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The financial position in Kwongsai at present is
very bad. It has not rained for half a year and the crops have dried up. We have found on enquiry that some districts have not had a drop of water for nearly 6 months and even
the harvest of miscellaneous cereals is hopeless. The drought calamity has definitely caused the cost of rice to rise greatly, it now being sold at $20 a picul in some places, and on an average at $13. Taking this into consideration, we cannot predict what will be the price of rice next year. All this is due to the drought brought about for lack of rain for a long time. As enquiries show 16 years ago the export to foreign countries of rice grown in Kwongsai amounted to 1,600,000 piculs a year. Now on the contrary we have to import from Hong Kong rice to the amount of 2,000,000 piculs. The drought has also caused a financial panic in Kwongsai, and this has warranted our anxiety.
Next we have had big fires at Wuchow and Lauchow on two different occasions causing a tremendous loss. Over 200 houses were burnt down in Wuchow and the occupants of them were all very poor. Quite a half of the houses in Lauchow City have been destroyed by fire, and when we visit the affected districts, we shall hardly be able to make a distinction as to the East, South, West and North. This will show the seriousness of the disaster. The houses there were mostly made of wood, and on account of the present long drought, the fire was merely burning dry wood, and so on spread beyond control.
All these calamities have wakened
us to the necessity of improving the supplies of water and
as the sources of water depend on forests, we have proposed to make improvements in forestry.
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