NEWS FROM CHINA.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1448, 7 October 1878, Page 3

NEWS FROM CHINA.

[OWN COEEESI’ONDENT of peess agency.] Shanghai, August 3. The famine in the north of China is happily decreasing. The prospects of the autumn harvest arc encouraging, and the local committee have decided that the efforts to collect subscriptions abroad may now be relaxed. The total amount collected by foreigners for the famine fund was nearly £40,000 sterling. The famine has certainly been one of the most fearful visitations of its kind, and the attendant horrors have been truly shocking. That women and children should at such a time in China be sold to slavery and prostitution was to be expected, But, though the native authorities have often denied it, there is no doubt that murder and cannibalism has been common in some of the districts. Human flesh has been openly sold for food. These facts are vouched for by foreign missionaries, who undertook the distribution of relief, and many of whom have fallen victims to fever and other diseases, caught in the discharge of their self-imposed task.

Considerable interest is now being excited in Shanghai by a proposed loan of 1,500,000 harquan taels (a little under half a million sterling) to the Chinese. The loan is needed to defray the cost of the late campaign in Kashgar and was being negotiated through the Hong Kong, and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chinese having to pay nearly 14 per cent, interest per annum. A long correspondence has, however, thrown grave doubts on the position of the Bank, as to whether they would bo principals or agents, and, consequently, as to the legality of their charges ; also as to whether the real borrowers were the Imperial Chinese Government. It is likely that the negotiations will fall through. The inquiry has also shown the security for previous Chinese Imperial loans to bo somewhat unsatisfactory. The present summer in Shanghai is one of the hottest for several years past, the thermometer registering 95.0 Fahrenheit in the shade. There have been several cases of sudden death in consequence, but, on the whole, the season is healthy, a fact commonly remarked in hot summers.

Ilia Excellency Dr. J. F. Elmore, the Peruvian Minister to China and Japan, arrived in Shanghai a few days ago. He had been granted an enthusiastic reccplion by the Mikado in Japan. The emigration to Peru has not hitherto been in very good order, but efforts are about to be made to re-open it under improved conditions. The “ Coming Man ” in China is said to bo the Viceroy Tso, the general who, after s, long and determined war, has succeeded in gecapturing for China the lost province of Kashgar. The way in which Tso eondnoted that campaign has shown him to possess some

of the highest qualities of soldiership. He has been compared to some of the famous Roman generals. The result also proved the Chinese soldiers to bo composed of very different stuff to their predecessors of nearly thirty years ago. They are better armed, and fight well. Tso is said to have very antiforeign leanings, but this is by no means certain.

The British ship Harlaw (a favorite China trader), commanded by Captain Stephens, became a total wreck. She loft Sydney in June last with about 1200 tons of coal, consigned to Messrs Adams, Bell and Co., of this port. On July 30bh she had reached to within a few miles of Shanghai and anchored for the night. Early the next morning a foreign pilot look charge of her. A fresh breeze was blowing, which afterwards increased to a gale, and the vessel was driven on to the Tung Sha bank, where she became a total wreck and ultimately disappeared. One of the crew was drowned ; the others left in the ship’s boats. One of the boats, containing the captain, pilot, and eleven others, was picked up by a Chinese pilot boat. The men had been away from the ship forty-eight hours, during which time they were without food, and the sea was very rough. Nothing has been heard of the other boats, which contained fourteen of the crew. H.M.S. gunboat Hornet has gone in search’of them. The Harlaw was a full-rigged ship of 894 tons register and belonged to the White Star line. The following sailing vessels are now loading at Eoochow with tea for Australia— Alice Mary, Wandering Minstrel, Rosebud, and James Wilson.

The Provincial Government of Kwantung have sanctioned the appropriation of 10,000 dollars towards the relief of distressed districts in that province. The native Christians at Kien Ning Fua and Yen Pingfu Fohkien have been subjected to much violence and illtreatment. At the former city a chapel belonging to the Church Missionary Society has been destroyed. On the 25th July a remarkable and fatal occurrence took place on board the steamer Elgin while at Sargoa. One of the men fell into the tank hold, and in endeavoring to rescue him three more of the crew lost their lives, and two others were injured. The men were it appears suffocated by the foul air generated in the hold by damp cargo and want of ventilation. The Pekin “Gazette” contains a decree summoning Chung How, Military Governor of Feng Tien, to Pekin. It is believed he is to bo sent on a mission to Russia, probably in connection with Kashgaria, or to,negotiate for the rendition of the big slice of it now in Russian occupation. Chung How was the Mandarin sent to France on a mission of apology for the Kung King massacre. A lodge under name St. John’s, Scotch Constitution, will be opened here this month. This is the first lodge in the colony working under a dispensation granted from the G.L. of Scotland.