294
THE IMPORTATION OF IMPURE TEA INTO THE UNITED
STATES.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Sirocco," another big baking machine. I daresay I have left out many important items, but one visit does not suffice to make one grasp the mysteries of "tea." In a shed at one side, Mr. Rounserelle Wildman, United States women were seated at long tables, each busy Consul, writes us :--In answer to numerous in-picking over a tray of tea, and they looked in- quiries I think it would be of general interest very merry over their work and our to the many exporters of tea from this port to spection of it. The tea was sifted by various the United States if yon would publish the fol- methods, and the result when ready for packing lowing digest of "An Act to prevent the im- smelt delicious, and one could tremble for the portation of impure and unwholsome. Tea." products of India and Ceylon.. A powerful oil (Approved March 2nd, 1897) :
engine is the raison d'être for all these whirling wheels and swaying bands, but its work is lightened by the water wheel which swings its ponderous weight ronud at the further end of the building. It is satisfactory to learn how little difficulty has been met with in this enter- prising work; the Chinese have placed no ob- stacles in the way beyond the inevitable monetary The Company is now build- squeeze."
A DIGEST OF THE U.S. REGULATIONS IN REGARD TO THE INSPECTION OF TEA.
It is unlawful for any person to import into the U.S.A. tea which is inferior in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the standards provided. Duplicate samples of such standards can be procured at the Custom-houses at New York, Chicago, or San Francisco.
The following are the standards selected by the board of tea experts: 1.-Formosa Ooloong 2.-Foochow 3.-Amoy
**
4.-N. China Congon.-
5.-S. China Congou.
6.-India Tea. 7.-Ceylon Tea,
In each of the above seven standards, the maximum percentage of dust or fannings, must be restricted to 10 per cent, when sifted through a No. 16 sieve, runde of No. 26 brass wire, inas- much as any excess over this percentage of dust is liable to be made up of, extraneous matter.
No. 8.-Pingsuey Tea.
Examined with reference to liquor end in- fused leaf only.
9 (a).-Country Green Tea. 10 (b).-
11
**
11-Japan Ten. Pan Fired.
12.
13.-
Sun Dried.
Basket Fired,
Maximum percentage of dust or fannings not to exceed 4 per cent. when sifted through a No. 30 sieve made of brass wire No. 31. 14-Jupan Tea Dust or Fannings. 15.-Scented Orange Pekoe, 16.-Capers.
The comparison of standards with teas deli- vered shall be made not only with regard to flavour, but particularly with regard to the appearence of the leaf after infusion. In colour
of infused leaf, and in freedom from admixture with black and decayed leaf, all teas should be equal to the standards, but any consideration of the make or so-called style of the dry leaf should be omitted.
Impure teas will be burned by the Government. THE FOOCHOW PŁA IMPROVEMENT COMPANY'S ESTABLISHMENT,
A writer in the Foochow Echo gives a de- scription of a visit to the establishment of the Foochow Tea Improvement Company at Tung Liang. The greater portion of the article is devoted to the journey from Kuliang to Tung Liang and back, which forms a pleasant picnic excursion. The portion referring to the Com. pany's establishment is as follows:-The nur- series were inspected and the young plants from Indian seed found to be doing well and the ques- tion of further land for their transplantation, discussed. The young plants looked very hearty and the twenty acres which they are ready to cover should grove a good object lesson to the native growers. Our way to the factory lay along the bed of a stream, the water-power of which has been bought by the Company to turn a water-wheel whose proportions dwarf those around very considerably. The withering shed, a bamboo structure full of trays of green leaf, we came upon first, and just beyond stood the factory. From within came sounds of bustle and wheels. The office where the tea is bought stands just to the right of the entrance, its door surrounded by an eager crowd ready to do a deal with the Cantonese inside. We found the working of the factory in full swing, for though the whole thing is at present only on a small scale it is turn ing out about 15 piculs of tea a day. We saw the tea, which has been slightly dried by the withering and is still quite green, passed through three machines to be rolled, then it is placed in trays in a machine to be baked, "fired" is I believe the term. From there it is swung round in a cage to be separated and then hurried away to be re-fired in the
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one of "
an
[October 13, 1897.
here is opportunity to keep their memory green, and their graves hallowed by a little attention on the part of those whose responsibility it is to look after them. We trust the authorities will take the matter in hand. And we go further; we would suggest that if nothing be done the British community raise a sum by public subscription, as a memo- rial to those who died at Chusan, to employ a gardener to keep the cemetery in order, and we shall be pleased to receive subscriptions to such a fund, which we presume it is possible at least to administer.-Shanghai Daily Press.
OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS AT PE- KING AND IN THE PRO-
VINCES.
"
The following Imperial edicts were promul
ing a bungalow quite close to the factory to re-gated on the 29th ultimo: place the Chinese house, where draught and dust in winter rival the closeness which the summer gives. Success has followed this pioneering work of the Foochow merchants so far, for the tea the factory produces has sold very well. All wishes for further prosperity go with them, that their enterprise may spread further afield; to be most profitable. for it evidently has only to be on a larger scale
SOLDIERS' GRAVES AT CHUSAN.
