NEWS FROM JAPAN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1715, 19 August 1879, Page 2

NEWS FROM JAPAN.

[By Telegraph.] [Peb Pbesb Agency.] YOKOHAMA, June 27. There has been an extraordinary rise in Japanese paper cuirenoy. A few weeks ago the difference between the value of geld coin and paper currency was thirty-eight per cent. The; difference now is only 15. The advance, however, is merely fanciful. According to a paper prepared for the German Asiatic Society by Mr Mayel of the Imperial Civil Service, the financial position of Japan shows a liability of 360,250,356 dole., against which the Treasury holds a specie reserve of 12,000,000 dols. He estimates tho total Bpecie in Japan to be no more than 31,937,728 dols., of which 20,000,000 dols. are hoarded and withdrawn from circulation. 4U through the southern part of the empire the cholera, which made its appearance in 1877 and lingered through 1878 is raging with varying intensity. No accurate estimate can be formed as to the number of deaths, but it is large. There is still much doubt whether it is the true Asiatic cholera or a local and less malignant form. The pestilence is travelling fast in a north-easterly direction, and active measures are being taken by the Government to prevent its introduction into Yokohama. All vessels arriving from infected ports are to be examined by a medical officer before being allowed to have communication with the shore. The young Prince Hem-y of Germany paid a visit to the Mikado, who received him in the most marked manner, and invested him with the Order of the Rising Sun. After a brief stay in the metropolis he returned to his ship. He is expected to visit Hokodato._ General Grant has been obliged to alter his contemplated route so 83 to avoid certain districts stricken with cholera, and which he originally intended to visit. He is warmly welcomed by foreigners of all nations. Most unsatisfactory news comes from the silk districts. A fatal disease has broken out which attacks the worm in the second stage of cocoon spinning, and the result is that the silk is rendered valueless. The crop is therefore expected to be a very short one. A Native paper gives currency to the following :—A man residing in Ooobin has discovered a way of manufacturing cotton and paper from rocks, and an application to build a factory has been granted by the local Government. It says that the stones are ground into a fine powder, which is placed in water. The part which sinks to the bottom is said to be capable of being mpnufactured into cotton, and that which floats into paper. Several of the Bussian otter hunfng vessels met with bad weather smong the Northern Islands, and were wrecked. A boat's crew of the Eliza were drowned while endeavoring to get an anchor outside the line of surf, in the hope of working her off the beach, .The crew of the Dido, another

wrecked vessel, encountered severe hardships from csld ?a endeavoring to reach the nearest settlements, and one succumbed. The season is described as one succession of gales, and so cold that buckets of sea-water left on the deck for a few minutes would freeze.

A harbor master's department i% to bo established at Yokohama, and necessary steps taken for the protection of a licensed pilot. A Native Insurance Company is about to be started, with a capital of 500. CC Jiols. A Christian church has been built at Tabio, and about 4CD Japanese believers, besides Europeans, were present at the opening. • A Japanese Missionary consecrated the building, and addressed the assembly. The Japanese Government have sent to Australia for a few horeec, not more than fifteen hands high, for the purpose of testing their fitness for cavalry. Whale fishing last month was very profitable to the whalers of Nizen.