A lengthy report on May 3 informed the Colony on the Hongkong Electric Tramway Co Ltd, which was preparing to launch its service in three months, pending completion of the tracks. 'Whilst there will be gratitude in the hearts of present residents, wonderment (and probably resentment) among the coolies, there will be a little disappointment in the hearts of newcomers to see a modern electric tramway system in this outlandish corner of the Globe,' the report said. 'They ... will look forward to using the quaint rickshaws ... and when they leave the mail steamer and come to shore ... there will be the electric car, looking like an elephant hung to a clothes line by its trunk, to greet them.'
The tramway had '26 cars in the sheds, looking neat in their canary yellow coats, picked out with gold and chocolate'. They were built in Preston, Lancashire. The cars were built of oak, fitted with white roofs lined with gold and the usual fittings and electric fans for the Hongkong climate. There were two designs: the combination car, which had inside seats and a verandah at each end, and the open, dubbed 'toast racks' because of their cross seats with reversible backs. The cars would run from Kennedy Town in the west to Shau-ki-wan in the east. The fares were 15 to 20 cents for first-class seats and 5 cents for 3rd class.
In an editorial of May 2, the Post criticised for the second time the lack of training and equipment for the Hongkong Fire Brigade, which comprised Chinese and European teams. The Europeans were police officers who were expected to fulfil their daytime duties as well as be 'roused from necessary sleep to attend fire calls'. 'In the Fire Department, the public has every right to demand efficiency, especially in a colony as largely peopled by careless Asiatics,' the editorial said. It also said the recent exhibition to show the brigade's 'efficient condition' proved that it was not and this point was driven home when a fire, on the same day as the display, razed a godown in Kowloon.
'Last week's exhibition was specially misleading ... the observer did not see the coolies dragging the steamers at the speed they generally pull the road-rollers, he did not see the policemen acting as firemen leaving their quarters or beats and turning up long after the fire had started, in twos and threes,' it said. The brigade also had no modern appliances, with the most recent 17 years old, and there was no constant water supply. 'Seldom at any fire, excepting on the Praya, can the firemen obtain a ready or efficient water supply,' it said.
The Post published a Shanghai Times report on the horror of war. During the bombardment of Port Arthur, Manchuria, on February 10, a Mr Geering was seated in the home of a Mr Barwitz, a merchant. At the height of the bombardment, Mr Geering left to secure some papers in his house across the street. 'Upon his return, a most appalling sight met his gaze. Mr Barwitz, his wife and amah were blown to atoms and their little four-year-old girl was sitting on the floor among the fragments of the bodies of her dead father and mother. Mr Barwitz's body ... lay in the corner ... death caused by a small fragment of shell, which carried away his brains. His wife was blown to pieces and only portions of her corpse were found among which was her scalp, her long hair ... entangled in the gas fixture. Of the amah only a few small pieces of her clothing were found,' it said.
A letter to the editor from the consul general of the Netherlands, F.J. Haver Droeze, said: the Governor-General of Netherlands-India has decreed that all ships or vessels arriving from Hongkong ... are subject to a quarantine of 10 days from the date of departure from this port or since the last case of plague on board. Importation is temporarily prohibited of animal refuse, claws, hoofs, animal or human hair and bristles, hides, which are untanned and which are salted or cured with arsenic, raw wool and rags, bags or sacks coming from Hongkong.'