The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-12-20
CHINA AND JAPAN.
Summary of News Brought by
the Belgic From the Orient.
Social, Religious and business M vements.
Progress of Epidemics-Nsws Enter.
prises Chinese Matters.

BY the Oriental and Occidental steamer
Belglc. which arrived in port yesterday, we
nave Hong-Kong dates to November oath
ana Yokohama dates to December Sd, of
which the following is a summary:
China.
Nearly all the American Presbyterian
missionaries are just leaving Chinanfu for
their annual mission meeting, to be held at
the foreign compound outside of Weihien.
We hear that the Hong Kong Bus Com
pany has wired to its Sydney friends to
Sc nd up forty carefully selected horses and
i've omnibuses, the latter as per approved
plans sent down by the last Australian
mail.
Some time since we learned of opposition
being raised against Mohammedans in vii
lsge in 1chowfu, where they purchased
property for the erection of a mosque. Thus
Christians are not the only ones opposed by
the intolerant Confucian- Buddhist Taoist
Chinaman.
An epidemic Of influenza has broken out
at Newchwang. Most Of the European res
idents and large numbers of natives have
been smitten with the complaint, which
appears to resemble the influenza plague
that swept over Europe and America last
year.
kiakhta diminishes to such an extent that
when the Finance Minister was recently in
Khokand the merchants petitioned him to
increa Sc the duty on Indian tea, and so pro-
tect their trade
The appointment of Sir Cecil Clement
Smith. K. c. NJ. G., as her Majesty's High
Commissioner for the territories of British
North Borneo. Brunei and Sarawak, is
gazetted. The course of silver and exchange
continues to be a source of anxiety to bank
ers and merchants dealing with the far
East.
The deaths resulting from the powder ex-
piosion at TAPPING on Sunday week, says
the N. c. Daily News of Thursday last. are
many more than at first estimated, as no less
than 500 cofins have been taken out of the
city, and still there were not enough to bury
the dead in. A Chinaman lighting his pipe
while repairing the roof of the powder-mill
Is said to have caused the catastrophe.
1t would appear that the settlement of too
many Chinese in the interior of Java does
not find favor with the Dutch Government.
The Surabaya Conrant, in dealing with this
subject, says the Chinese introduce the con-
sumption Of opium wherever they gain a
foothoid inland, TO the impoverishmeDt of
the poorer classes. Chinese Notwithstanding
also works untold mischief among the poor,
who have to pay such high interest that ruin
anu misery DeIaH almost ali OF them wneu
once they take to Borrowing The result is
growing Insecurity and crime among this
class of people, and the Government is
therefore restricting the influx of Chinese.
A correspondent has furnished our
Shanghai morning contemporary with some
very interesting statistics of the personnel
Of the Chinese Impefial Maritime Customs
Service from which we learn, that accord
lug to recently issued service list the staff
consists of 1873 commissioners and assist
ants. Of these, III are British, 16 French.
10 German, Ia Americans, and % of other
nationalities. OF the Americans, IA per
cent have risen from the lower ranks of the
service; of the Germans Is per cent; of the
French, 6 per cent; and of other nationalities,
exclusive Of British, per cent. OF the Brit
lsh, who form about tbree-ffths of the in
door staff not one except in the class of
clerks, has been promoted from the out
door department. This appears even
stranger when we consider that the out
door staff contains more British subjects
than men of all other nationalities CON-
bined.