CHINA AND JAPAN.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1597, 2 April 1879, Page 4

CHINA AND JAPAN.

[Press Special Wire.] Wellington, April 1. The special correspondent of the Press Agency writes; — Shanghai, February 7. His Excellency Lin Shie Lung, late Minister from China to Berlin, has just returned to Shanghai on his way to Pekin. A foreign gentleman who travelled with him from Europe, and who holds a high command in the Chinese army tells me the Ambassador has returned with very anti-foreign views and feelings, affirming that China in matters of tone and civilization is in advance of western countries. The kind treatment and reception given to his Excellency do not seem to have had the desired effect. The future of China, so far as relates to its being thrown open to foreigners, and the adoption of foreign inventions, will be greatly influenced by the views of ambassadors who have returned from western lands. It is therefore a matter of regret that the late Minister in his residence in England and Germany should not have been more favorably impressed with what he saw. A serious fire has occurred in Shanghai, the large stores of Messrs Little and Co., commission agents, being completely destroyed. Fortunately there was little merchandise in the stores at the time, and beyond the destruction of the buildings, only a slight loss was sustained. The famine in North China is not over yet. Fearful suffering continues, and several foreigners have gone to render help. The total subscription amounts to £50,000, of which £2521 remains in hand. The committee of ihe relief fund in their report speak of contributions from Melbourne and Adelaide as very liberal. The drought in Shantmg was succeeded by floods, which destroyed a large amount of property, sweeping away whole villages, and the loss of life was dreadful. The British barque Lunan was lost on a rock near the harbor of Amoy. Blamo is attributed to the captain, and his certificate ■ivae suspended for six months.

China seems determined to add to her manufacturing industries in a manner which must ultimately greatly affect foreign trade. It has been resolved to establish a woollen manufactory under the Government at Tau Ou Fu, in the north-west. Three foreigners have been brought from Europe to manage the undertaking. The necessary machinery is on the way. Woollen cloths are to be manufactured after the most approved methods adopted in Europe. The probable reason for the selection of a site for a manufactory in the far north-west is that the district abounds with sheep, and wool is cheap. Some Chinese merchants ore about to establish a cotton mill at Shanghai. Cotton is grown in the district, and is sent to Europe for manufacture. Labour here is very cheap, and it is expected that this cotton mill will be the first of a large number of similar concerns. An attempt is to be made to tan Chinese cowhides, now exported in considerable quantities, after the European fashion. A case of considerable importance has been brought before a mixed Court at Shanghai. A man of Chinese descent, born at Singapore, who has for many years registered himself as a British subject, has been denied British protection in consequence of not having registered himself last year. Sir Rutherford Alcock, when British Minister in China, endeavoured to make a rule compelling those of Chinese descent who claimed British protection to wear foreign clothes. It was not stated what kind of clothes, and the Chinese concerned appealed to the Foreign Office to know what fashion they should observe, and whether, indeed, the rule was compulsory. No reply having been received, the individual in question did not register last year, because it was thought that registration without conformity with the other requirements would be useless. The matter affects many others besides the parties immediately concerned. Many English people resident i» Chinese ports do not register themselves, and many missionaries in the interior dress in Chinese clothes. It might bo a serious question if protection is to be refused to such. The case, moreover, involves the Constitutional question as to the right to dictate how one should dress, and will probably come before the Privy Council. Business here is very dull, Chinese and Europeans complaining. Intelligence of the death of the King of Corea has been received from New Choang. An electric light company has been formed here for lighting the settlements. Steam communication has been started between Wenchow and this place. It is believed a good paying trade will be developed. From the province of Shansi deplorable accounts are received of vast tracts of land uncultivated, numbers of villages in ruins, and heaps of human bodies lying unburied. Farnham and Co., shipwrights, have taken over the docks, works, &c., of the China Merchants’ Company, at a yearly rental, and contract to execute any running repairs to the company’s steamers. It is stated Ichat the idea of constructing a railway from the coal mines at Kai Ping to the sea coast by Chinese has been abandoned, on account of the expense involved in making a circuitous route coastwise. The land on the direct route is owned by Manchus, who will not part with it for the purpose of an innovation which they dislike. Particulars are to hand of the loss of the British barque Star Queen on the way from Shanghai to Nagasaki, off the coast of Japan. It appears that the captain was killed by a falling mast, and twenty of the crew were lost. The survivors were kindly treated by the natives of Goto.

At Ohufoo there have been several wrecks lately, and many lives lost, some by drowning, but more from the intense severity of the frosts

Hokgkokg, February 21. The Chinese new year passed with the usual joviality and firing of crackers. A telegraph line is to be laid between Hongkong and Manilla by the Spanish Government.

A new lino of Dutch steamers between Java, Manilla, and this port will shortly be started.

The Yellow River again burst its banks, and flooded the surrounding country, doing immense damage. Some trouble is likely to arise out of a disturbance which occurred in the gold region of Kirin, during which a Russian was killed by the populace. During an engagement with three salt smuggling junks near Macao, G. P. Darke, quartermaster on a Chinese revenue cruiser, was shot dead by the smugglers. The postal scheme at the treaty ports of China is likely to be carried out, and the Inspector-General of Customs is endeavoring to obtain the sanction of all the Governments of the postal union to his plans. The ratification of the emigration convention between Spain and China has been exchanged. The arsenals at Kiangnan, Nankin, and Hangchow are actively employed casting heavy guns and manufacturing small arms. Telegrams have been sent to England to hasten the completion of some ironclad gunboats.

The British brig Aline struck a reef near the Island Yoodnoshima. The captain and crew were saved, but the vessel is a total wreck.

All trades in Canton are very dull owing to the distress prevailing. A daring raid was made by a band of robbers upon a shop at Hang Ham, near the docks of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. An Indian watchman and two others were shot by the robbers. The shop was looted and burned to the ground. The ruffians escaped with their booty. An engagement took place in Hlman between the Imperial troops and Hakkas, who have revolted. The Imperialists were defeated with the loss of five Mandarins and 500 soldiers. The report at the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders in the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is favorable. The net profits for the half-year amount to 319,727d015,, of which, after payment of directors, &c., there remains for appropriation 307,303 dollars. Out of this, they pay a dividend of £1 per share, and place 100,000 to the reserve fund, which will then stand at 1,300,000d015. Seven of the Malay crew of the barque Kate Waters, who murdered the captain and officers, arrived in custody to-day, and will be taken before the magistrate to-morrow. General Kawagi, Japanese Minister of Police and a guest of His Excollercy the Governor, arrived here en route for Europe, to inspect the prison systems of the Continent and Great Britain. He has visited our gaol and police establishment. Another fire broke out last night, by which a European-built house was destroyed. It was the act of an incendiary. Five men have been arrested for plundering property during the fire.

The Emperor of Germany’s private secretary—Herr Schneider—who has lately died, had been for thirty-four years preparing the pillow for his head in his coffin, at least so says the Deutsche Zeitung. The pillow is stuffed with Herr Schneider’s own hair, which he has carefully collected whenever cut off, and which varies from the bright fair locks of youth to the snow white of later years. An instance of a man who was born tired is mentioned by the “ Mark Lane Express. Ho hired out as coachman to an old lady, and showed his triumphant skill as a shirk by cleaning only that side of the horse and carriage thst came round in front of the door. King Ulysses, of Bulgaria, is the latest name in America for General Grant, it being rumoured that the choice of the Bulgarian notables and the European Powers had fallen upon the ex President as the Sovereign of the now eastern State. Not bo Dusty.—A little girl of eight or ton summers being asked what dust was, replied that it was mud with the juice squeezed out.