The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-04-11
China.

The agreement between the three great
coastng steamship companies-the China
NJ erchants, the Indo- China and the China
Navigation companies-has expired and
there is not at present much prospect of its
being renewed. The result has been con-
siderable reduction in freight and passage
rates, each company invading the province
of the other.
A strike of engineers on the coasting
steamers was threatened at Shanghai some
ten days ago, but was averted by the conf
panies conceding almost all that was asked
by the engineers.
The tender of Messrs. JaIdine, Matheson
& Co. for 100 tons of rails and fastenings,
OF nglish manufacture, for the extension
OF the railway from Kaiping to the new coal
mine Of Linsi, has been accepted by the di-
rectors of the railway company.
Says the Shanghai Mercury: OF all the
provinces which suffered such fearful and
unprecedented disasters last year Shantung
seems to have reached the climax of her
mlStoTtuneS. Great as were the woes of her
neighbor province, Honan, during the try
ing times of the Cheng Chou disaster, the
mIStortuneS OF Shantung, following as they
did in the wake of each other, have eclipsed
them. 1t Will be remembered that hardly
had the Cheng Chou breach completed its
ravages than breaches ut other localities
followed Ill Its train, spreading deyasta-
ton and misery through every town and
hamlet of the province. To accentuate the
sutferngS already beyond endurance, to-
ward the end of the past year, q fearful
epidemic made its appearance in one of its
populous districts, laying down thousands
In Its onward march. in one of the towns
few miles distant from the district city,
out OF population of over 10000 souls 1900
persisted, or one in every six of its inhabi-
tants. And in the district city itself the
rayages OF death have been hardly less spar
ing, cutting down hundreds of all classes.
What the deaths were in the surrounding
towns and villages it is impossible to form
any accurate estimate, as no statistics be-
yond mere approximate guessing were ever
taken But the death rate must have been
quite appalling. The son of the District
Magistrate was also stricken with the pre-
vaillng disease, and though proclamations
were issued offering substantial rewards to
any one who could prescribe a remedy to
stay the scourge, no physician or sorcerer
has yet arrived at successful result
Inc Shaw PaO, native paper, says:
The drain on the wealth of China by The
purchase Of foreign opium amounts to TO-
100000 taels annually Opium was origi-
nally imported only for medicine. From
about the year 1910 the taste for the drug
as luxury rapidly spread, and it was
much less lightly taxed than now, paying
only taels per chest to the Chinese reve-
nue.. Before and up to 1865 the annual i'm
import was forbidden by law, but thirty or
forty chests still found their way in every
year. In 1889 the VicerOy Lin TSeh-su
burned large quantity by force, but this
LED to war with Great Britain, and since
then China has had to sign treaties submit
ting to the legalized Importation. At pres
ent about 100000 chests are sent hither
from India annually. The opium habit has
thus received such an extension that now
1unnan, SZechuan, Shantung Shansh
Honan and Chekiang all find it profitable
to grow the poppy. The natives living at
remote points from treaty rorts may be
said to use native opium exclusively, and
that Of Iunnan is considered better, as
well as cheaper, than the Indian drug.
The Chinese Times gives an account of
the negotiations that have followed the re-
cent accidental shooting of a Ningpo tailor
at Tientsin. Acting on hint from the
Niceroy, the Chekiang guild, which had
taken the matter up, agreed to accept $1,000
compensation from. Mr.. Shaw and his
friends, and make the sum up themselves
to $1,000 to be paid the bereaved family.
Having agreed to this, they soon repudiated
their own promise to subscribe, wealthy as
they are, and have since been trying to get
other foreigners to make up the sum-
Meanwhile the corpse is left at the Metro
poltan Hotel in terrorem. The Times
adds: One concrete example like this is
worth volumes of theory on the weakness
Of Chinese administration, more especially
as IL occurs IN the jurisdiction OF the one
strong man in the empire. 1t is indeed
strange that in Tien.sin, to which the most
important affairs of the empire are re-
ferred, the authorities should be unable to
dispose of trumpery question at their very
| DOORS
In the Picking Gazette of the first of
February is a report from the Governor of
Shantung announcing the closing Of the
breach in the Yellow River embankment at
Hsichihfang; and in that of the 9Th is a long
| memorial explaining the great superiority
of the new mouth that the river has
adopted, through which sea-going junks
have been passing with perfect ease.