LIFE IN HONGKONG.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 9 July 1880, Page 2

LIFE IN HONGKONG.

■ ♦ Victoria, or Hongkong-, as, it is univer* sally called in ordinary converss. is, though not a moral town, a comparatively quiet one. i'hre are already, among the one hundred and forty thousand Celestials on the island, forty thousand of : British birth. A disorderly Chinaman is uncommon, and a lazy one probably does not exist. He is rarely out of employment, for he will turn his hand to anything ; hence beggars are seldom met with in the streets ; hence, also, unh>phnpily, among their other industries, that of picking pockets is included. In this pursuit they are very adroit, and in the allied art of asking half as much again for anything than they intend taking they are perhaps, equally skilled and unprincipled. ' The houses and shop* are most curiously constructed, and just as strangely fitted, up ; not one, however, small or poor, but baa its domestic altar. Us joss, and other qnaint and curious nr- : rangements known only to these peculiarly '•strange people* Look where you will there are evidences of the customary in» dustry and enterprise of the surprising sons of Shem. Up every alley and in every street we see crowds of little yellow faces, and stumble against brokers or merchants hurrying on to their business, clad in the universal blue jean jumper and trousers, cotton socks, and shoes of worked silk with thick wooden soles ; some with and others without hats ; the shaven face and pigtail so typifying the class, that to note a difference between Sun Shing or Wang H'eng.is- sometimes most embarrassing. The dress of the women differs little from that of the men. The curious, built-up style the married | ladies have of wearing their hair gives them a strange appearance ; while the youngpr lasses allow theirs to hang down their backs in tresses, or wear it bound tightly over their foreheads, and- secured "au chignon."' Their cheeks are tinted bright pink, and with their neat little feet and clean and loose clothing they make a very pretty picture. Although great numbers of other nationalities are to be seen, the Chinese are most conspicuous and interesting to the, stranger; and when once the business of the day has bogun, the din and traffic are enormous, for crowds of men of all creeds and colours— Jew, Pagan, and Christian, Bud* dist and Farsee, Chinese and Japanese and European -»< fill the streets, while gangs of coolies chant to keep step, as they press on beneath their heavy bur dens, The merchants, whose places of business lie along the Queen's Road, are so similar in appearance that a description of one will apply to all. Hie is generally a fat round* faced man, with an impor* tant and businesslike look, wearing the same style of clothing as the meanest coolie— but of finer material — and is always clean and neat ; his long tail, tipped with red or blue silk, hansinsr down to his heels.' Lest the reader may, after reading the graphic description ot Mr Spry, imagine that Hongkong is a model town, it may be as well to remark

that though the Europeans are no worse than their neighbour.", and rather more sociable tban Europeans usually are, nearly everybody in the small community knowing each other, and to some degree being • in the same boat,' are not so addicted to (hat • snobbery ' which in the East is the crevailing vice of our esteemed countrymen, tbe Chinese are even worse in some respects tban when und. r their own rulers. They are certainly not i<lle— tbe Government sees ta that— lm 1 many of them are roguish to a drgree : that is embarrassing to the Hongkong gaoler, whose duty it is to 6nd house room for them. The freedom and prolection afforded to all nationalities bj onr p laws attracted to the colony the scum of ( 'he neighbouring Chinese towns anH though many of these ruffians have became reformed characters, a good many of > them still give active employment fo th police. Gambling houses and music Iml's ' —with other eveu more questionable resorts — are common ; and though the Government tries, by licensing vices which it is impossible to suppress, to get f the vicious elements under its control, it does not always succeed, partly owing to the prevalence of the evil, and par tially also no doubt owing to the ineffi i ciency of the police and the temptation f which they meet with— but do not alI ways sbun — to arcept bribes-. i The town— both British and Chinese quarters — swarms also with low dens kept by English and Chinese, freqnented by the seamen in ropt, and the habitues of which give endless trouble to the police and the police magistrate. That Hongkong contains in ifs midst even vet «orae-of the elements which in pre-Bri» tannic timed gave it a piratical reputation is demonstrated by the fact that a few years ago a number of pirates shipped »s passengers on board the steamer going up the Canton River, and afe a convenient op- \ portunity rose and captured it, murdering the officers and some of the passenger^ and after ransacking ifc of what they • wanted, they ran it ashore not far from ITarao. Since then the Chinese pas^engera of the lowest class are carefully ! secured within a padlock enclosure, guar led' by a sentry, and in the cabin are spveral stands of arms,, so that, if need be, the more respectable passengers can bf» armed against the possible pirates. Like every other place on the face of the earth where there is anything worth preying on, Hongkong is periodically visi'ed by adventurers of all nations. But, as might be expected, the people are shrewed enough to amuse themselves with such specious characters, and if they do not recommend them to fKje attention of tbe police, usually send them on tlie>r way— not rejoicing. There are, in Hongkong, specimens of almost every commerpifil i people on the faoe of tie earth, but the English and Americans are tbe chi< f merchants. Living need not be dear, for nearly ail necessaries are about the sam » price as at home, but the babits- of tbe residents make it so. Large numbers of servants are requisite, either for comfort or because conventionality demands it ; and the ideas of the people having been formed on a scale graduated when money was more abundant than it is now, it is found that to live in Hongkong takes an income about twice that it would in Eng« land. Tbe English are especially noted for their extravagance in housekeeping. — Countries of the World.