Colonial.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 486, 1 July 1857, Page 3

Colonial.

CHINA. We quote from the Sydney journals Chinese extracts to the 19th March : It appears that Aklum, the baker, has been acquitted. The ' Hong Kong Ad- ;' vertiser' thus alludes to the trial:— "At the trial of Aklum, five of a jury of * six Englishmen experienced in the ways of China gave credence to the allegation that ! he (Aklum) had eaten and had given his family some of the very bread of which those who had suffered had eaten in Hongkong ; and this >vas credited in the face of the clearest evidence that neither Aklum nor his family had exhibited any of the symptoms or had suffered in any such way as the ".foreign victims :—this was accredited in the ' face of the well-known fact that Chinese always take their first meal before eight o'clock (the hour when they left Hong Kong), and seldom eat again till after noon, whereas, by the evidence for the defence, they had eaten nothing before eleven, and then ate at a place on the sea, where they might have been sea sick; and, more astonishing still, that then in the face of the long-established fact that Chinese seldom eat bread, they ate bread and nothing else," In a leader, the 'China Mail* says that % "in Canton, the notion gains that the ' Barbarian outbreak' is now nearly over, and * that foreigners would be very thankful if permitted to return and carry on business. > w Many of the citizens who left during the '■ active prosecution of hostilities are there- •>* >fore commencing to return. The stagnation i of foreign trade and the destruction of so much native property are nevertheless ' severely felt by numbers. Beyond the chronic disturbances at " , Tsing-yuen—-a district to the north of Can- [\ |on that has long been ia a state of misrule ' —and the usual rumours of Rebel descents from Kwang-si, we hear of nothing serious the city from the interior. The v'gentry and moneyed people (especially those Slately connected with foreigners) in Canton * »nd throughout the south-eastern part of the are being mulcted in large sums «,Vfor the support of the Provincial Govern- ,' ment, who are rather hard up for funds. The authorities in the neighbourhood "appear to be determined not to let their ~ prohibition of intercourse with foreigners ,** beqpme a dead letter, and are now, we hear, ,it enforcing it^^wi^ redoubled strictness - at '^least so far as proclamations arid injunctions t -go; but up to the present time, we have no Authentic news of any actual oppression or •^cruelty having been perpetrated on those of barbarian dealings. * ' The same paper gives the following news Macao :— ' c "A letter from Macao tells us that a careJfful watch is kept by the mandarins against all communication by China boats betwixt Othat place and Hongkong; that at the \usual hour of departure of the fast-boats, I snake-guard-boats are stationed off the V^Piaya Pequena; and that one poor fellow • iihad been seized on Saturday last, and sent to Heangshan city. ;;/?* *' Chinese merchants were arriving in y numbers from the interior, v vwith teas, silk, and other produce, for which "jthey were demanding and receiving enor"iXmously high prices." - "^ " From Shanghae (says the • China Mail,') .Iwe leavn that intelligence reached there on l<4 the night of the 6th of March, of a band of having burned Ho-how, the great „t T ea Depot in the east of Keang-se. The of tea destroyed was not large, say 10 chops congou. The inhabitants and tea merchants had all fled on the approach ,of the rebels. The latter were a band from Keang-se, who had been ravaging the neighbourhood of Hwuy-chow in Ngun-hwuy, ' ftnd were on their return to Keang-se. . i - This is a severe blow to the Import of the port, and. was at once felt as ■uch at Soochow, in considerable fall in the , .quotations. Since Canton was closed, large I .quantities of shirtings and woollens have 'Jbeen sent to Keang-se for consumption further west, in Hoonan and Hoopeth, &c. £The great insecurity of the route through will tell most injuriously upon the ,^Bhanghae market, and seriously cripple the for manufactures. What the , fear is, that, even if the rebels leave M|Ho-how now, they will return, as soon as trade may revive there, for fresh plunder. ; v , Since the last overland issue of the •Friend of China,' events have not crowded upon us with the former startling rapidity. 4 Our supplement contains the various occur- * jrences which have taken place during the , 'past four weeks, and although nothing has been achieved of any great moment, which y cannot be expected until the arrival of rein- \ forcements, still there have been matters of import calling upon us to relax nothing of >our for the enemy is still in our midst, always on the alert for private assassi- !

