July 15, 1897.1
It only remains to notice the following re- marks from Ningpo:-" The advance in Cotton piece goods shows itself mainly in grey shirt- ings and T-cloths, which, with 929,655 pieces (including 10,000 pieces from the Hankow and Shanghai mills), have made a rapid stride in favour-particularly noticeable, as it coincides with a remarkable increase in the consumption of machine-made cotton yarn, of which 18,600 piculs were imported, against 62 piculs in 1889, and at least 10,000 piculs put on the market by the local mill. Of the 18,000 piculs imported, the Indian mills supplied nearly 12,000 piculs; Japan 4,793 piculs and the Shanghai factories, only 1.381 piculs. This last figure shows a decline, for during the previous year the Shang hai mills sent us 3,963 piculs." And this is what is said of the mill now running there :-
The Tung-chiu-yuan Cotton Mill, referred to in the Report for 1895 as nearly complete, com. menced spinning in June 1896 and has since worked day and night with little intermission. It employs some 750 factory hands-chiefly women and all natives of the locality,--in addition to overseers and artisans, the machinery being under the supervision of a Foreigner. The monthly output is said to be 250,000 lbs. of yarn of counts 10, 12, 14, and 16. The yarn sells readily in the local market at $2.30 per 10 lb. package, counts 12 and 16 being most in demand. It is chiefly consumed in the neigh- bourhood, but a certain quantity is sent in junks to Fahkien. In spite of the recent relatively high price of Cotton, spinning has proved extremely profitable, and I am informed that 6,000 spindles are to be added shortly to the 11,048 now at work. The mill has accom-
modation for looms, which it is not intended to ntilise at present."
THE SHÄNGHAI TAUTAI AND THE
JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.
The following letter, which is printed with the minutes of the Shanghai Municipal Council, explains itself :--
Municipal Council, Shanghai, 26th June, 1897. Sir, I have the honour to request that you may be good enough to convey to H.E. the Taotai the expression of the Council's sincere regret at the unfortunate contretemps which pre- vented His Excellency from attending the fête at H.B.M. Consulate-General ou the 22nd instant. The Council desires that it may be ex- plained to His Excellency that, for the con- venience and protection of natives and for- eigners alike, it was necessary to suspend all vehicular traffic along the Bund and adjoining streets on the day of the festivities; further, that at the express desire of H.B.M. Consul- General, no carriages were allowed to enter the Consulate grounds. Owing to an unfortunate oversight, which cannot be sufficiently deplored, no arrangements were come to for making an exception to this rule in the case of His Excel. lency's conveyance, and the constables on duty, not recognising His Excellency and in the absence of instructions carried out the Munici pal Regulation in its entirety.
The Council trust that His Excellency will accept this explanation of a most regrettable incident.—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
A. R. BURKILL, Chairman, To Dr. O. STUEBEL.
Consul-General for Germany and Senior
Consul, Shanghai.
JAPAN AND THE HAWAIIAN QUESTION.
A Tokyo despatch of the 2nd July, trans- lated by the Kobe Chronicle, says ———.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. H.M:S, IMMORTALITE FIRED ON AT WOOSUNG.
Shanghai, 30th June. An incident which narrowly escaped giving rise to serious international complications took place early on Monday morning at Woosung, H.M.S. Immortalité arrived and anchored outside the Spit buoy on Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning unmoored preparatory to steaming in to the anchorage, when one of the guns in the fort was fired and the shot fell into the water some 200 yards from the ship. This was followed by another, the shot falling still nearer to the Immortalité. Thinking, naturally, that he was being fired upon, Captain Chichester had the ship cleared for action, magazines opened and ammunition passed up. The guns were trained on the fort and the ship steamed slowly into the anchorage with the crew at quarters. No more shots were fired, however, and it was afterwards explained that the guns were fired for the edification of a Chinese official, and that those in charge thought that the Immortalité was farther out of range than she really was. Ample apologies were tendered and what might have been a very serious matter ended satisfactorily.-N. C. Daily News.
MISSIONARY OUTRAGES IN
CHINA.
Shanghai, 9th July. It is reported from Hankow that the rowdies of the city of Suichon, Hupeh province. have lately destroyed a missionary chapel in that city and that the subprefect, unable to give efficient help to the missionaries, has appealed to the Viceroy Chang for troops to quell the mob.
It is also reported that some of the people of Suichou hearing of this appeal by their sub-prefect went in a body to his yamen and defied him to his worst. It is not known whether any missionaries have been hurt or not.
A native correspondent at Chêngtu, the pro- vincial Capital of Szechuan, writing under date of the 12th says that as the scholars of the Roman Catholic Latin College of Changshan were being removed with their belongings to their new college, lately erected at a place called Watien, a short distance from the city walls of Chêngtn, there suddenly appeared, midway on the journey, a band of eight armed men, who plundered the caravan of everything valuable and then made off into the hills. One carter was severely wounded and a scholar is reported to be missing. The Roman Catholic Bishop has reported the matter to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs and the Viceroy Li has pro- mised a reward for the capture of the robbers. N. C. Daily News.
