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"An Odd Number" sends us the following:-
There is a young man in Hongkong
On order uncommonly strong;|
He despises all oddities,
His twaddle mere shoddy 'tis ; Without him we'll still get along.
THE NANKING MINT.
Messrs. Buchheister & Co. have concluded a
contract with H.E. Lin Kun-yi, the Liang kiang Viceroy, for the erection of a mint at Nankiang, inside the city, for silver and copper coinage, capable of turning out a hun- dred thousand silver coins and one million
copper cash a day. The silver coins will be dollars exactly equivalent to Mexicans, and fractional currency, and the dollars will not have on them the statement that they re- present 717 of a tael; and this fact points to the dollar gradually superseding the tael as the unit of the Chinese currency. At the present price in silver of copper and spelter, one thousand cash of the ordinary size cost considerably more than one dollar, and the size of the new cash will be accordingly reduced. It is stipulated that a foreign assayer is to be permanently employed, so that there may be no doubt of the purity of the silver coinage. The machinery is to come from the most eminent makers of minting machinery in the world, Messrs. Heaton of Birmingham, for whom Mossrs. Buchheister & Co. are agents.-N. C. Daily News.
CANTON NOTES.
[FROM THE “CHUNG NGOI SẢN PO.” The clearing of the Shameen Canal was com menced on the 10th April under the direction of the Magistrate of Namhoi and the Superin tendent of the local police.
Plague has appeared in the village of Lun- kiang, in Sun-tak district. The people there a few days ago took the gods out in procession to drive away the plague devils.
On the 13th April the Prefect and the local Magistrates went to the Shing-wong Temple to pray for fine weather, and some monks and priests held a service there.
new
His Excellency Hu Tsan-wai, the Governor of Canton, who applied for twenty days leave to return to his native country as already reported, has left his home and he is expected to arrive at Canton next month. The
local officers have already made preparations to receive His Excellency.
A man named Lum Tsun-henng has applied to the Government to be allowed to open a mine in Sum Sui Hang, in Sz-woi district, where, he says, lead can be obtained to make lead- pencils, and he further applied that if the mineral from this mine is exported it may be free from likin duty for the term of three years. His application has been granted.
A merchant has farmed out the fort and gun likin levied on sugar to meet the expenses of making guns and building forts, for $7,000.
Owing to the famine in Kwangsi the sufferers are compelled to eat the bark and leaves of trees. These have nearly been eaten up, and some poor people are now willing to sell their children for a few dollars or several catties of rice euch. The local Magistrates have issued notices prohibiting the exportation of children, for fear that they will be taken to some other province for sale.
MISCELLANEOUS,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The Amoy Horticultural Society held its fourth annual show of flowers and vegetables on 14th instant on the lawn of Beach House. Notwithstanding the continuous wet weather the exhibits of flowers far exceeded those of previous years.
A native steamboat company has been or- ganised at Chinkiang to run small launches from that city to and from Nanking, Yang- chow, and Soochow The launches will tow native boats (as in going from Shanghai to Soochow), and will greatly improve the present slow methods of reaching places on the canal. The office of the company in Nanking has been opened, but boats have not yet begun to run.
Captain Cowie, of the P. and O. steamer to Shanghai, on the 10th inst. at noon, in lat. 30 Shanghai reports that on the voyage from Kobe deg.01 min. N., long, 125 deg. 09 min. E. (approx- imate), ship going five knots, two casts of the patent lead, with ten minutes' interval between the casts, showed nine fathoms, black mud, where the chart shows from 28 to 30 fathoms. The ship was stopped and ten minutes after- wards the deep sea lead was used and 24 fathoms, black mud, obtained.
The Messenger for April says:-Mr. von Brandt has been appointed adviser to the Chinese Government on foreign affairs. He will be The provided with a residence in Peking. Emperor has said to the Ministers that they ought to recommend for employment persons of ability who are acquainted with foreign affairs. Failing to obtain Chinese answering to this description the Ministers have recom- mended Mr. von Brandt, who was for twelve years Minister for Germany.
The French gunboat Lutin arrived at Saigon on the 8th April and was immediately paid off. Her crew, who have completed their term of service on the station, will leave by one of the first steamers for Marseilles. The Lutin is to undergo a through overhaul at the Saigon arsenal; her guns will be taken out, her boilers changed, and her fittings renewed throughout. the vessel will be taken to Phompenh and of- After the repairs and refittings are completed fered by the French Government to H.M. No- rodom, King of Cambodia.
The native high authorities at Soochow have given orders for the macadamising of a high road leading from the native city to connect with the future principal thoroughfare of the new foreign settlements outside the north or Panmen gate of that city. Mr. Tsai, formerly Mixed Cotrt magistrate of Shanghai, has been appointed by Governor Chao to superintend the building of the new road, on account, very probably, of his experience in the Model Settle- ment. The German and Japanese Consuls or their representatives in Soochow have already commenced marking out the sites for their respective Consulates.-N. C. Daily News.
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[April 23, 1896.