nation or midnight treachery. We have no new attempt at wholesale poisoning to record; but we have another steamer tragedy enacted on the Queen, —wherein the captain (Wynn), and all the Europeans, with the exception of one brave, courageous gentleman, Mr. Cleverly, have met with an untimely end, and we fear, with all the horrors of Chinese torture inflated upon them previous to their final doom. The storehouse of Mr. Duddell, the Government contractor, has been burnt down with the destruction of seven hundred barrels of flour, —a particularly inconvenient circumstance at the present time and entailing a most serious loss upon that gentleman. A guard after the fire was placed over the ruins, which we believe had been refused previous to the catastrophe ; Mr. Duddell wisely thinking that, as purveyor of bread to the troops &c, and in the face of the Alum poisoning case, he was entitled to some protection from her Majesty's authorities. A second edition to the Black Hole of Calcutta has been discovered here, which, however strong may be our antipathy to the Chinese in ]the present crisis, certainly does not redound to our credit as professors of humanity, much less to the sagacity or Christian feelings of the officials concerned. An attack, and the burning of some Chinese men-of-war junks at Toong Coong, by the steamers Auckland and Eaglet, with the loss of only one man belonging to the Auckland, after a four hours* engagement, has given us considerable satisfaction, the more so as being a set-off against the successful capture of the Queen steamer; and we trust that due rewards will be allotted to Mr. Ellis, commanding the Eaglet, and Lieutenants Davis and De Bellin, of the Auckland, for their gallant conduct in that affair. Our brave old Admiral, Sir Michael, as usual, is always on the gui vive; —constantly on the river between this place and Canton, inspecting, instructing, and occasionally attacking; while our notable Governor Sir John Bowring quietly takes his daily siesta, resting on laurels he has acquired from his first active debut in London as managing committee man of the Greek Loan down to the time of his Kowloon deportation here, some short time since. It is, a most absurd thing to imagine, and a great error committed by the Home Government to suppose that va literary man of Sir John's etamp'ahd calibre can ever be the proper ruler of a military colony, and we think we express the sentiments of the largest portion of Hong Kong when we - say that the authorities at home would be conferring an inestimable boon upon us by ordering his recall. Talent he has, to a certain extent, and of a certain order, but alas for the application. We had hoped our summary would have been completed without the record of another Coolie horror, but this morning to our extreme regret we find announced the arrival of the British ship Gulnare, 1,100 tons register, Captain Wardrop, bound from Swatow to Havannah, with coolies. The substance of the affair is as follows :— On Wednesday, 11th instant, the Gulnare left Swatow with Coolie passengers for Havannah. She rounded the Cape of Good Hope at 5 p.m., and then placed arm sentries fore and aft. Nothing occurred all night. At 7.15 a.m., on the following morning, the Coolies in a body attacked the third mate and sentry in the fore part of the ship. The watch at the time were washing down the poop. The high land of Tongas a 'little before had been sighted, bearing north-west about 12 miles distant. The chief officer was at the time talking to the interpreter, when the Chinese gave one of the most horrible yells possible to be imagined. The captain, officers, and crew immediately rushed put and rescued the third mate and sentry, who were seriously wounded. The Coolies fought with fearful desperation, and in some instances were fairly cut to pieces before they were driven below; in fact they returned the fire for some ten minutes, with basins, firewood, &c, and by an oversight of the officers, had smuggled j from the deck all the chain-hooks and axes, and concealed them below. After the Coolies had been driven below, they again began throwing^up at the crew basins and firewood. One pistol was fired up the after hatch-way in the direction of the J poop. Finding they could not regain the deck, the Coolies broke up their berths and set the ship on fire in the main, mizen, and poop-hatchways, but when the leaders in the incendarism were shot down, they immediately extinguished the fires. The third mate and the sentry were the only two of the crew that were seriously wounded. Twenty-seven Coolies were killed and wounded. Ten killed, three drowned, and fourteen wounded. Some have since jumped overboard. The Gulnare arrived

here yesterday at a quarter to 8 p.m. The captain speaks in the highest terms of the coolness and bravery displayed by his officers throughout the fight. The Coolies speak well of the treatment they have received on board. Some say that a Mandarin came on board before they sailed, in disguise, and incited them to take the ship. It is asserted by^a few that at the present time an agent of the Mandarins is on board, but no one will point out the man. Since writing the above account respecting the burning of Mr. Duddle's storehouses, we are glad to learn that all the influential merchants and gentlemen of this colony have expressed in a witten document, numerously signed, their great sympathy for the loss he has sustained, and strongly recommended a favourable consideration of his petition to the home authorities, to recognise his protest and claims upon the Chinese Government for compensation, as there is no doubt but that it was the act of incendiaries, who were either the emissaries of Alum and his confederates in the Esing poisoning case, or men in the pay of Man? darins. We sincerely hope that Mr. Duddell will not be allowed to suffer, and the more so as the contract he had entered into to supply our forces with bread was one which no other party had the courage to undertake. For that gentleman's enterterprise and ability the names of the parties signing the petition is a sufficient testimony. Just as we were going to press, news from Canton have reached us to the following effect:— Affairs in the Canton river have been very quiet for some time past. The imperialist junks are iii great force. In the entrance to Fatshan Creek, an attempt was made to dislodge them by the Encounter,, small steamers and boats of the squadron on the 28th February, which failed, the Encounter not being able to get within 2,700 yards of the nearest junks, her bow pivot gun alone being able to reach them. The steamers Hong Kong and Forbes were a few hundred yards in advance, and kept up a hot fire with admirable precision, by which three of the junks were silenced. Had the boats advanced and attacked them at close quarters, confusion and panic would have ensued, on the part of the "Braves," and the destruction of the junks would have been inevitable. No doubt there would have been much loss of life in the boats from the first volley, as all the broadside guns were depressed. The firing was kept up on both sides for upwards of two hours, when, as if by mutual consent, there was a "cessation of hostilities." The shots from the junk reached the Encounter and cut away some of her rigging, dropping fplentifully around the boats, but fortunately without inflicting any damage on the crews. The Chinese are now fortifying the approaches to Fatshan, and sinking barriers. The Cantonese have not as yet commenced rebuilding the suburbs or forts. They have contented themselves by digging in salt into the soil of the factory gardens and making a few small batteries on the left bank of the river below the ruins of the French Folly. Not a boat is to be seen in Elliott Passage, being exposed to the guns of the Encounter, Comus, Acorn, Elk, and Barracouta. Whampoa is still in a deserted state. H. M. S. Sybille, Sampson, and Hong Kong are at Second Bar. Nankin still at anchor off Wantung Forts. The Nankin's crew have been busily employed in destroying the South Fort, and this, the main branch of the river to Canton, is in the possession of Sir M. Seymour. The passage boats now ply by the Broadway passage, Masso River, and Hyacinth Creek; turning to the right if for Canton if for boat passage, or to the left if for Fatshan, which is now a place of considerable importance.— Fnend of China, March 14.