 miles from Hongkong. It has a remarkable and interesting history. It is on the left-hand side of the entrance to the river. It is called Omy in Chinese, and was taken from the Chinese by the Portuguese in 1557. The town is on the east end of Hiang-show, and the peninsula that connects is about two miles long by a jnile wide. This 6and bar that joins the island and town is Trailed in to keep back "the foreigners. At the -mouth -of the narrow entrance to the inner harbour there is an old fort called Barra, or San lago. On August 19, 1840, at this narrow neck of land, ths ' British ships Hyacinth and Lame attacked a great force of Chinese, and defeated them. It was on the Island of Macao , that the opium trade first found a home ; ; but "the Portuguese desired to make too i much out of the, trade, and by the re- > strictions and impositions they steadily squeezed th© goose tibat laid the golden eggs, and so the goose shifted its home to the Island of Lintin, where the smuggling went on swimmingly with Canton. In 1883 the British imports of opium formed' half the value of British imports into Canton. It was two agents of -the East India Company — Colonel Wat- i son and Vice-president Wheeler — who first , thought of sending opium into China, and ' it is possibly more to the influence of these two men that China owed much of —The Troubles That Succeeded the Introduction of Opium — into her ports than to anything else. In 1833 the opium imported into Canton was of the' enormous value of" 11,618,167d01, while all other imnorts barely amounted to a like sum. Tfie whole of the vast' tea trade of Canton did not reach the value of the opium traffic. All other exports from Canton in that year did not reach more thaa 11,500,000d01. When this vast trade was opened up " right at the door of India, is it any wonder that a money-grubbing company, like that which Avaa ruling the trade in the East at ! the time, should not have striven to exploit it? The company had no soul, and did not cfire two brass coppers for the souls of the Chinese, so long as dividends were paid. Macao is notorious also for a something else equally evil and vile. When the 'Chinese Passenger Act of 1854 was I passed, and labour agencies were estab- ' lished under the Portuguese flag, the : labour-recruiting here grew and prospered at such a rapid rate that for some 20 years affairs on the island flourished like the bamboos. — Men and Women Grew Fat With Gold !— The great cathedral was rebuilt, beautiful; houses sprang up, and while tens of thousands of unfortunate coolies were destroyed, entrapped, stolen, and pirated away to Macao and kept prisoners in the gloomy barracoons, whose grated windows n.ay be seen to-day, prosperity smiled on the island and its people. "Four thousand coolies went down to the foul pits at the Chincha Island, and not a single soul returned! Fifty thousand coolies are said to have been exported before the horrid traffic was put a stop to, in 1875. But is this contract traffic yet dead? The 'Tehartos' case and the 300 ' free laboui*ers ' sent to Brazil a few years ago, concerning whose destination and port no news may be had, would scarcely lead one to infer that such is the case." — (H. Norman.) Various means have been adopted by residents of the island to raise revenue, and when the Chinese Government put down the profitable labour traffic, gambling was taken up, and run for all it was worth. It is a well-known fact that the Chinese are inveterate gamblers, and to this end was the Wei-sing lottery exploited. Fan-tan and other games were allowed. In 1885 the Chinese authorities, •who had been trying for years to put down the gambling habits of the people, had to re-establish the laws regulating gambling on the mainland in self-defence. It is said that the gambling dens contribute 150,000d0l annually towards the revenue. Chinese own and run most of these dens. There is but little trade of a revenue-producing nature, and it is only by such shifts that the prosperity of the island is maintained.. The island ha 6, as can readily- be imagined, a very bad record, and its future is certainly none too bright. Portugal would do well either ; to get rid of her possession altogether or completely reform the system der which • it is at present governed. I have written thus -about Macao, as it was by means of this open door at the entrance to one of China's great ports that Europeans of Tecent years gained a foothold in the indent 'Empire of China, '