THE STEAMER “ SULTAN” FLOATED.
Shanghai, 30th June. Mr. W. B. Buyers, the agent here for the Taku Tug and Lighter Company, received a telegram at 9.30 last night from Chefoo in- forming him that the steamer Sultan was safely floated. It will be remembered that the Norwegian steamer Sultan, about the 4th June last, ran on shore on one of the islands in the Pechili Group, and that on the 24th she was sold by auction by Mesars. Hopkins, Dunn & Co., were the Taku Tug and Lighter Co., who are for the sum of Tls. 6,000. The purchasers to be highly congratulated on their success. Mr. J. W. Jamieson, their manager, also de- serves much praise, for in five days after the purchase of the vessel she was success- fully floated. He evidently lost no time, and must have bad everything ready to commence work as soon as he knew that his company were the purchasers. In her present condition she must be fully worth £12,000, so the sharehold ers of the T. T. & L. Co., have made a "fine haul," and will no doubt be very thankful to Mr. Buyers, who bought it at such a small their Manager, in floating her so successfully. figure for the Company, and to Mr. Jamieson,
-Mercury,
ing
MACAU.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
committee
to take a stroll some
Macao, 9th June. The work of dredging the harbour has been stopped since Monday last. Many rumours were soon in circulation as to the cause of the sudden cessation. Some said the harbour was out of order, others that the mud was so hard already quite clean, others that the engine was that the dredger could not work it, and others that the boatmen had gone on strike. I have the people of Sami do not wish to receive from ascertained, however, that the real cause is that the hands of our Government the benefit of hav- ing the area of its land increased and that they have refused to allow the mud to be deposited in the place appointed. Upon finding this dif- mud in the river. If that were allowed to go ficulty in his way the contractor deposited the on, the mud being thrown where it would be I have already washed back again by the current, the dred- ging might go on for ever. suggested that the mud should be used for reclamation purposes in the colony itself. I would recommend the members of the dredg evening from the steamer wharves along the inner harbour up to Porta de Cerco, or even only to the road that joins Green Island to Macao, and see if they cannot find used for filling in purposes. It may be said that places where the mud could be advantageously these places belong to private people and that the committee has no control over them, but the owners would be very glad to give their consent to the mud being deposited on their land, as it would increase the value of their Thus both the owners and the A lively brush with pirates is reported from property. Ningpo. On Wednesday last the Chinese gun-public would benefit. boat Chaowu, 6 guns, while cruising among the islands of the Chusan Archipelago, anchored in a small bay called Tungshako, where is a large village which was filled with a number of pirates. These no sooner saw the gunboat ap pear than they began to fire at her with the muzzle-loading 4-pdrs, on board a junk which
I need not here refer to the great dis- was lying off shore, while about 100 others
advantage to the development of Macao's lined a sand hill which overlooked and com-
trade resulting from the fact of the Lappa manded the bay, from which they began a
Customs not being authorised to collect the man-of-war's men lively fusilade with small arms. In reply, the Commander the duties payable by steamers proceeding of the gunboat at once ordered out his boats to the West River. The steamers cannot and sent a landing party of 120 bluejackets, carry either passengers or cargo between Macso while a few shots from the bow gun of the ship and Kongmoon and Komchuk without going out in the press. The Chinese are acting with- silenced the connonade from the junk. When first to Samshui, as has been already pointed the pirates saw the sailors making for land a portion began to scatter inland, but some eighty in their rights in this matter, but our authori of the others tried to oppose the landing. Á ties should do their utmost to have the disad- But of what use is it to expect anything for hand-to-hand fight commenced in which two vantage removed and trade facilitated. ⠀⠀⠀ pirates were shot down while a number were wounded. Thirty-six of the pirates were com-the benefit of trade from a Government like pelled to surrender when surrounded by the that of this colony. Trade here is tied up with talking to other people about increased trading sailors, who also took away the junk as a prize. iron rings, namely, the monopolies, and before facilities outside the colony it would be well if The casualties amongst the sailors were slight.-
A FIGHT WITH PIRATES.
Count Okuma has forwarded another dispatch to the United States, in which the previous protest is renewed in strong terms. The gist of the dispatob is said to be as follows:-The Japanese Government, while expressing the full respect necessary from one friendly nation to another declares that Japan cannot remain silent when she sees measures being taken which are likely to disturb the peace of the Pacific. The Japanese Government is convinced that the independence of Hawaii forms the assurance of such peace, and is prepared to continue its negotiations to the uttermost despite any decision the United States Senate may arrive at. IN. C. Daily News.
on
Shanghai, 1st July.
I hear there is a movement on foot for an excursion to Sanchoan Island, for which the Heungshan is to be chartered. The excursion will probably be made some time next month* and if all goes well no doubt it will be largely attended, as the pilgrimage has not taken place for some years now.
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