Some time ago Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg and Co. applied to the authorities for permission to build an oil tank at Kiukiang, and one at Hankow, but their application was refused by the Chinese officials. Owing to the great demand for oil and their inability to obtain concessions to store oil in the open river ports, we are given- to understand they intend erecting another tank on their premises at Pootung. It was the intention of the British owned "Shell" Line of steamers to run direct with their cargoes of oil to either Kiukiang or Hankow, but so far no steamer has yet proceeded up the Yangtsze. This objection on the part of the Chinese officials should at once be brought to the notice of Sir Claude MacDonald and the China Ås- sociation-Mercury.
Dr. Renvers, Fleet-Surgeon of the German Asiatic squadron, died on board the Flagship Kaiser in Yokohama harbour on Saturday, 11th April. It seems that in the early hours of the morning, having occasion to take some medicine, Dr. Renvers inadvertently poured out some corrosive sublimate in solution and drank it off. He immediately applied a stomach-pump, but it was of no avail, and death speedily supervened. The sad and sudden death caused deep regret on board. and throughout the fleet on the news becoming known. Flags were half-masted on all the shipping in the harbour on Saturday. On Sunday morning the remains recorded full naval honours. The coffin was were interred in Yokohama Cemetery, being
covered with lovely wreaths, and some officers and men from H.M.S. Edgar followed in the procession.-Japan Mail.
The China Gazette says:- -An additional number of decent houses within a short distance of the business centre of this settlement has been a long felt desire by several foreign residents, and we are glad to observe that the Shanghai Land Investment Company are preparing to meet this demand in a manner that is praiseworthy; the Municipal Council, too, has acted wisely in purchasing ten mow of land for the purpose of refer to is situated in the Hongkow district and utilising it into a public garden. The spot we is bounded as follows:-north by Quinsan Road, south by Boone Road, east by Chapoo Road, and west by North Szechuen Road. There will be about 200 houses forming a sort of square, in the centre of which will be the garden, and those already built look handsome and neat. JO course the houses will vary in size, and from a sanitary point of view we think the locality to be a good one.
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A deputation consisting of the Rev. Dr. Muirhead, the Rev. Hadson Taylor, the Rev. H. C. Hodges, the Rev. J. Stevens, and the Rev. G. H. Bondfield, representing British organisations, missionaries and missionary waited on Sir Claude MacDonald at the British Consulate at Shanghai on the 10th April. Sir Claude was presented with a copy of the Hand- the Mission Press, and a copy of the book of Chinese Missions, recently published by Im- A.. cordial · perial" Chinese. New Testament. welcome was given to Sir Claude on behalf of the general body of British Protestant mis- sionaries, and various facts connected with the number of missionaries, the growth of the native church, etc., were put before him. Sir much gratified by the welcome he had received Claude, in reply, expressed himself as being and as much interested in the progress and success of missionary work.
Shortly after Liu Kung-yu, the successor of Chang Chih-tung, as Viceroy of the Liang- kiang, took over the seals of office at Nanking he stopped the completion of the horse road within that city which runs from the West gate to the Viceregal Yamen, but finding that what had already been done by Chang was of convenience to the people he desired to have the work continued and called upon the con- structor of the road, as well as Prefect Li of the city, and asked their opinion on the subject. They told Liu that the road was begun by Chang Chih-tung in opposition to the wishes of the people and they advised him not to continue The Kobe Herald of the 7th April says:—— the work, but to listen to the favour asked by The M. M. steamer Saghalien had the mis- the people, in consequence of which the road is fortune to take the ground early on Friday to remain in its unfinished condition. Mercury. morning last when steaming in to Rokuren to A serious fire occurred at 10 o'clock on the pick up a pilot. Fortunately the mail steamer night of the 4th April in the compound of the was going dead slow at the time. The ship Board of Revenue, Peking, and lasted for overstruck at about 4 a.m., we hear. Anchors were eight hours. The conflagration began in the got out fore and aft to keep the ship steady. Dyes and Colours godown, and, spreading, ap- At 10.30; the tide having risen in the meantime, pears to have consumed a considerable portica the ship floated off. An examination showing of the business offices of that Board, no less that she had sustained no damage to speak of, At Yokohama on the 8th April a house on the than eighty odd rooms being destroyed, includ- the voyage to Kobe was resumed as soon as the Bluff owned by Captain Walker, and occupied ing the Ta Tang or "Great Council Room anchors could be picked up, which operation by Mrs. Drummond and Captain J. W. Ekstrand where the Presidents and Vice-Presidents are took the best part of an hour. Pilot James was destroyed by fire. The contents of the wont to assemble in Council on important occa- boarded the steamer after she took the ground, house belonging to Capt. Ekstrand were insured sions. A decree of the 6th instant wired to the and the Yokohama Maru, outward bound, passed for 2,500 yen with the London Assurance Cor-Hupao consigns the high Ministers of that just after the big steamer got off, and enquired poration and those of Mrs. Drummond for
if any assistance was wanted. Luckily the 3,000 yen with the New Zealand Fire Assurance
Saghalien's officers were enabled to reply in the Company.
negative.
The Peking and Tientsin Times says :-)
-We learn that among the many tenders sent in to the Imperial Chinese Railways last week for 10,000 casks Portland cement and 2,200 tons of steel rails and fastenings for the new railway those of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. were the lowest in both cases and have therefore been accepted.
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Board and the officers in charge of the Dyes and Colours godowns to the Board for determi- | nation of suitable penalties.
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