HONG KONG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6658, 25 September 1889, Page 1

HONG KONG.

(Pall HaU Gazette.) The first sight of Hong Kong, the farthest outpost of the British Empire and the fourth port in the world is disappointing. As you approach it from the North you enter a narrow and unimposing pass ; j then yon discover a couple of sugarrefineries covering the hills with smoke ; and when the city of Victoria lies before \ you it is only Sb John's or Vladivoßtock on a Inr -cr scale. It is piled up on the steep sides of the island wichout apparent purpose or cohesion ; few fine buildings > detach themselves from the mass ; there is no boulevard along the water-front; and the greater part of the houses and offices in the immediate foreground, though many of them are in reality large and costly structures, look helter-skelter from a little distance. In one's disappointment one ; remembers Mr Howells* caustic characterisation of the water-front of New York— that after London and Liverpool it lookß aa though the Americans were encamped ! there. The face of Hong Kong is not its fortune, and anybody merely steaming by would never guesß the marvel it grows on closer acquaintance. For a few weeks' investigation transfigures this precipitous , island into one of the most astonishing spots on the earth's surface. By an inevitable alchemy, the philosopher's stone of a few correlated facts transforms one's disappointment into stupefaction. Shanghai was a surprise, but Hong Kong is a revelation. HONG KONG "jOST HUMS." When you land, the inevitable 'ricksha i carries you through a couple of streets, far from being beautiful or wall-managed, but i you forget this in the rush of life about , you. Messengers joatle you, 'rickshas run . over your toes, cbair-poleß dig you in the ' ribs. The hotel clerk smiles politely as he t informs you that there hqs not been a ■ vacant room for a month. Later on your , fellow-passengers envy you the little i rabbit-hole of a bedroom you have secured -, at the top of the Club. When you come , down again into the hall you find it crowded i with brokers of many nationalities, making • notes, laughing, whispering, drinking, but all just as busy as they can be. And on the , walla and upon the tables are a dozen printed " Expresses," timed with the , minute at which they -were issued, and the i mail and shipping noon and afternoon , "extras" ofthedailypapera,announcingthe , arrivals and departures, the distribution of , cargoes, the sales by auction, and all the i multitudinous movements of a great commercial machine running at high pressure. For to apply to the Far East the expressive nomenclature of the Far West, Hong Kong "just hums" all the time. Then j \ the chair a friend has Eent to take you to ' dinner arrives, with its four coolies uniformed in blue and white calico, and by another twist of the kaleidoscope you find ; yourself, three minutes after leaving the Club, mounting an asphalt roadway at an i \ angle of not far short of forty-five degrees, . hemmed in above and on either hand by \ great green palms and enormous drooping : ferns with fronds yards long, among which , big butterflies are playing round long scarlet flowers. For as soon as you begin to ascend, the streets of Hong Kong might be alleys in the tropical conservatories at Kew. A TOWN IK XHSKE 6TOKKYS. Hong Kong is built in three layers. The ground floor, so to speak, or sea level, is the commercial part of the Colony. The " Fraya " along the water edge is given up to shipping, and is altogether unworthy of , the place. It is about to be changed, i however, by a magnificent nnAHjkjpng ,of which more by-and- by. The next straet, parallel to it, Queen's road, is the Broad- , way of Hong Kong, and all the business , centres upon it. In the middle are the • dub, Post Office, Courts, and hotels; , then come all the basks and offices and shops; past these to the East are the , different barracks, and as one gets gradu- , ally farther from the centre, the parade, f ground, cricket ground, polo ground, and rsceooarse,and the wonderfully picturesque i sod pretty cemetery— the ** Happy Valley-" . In the other direction you pass all the . Chinese ihops lor foreigners and theiLget . into Chinatown* a quarter-of very narrow . streets, extremely dirty, inconceivably l crowded, and probably abotrtaa insanitary l aaanyplace-on the globe under crrilised , role. Thj" is all on the Island of Bcsng ► Kong, while across the harbour, in the i British territory of Sowldon, a new ciiyAj > springing vp — a splendid frontage of r wharves sad warehouses j & collection, of v docks, one of which will take any Bhip l afloat excenttha now 10,000-fan Teutonic, f of the White Star line; half a dozen.. „. BtnmiMrh<mseß»&3i±tlep*la<««ai<>ngtbem;* . tbe pleasure gardens and kitchen gardens , of the community; and ptivate^reeidences • riflingTapidly. j r -GovmßitsmrrHCHTHa. wANiKPyi ball-boom. L The second storey of Hong Kong, lies ten i minutes' climb up the steep side of the l Wand; Here nearly everybody lives, and v .lives, too, ina-iuxury and ease that are not 1 auspeeted at home. Here is Government l : .Souse, ft-fineofficial restdance-in beautiful h grounds, fcy?ftw»g only a> MUnxoooo* /wfcieh £ ££ompelß Bir. Wt^f*"" *E n< * TtfHfe. ■**"*

I upside down, to build a supper-room in 1 1 the garden, and even to convert his Exceli lency*B sanctum into a bar whenevei * j Hong Kong society is invited to dance i at Government House, which ia very often ; the case in winter. If His Excellency ' had not inaugurated so many schemes fox > ■ enlargement and improvement in the , '■ Colony itself, involving, for the moment, | all the superintendence and labour and ' | expense that can be spared, he would pro- | bably have felt justified in calling upon ' Hong Kong to build itself a ball-room in Trtrich it would be fittingly entertained i On this storey of Hong Kong, too, is Head- ' quarter House, where General Cameron and his family have just been succeeded by General Edwards. And on this level . are- the wonderful streets I have already described, although one might as properly call Windsor a house as to describe these -palm- shaded walks and groves as streets. "THB JPJSAk" OP HONG KONG. Finally, there is the third layer, the top < storey of Hong Kong, known collectively as "The Peak." The Peak itself is one of the highest of the hundred hills of the island, rising" precipitously behind the city ; to the signal station, 1823 ft above the sea, where a gun and a flagstaff announce the I arrival of mails and ocean steamers. Bat * "The Peak," as a residential district ! means all the hill-tops where cool breezes from the sea blow in summer, where one can sleep under a blanket at night, and j where, in a word, one can spend a summer 1 in Hong Kong with a reasonable probability of being alive at the end of it. Here everybody who can afford it has a second house, and so many are those fortunate people that the "top side" of the island is dotted all over with. ; costly houses and bungalows ; there is one j hotel and another building, and a steam tramway runs up and down every fifteen minutes. The fare up is thirty cents— -a shilling— and down half as much. This is startling enough, but a better notion of the expense of life here is conveyed by the fact that to have a second house at "The Peak" for the summer you must rent it I forthe whole year, a3 it is uninhabitable lin winter, at- a rental of 150 to 200 dollars j a month— about & sovereign a day all the j year round for four or five months' resi- ! dence. Besides this, there is the tramway fare, the cost of coolies to carry your chair up and down, and the expense of bringing every item of domestic supplies, from-coals to cabbage, a forty-five minutes* climb up-hilL _________________