"I love that ancient Saxon phrase, God's acre," wrote Longfellow; he was recalling the con- secrated church land. At Chusan the cemetery is hallowed by the patriotism and religion of those who lie buried within it. The desolation, memory and neglect alone impress veneration there. It would perhaps be difficult to find a sadder sample of seemingly British ingratitude or consular neglect than is evidenced at the present moment, and has been on record for months past, in the island of Chusan. It is unfair to apply the cause of the neglect to the British people, because we have not the slightest doubt that if the public at home were aware of the condition of the soldiers' cemetery at Chusan the official whose duty it is to keep in order that cemetery would speedily be made to realise his responsibilities. At present the graves of those veterans who fell there fighting, or died through sickness, in upholding Britain's cause in 1842, are in such a neglected and defaced condition as to be a disgrace to the British flag in the eyes of all the foreigners. The cemetery is a gradually vanishing mouu- ment-for little ontward evidence of the burial place will soon be left-in the eyes of the natives of the rewards that are meted out to some of the rank and file of the British army, who die in foreign lands, when the authorities have every means in their power to preserve the names and deeds of those who lie buried there. A few days, ago when our in. formant visited the Chusans, he found the graves totally neglected, overgrown with weeds, the stones defiled, defaced, and many missing, which the natives had evidently pur loined, and it was necessary to scrape the stones in most cases to decipher the names. Amongst others buried were recorded: Captain Colin Campbell, of the 55th Regiment, shot at Chusan: 11 sergeants, 13 corporals, 4 drummers, 403 privates either killed or died from sickness from 1842 to 1845. A captain, serge- ants, corporals, and privates of the 98th who died in 1845 and 1816. The wife of Captain Dunder ofthe 18th Royal Irish and the wife of Corporal Gillen of the 98th Regiment, These are some who lie buried and whose graves are defiled
such a manner
be by natives in unpleasant to walk there. Evidently some one is to blame for such a condition of affairs, which the expenditure of a few dollars a month would rectify. On the fourth of July the men of two American cruisers visited graves of American seamen, who had died on the Asiatic station, at Yokohama and Seoul, and carried wreaths and laid them on the graves of
Addresses the departed.
were even made and the bugler sounded the "Last Call." The Britisher may defend himself for his neglect in the case of the dead at Chusan, as being less ostentatious, but it is a new experience to learn such total forgetfulness and neglect of those who died fighting and of wounds, when'
as to
(1) Although the charges made against Hsueh Yün-sheng, President of the Board of Punish- ments, of having given countenance to certain shady operations of his nephews have not been proved, still he is held culpable of not having kept a proper restraint over the actions of the junior members of his family, and the Board of Civil Appointments, after due deliberation, having announced that the said Hansh Yin-sheng should be degraded three steps in rank and removed from office, we here- by command that the said sentence be or. dered to take effect. The other officials im- plicated more or less therein are commanded to be fined according to the degree of culpability of each. (2) Li Hsilien, Provincial Judge of Kneichou, is promoted Provincial Treasurer of Shensi, vice Chang Ju-mei promoted Governor of Shantung. Yu Hêng (Manchu), Taotai of the Kuei-hsi Intendancy of Kusichon, is hereby promoted to be Judge of the said province vice Li Hsi-lien promoted as above.
appointed Taotai Kuei Lin (Manchu) of the Kuei-hsi Intendancy vice Yü Hêng promoted as above. The following edicts were promulgated on the 30th ult.: (1) Liao Shou-hêng, President of the Court of Censors, is hereby promoted President of the Board of Punishments vice Hsue Yün-sheng, degraded; and Hsu Shu-min, Junior Vice-President of the Board of Civil Appointments, is promoted to the Presidency of the Court of Censors vice Liao Shon-hêng, promoted as above. (2) Hsü Hui-feng, Senior Vice-President of the Board of Rites is promoted Junior Vice-President of the Board of Civil Appointments, and his former post is hereby given to Chang Ying-lin. T'ang. Chin-ch'ung is promoted Junior Vice-President of the Board of Ritesvice Chang Ying-lin pro- moted as above.-N. C. Daily News.
(3)
THE COMING CENSUS OF CHINA.
At the recent biennial meeting of the Inter- national Statistical Institute, held in Berne, Switzerland, a Committee was appointed to consider ways and means for the taking of a
"
World' Census," wherewith to celebrate the advent of the Twentieth Century. We are told that the first step in the labours of this im portant Committee was to enlist the interest and the aid of Li Hung-chang. They met him when he was in Berlin, and secured his promise of his influence in China." It is recognised that China constitutes an unusually large portion of the Universe, and it is therefore essential to have the arrangements for the Chinese census exceptionally complete. This has already been done, and it is to the details that we have now to direct our readers' attention. We understand that after his return, upon one of his calls upon the Empress-Dowager, H.E. She broached the subject to Her Majesty. naturally wanted to know what the census was for, and Li explained in the clearest manner that the object was simply to find out how many people there are in the whole world; that, as China is a part of the world, China cannot prudently be omitted; that he had found Swit- zerland to be a country strategically situated exactly between Russia and the French Re public, and that the Swiss people, and others also, "want to know, you know," and that he could not go back on a promise once made (when the superior man has once spoken, four horses cannot pull back his words).
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