The Canton, or Pearl, River is divided into numerous channels, and there are many islands to be seen as we ascend towards the city. The Bola Tigris channel is generally used by the larger class of vessels. On the south side of Tiger Island .is the Tiger's Claw. Ths island I itself is rather remarkable, and is called by the Chinese Ty-po. The crown of the island appears to be cleft into two separate parts. The western channel is the more remarkable for its life and scenery, and during the opium troubles, about 65 years ago, it is generally considered to have been the back-door paesag.e to the city. — The Islands in the Mouth of the River — have each had their day, and the waving bamboo and the palm will ever lend a charm to most of them, -even if the life of to-day should pass away. Wanipoo Island is the large island that is set in the river near the City of Canton. The city — Whang Chau in Chinese — is said to have be-en formed as the result of a mission sent to the Emperor of China by the Roman Emperor Marcus Antonius, in the year 160 a.d. Arrian, who wrote of the Sinse in the year 140, tells of the silk and wonderful works of art that came to Rome by way of the caravans across Asia Minor, and along the shores of the Me- , diterranean. The Roman mission went to the court of Wan-ti in the dynasty of Han, as mentioned in Chinese history, and is stated to have been well received. The ; Arabs visited the city in the eighth c-en- ; tury for thei purposes of trade, and are ' said to have founded small settlements on some of the islands'. In going up the Canton River, on one side you may see the leper boats, and on the other the boats of the iair and frail blossoms of Canton — sorrow and sadness on the one hand, sleep and animal life on the other. In the evening, when the bright and varicoloured matting .blinds are up, when the different coloured lights are flashing in 1 their thousand hues across the muddy ! waters, when the sound of music and re- , velries fills the air, when here, as in other lands, night is turned into day — -then you may dimly realise that you are in the East, and that the scene- before you is ever changing. A gifted lady .writer, L. J. Milnej says:— "Weeks, months, years, slipped by, and still we lingered on. I can never be grateful enough for having, come to the East. We are back ' in England now, and the East is only a> memory ; but I shall never forget while memory lasts." It is on the river where you really see —The Life of Canton.— The river-boats, boathouses, boatshops, the life, the bustle, the floating streets of boats i and homes, the geese and ducks and little " Chinks," the barking dogs, the reeking and sweltering mass of humanity, lend entrancing interest to t-hsi ever-varying scene, and teach one something no other land can teach the traveller. "-The Canton River is alive — alive with humanity on its surface, as it is with myriads of fish below the water line: 275,000 to 300,000 ■ human beings, are always living on this i wonderful river. Its marvel of social and industrial life is -astounding. The wharves, the shipping, and the 'boats are teeming with life. The boats are everywhere, and the women " boatmasters/' yelling and screaming, and pushing in their sampans, anxious to earn a few cash, force one to realise something of the soul and lifedestroying competition that is one of the outstanding characteristics of the East. Sha-inien is the name of the European concession, and surely there, unmistakably, we realise — The Wonderful Changes Wrought by the Barbarians — since the days of Sir H. Pottinger. Vast improvements have Been effected, fine buildings have been erected, and the desolate scene that the allied troops left behind them is now covered with the peaceful homes of the "barbarian traders" of the nations that caused the trouble. On landing at the Orient Company's wharves, or, indeed, at any of the great landings" rickshaw-men — and even rickshaw-girls will, for a few cash (one penny equals about 40 cash), trot round, conveying the visitors to the eights of the city by the hour. The rickshaw-men always seem to think that the white man's first desire is to ccc all the concentrated vice and villainy that Canton has to show, and he therefore religiously trots round to the dens of vice and misery. The opium dens the rickshaw boys take a delight in showing to the visitor, as if to impress on the mind the degrading effect it is having on the poor creatures who once come under its baneful influence ; the execution ground, the Chinese " blandy" shops, the fan-tan dens, the Chinese prisons, and by-and-bye, if you give him a few extra cash, he will take you to see the fivestoreyed pagoda andi the wonderful temple, But you must go through the old walled city at night time to see and realise something of the squalor and misery, the filth and dirt and vice and poverty that the darkness brings forth. It is a different kind of filth and squalor and misery to that which you meet with in the dirty, narrow streets, some of which are only sft or 6ft wide, in the day time. It is bold and brazen-faced vice that you ee-e in the day time, dirty and degraded ; but at night it i& the same shameless human viciousness that we meet (in the fairest of Euroaean cities. Beiiaarfc

meet you at almost every turn, -and the constant cry is " Chin, chin," " Mem-pou, mem-x^ou" I—money,1 — money, money, bread, bread! — until one is sick of the cry and the beggars that infest almost ev.vry part of the city.

(To be continued.)