CHINA.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 43, 27 December 1842, Page 4

CHINA.

ORIGIN OP TIIK WAll. (Continued from No. 42 J Large quantities of raw silk are exported ■since the opening of the trade, and the amount is annually s >ooo 000 pounds.. The sugar of China is superior to the sugar of the West Indies ; but to protect our West India colonies a duty of 300 per cent, is levied. Since the emancipation of the slaves, and the decrease in the quantity of the West India sugar, about 200,000 pounds worth of clayed and candied sugar have been imported from China. Since the great increase of the opium trade gold and silver have been largely exported ; in the year 1834 its value was 1,197,735/.; and the total annual value of the British exports from China was in 1838 about 8,000,000/. sterling. Our principal imports to China are coarse woollens, watches, glass, iron, and lead from England direct, and opium and cotton wool from India. The wealthy Chinese formerly used fur clothing, as the winters are very cold even in the southern provinces, but the diminished supply and the high prices of fur have caused the comfortable woollen fabrics of England to be extensively used. Watches used to be sold in large quantities. No well dressed Chinese in the south considers his costume complete without a pair of English watches. The value of British imports was about 2,600, 000/., and the balance of trade in our favour was made up by the importations from our Indian empire, so that instead of Hindostan remitting 500,000/. or 600,000/. annually to Great Britain in specie, her remittances are made in Chinese produce. The cotton wool imported from British India is valued at 1,600, 000/., and the opium at 4,500,000/. ; and it is the importation of this article that the Tartar rulers of China have made a pretext to insult and annoy us.

Opium Trade. —Opium is grown in the provinces of Sze-chuen, Tche-Kiang and Quantung, and it has been used for more than 110 years as-a stimulant by the wealthy ; but the opium grown in India, in the provinces of Malwah, Bahar, and Benares, is cheaper, and of a better quality than the Chinese opium. The earliest records of Indian intercourse with the Chinese relate its importation, in the year 1795; 1,070 chests were shipped from Calcutta ; and since that time the trade has rapidly increased; at first the ships anchored at Whampoa, afterwards at Linton Island, and liong-kong ; and considerable trade in opium was carried on at Macao. The Government have from time to time issued edicts against this trade, but have never taken any means to enforce its decrees. In fact, the Mandarins (the Governor’s officers) not only become the purchasers and consumers of opium, but enter into the trade. Sixty Spanish dollars are paid to them at Macao as a bribe for each chest; and if it be sent to Canton, sixty more. It is said that revenue cutters have been employed for its conveyance —at any rate, the linguist of the Whampoa Custom-house officers was sent to accompany the purchasers of opium aboard the ships, to prevent the delivery of a greater number of chests than had been paid for. The Canton Current, published daily, states the prices and sales, so that little concealment is made. It is true, when a fresh fob-yuen, or civil governor, was appointed at Canton, some of the opium boats were seized, the crews punished, and a pretence made of burning the opium seized upon the hills ; yet it was very well understood not a particle was destroped, and that this manifestation of vigilance was only for the purpose of obtaining large sums from the opium dealers. The foh-yuen having paid the Emperor a large sum for his appointment, he generally adopted this mode of reimbursing himself for the outlay, and, having squeezed a considerable amount from the traders, he quietly allowed the trade to resume its former channels. This question has been viewed in a wrong light. The Chinese people will have opium, and if we do not supply it to them from Canton, country vessels will run large cargoes upon the coasts, for it is a necessary to the people. They clo not drink intoxicating drinks, and their only stimulant is the opium pipe, which is less frequently used to excess in China than ardent spirits, malt liquor, or wine, in other parts of the world; opium smoking is not so hurtful as any of these intoxicating drinks, it is the excess alone that is harmful; and it is found, even in England, that the use of opium succeeds the abandonment of fermented liquors —the inhabitants of all countries use stimulants—the Englishman and German, ale and ardent spirits; the Frenchman, brandy and wine; the Irishman and Scotchman, whisky; the Tartar, fermented mare’s milk ; the inhabitants of India take bang, or hemp juice ■; and the Chinese, the pipe of opium : indeed, after all the outcry that has been raised against the opium trade, it does not amount to three grains per annum for each male in the Chinese empire. The Chinese have a large country trade; their junks supply the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and all the Archipelago of the Indian Ocean. The number of vessels employed in this trade is about 300; the esti-

mated number of junks throughout the empire is about 12,000 sail; but it is the larger trading junks, some of them carrying cargoes valued at 20,000 dollars, which will afford fine prizes to our seamen. The American trade with China is about £2,000,000 annually, and the Dutch, French, Danes, and Spaniards, have some little intercourse with Canton. Money. —The Chinese have no gold or silver coins. Silver is the standard medium of exchange; it is generally in form of bars, and if a bar be too large for the intended payment a piece is cut off. At Canton the circulating medium is Spanish dollars, but dollars and silver bars are-exchanged by weight, for which purpose a Chinese merchant is always prepared with scales. Accounts are kept in leangs, or ounces, or taels. A tael is about 6s. Bd. They use also a small coin called lee, or cash, made of six parts of copper, and four parts of lead; it is about the size of the old farthing, and has a square hole in the middle; the pieces are strung upon a cord, with a knot distinguishing every hundred. 750 cash equal a tael, which makes a lee worth about one-tenth of a penny. There is no system of credit established between the merchants of different provinces, no bills of exchange, and hence great inconvenience, owing to the want of those facilities of commercial intercourse established in every other part of the civilised world. The commerce of China is thus chiefly confined to the operation of bartering the productions of its different provinces, and these are sufficiently numerous to afford room for a very extensive traffic. Ample facilities are afforded by the great rivers, their numerous tributaries, and canals.

The following particulars, in addition to those we give in the next page, of Macao Roads and of Ting-hai, the capital of the island of Chusan, will be found interesting. The account of Macao Roads and Canton are taken from a journal kept by an officer when Lieutenant of a frigate cruising in their seas many years ago, and are published by him to show the probability of a successful issue, and prove that—

“ The right course the Government have now taken to maintain the honour of our flag is the only certain means of settling a just commercial treaty with that bombastic, ignorant, and pusillanimous nation. On making the coast of China the first object that attracts attention is the land named the Great Lama, and a cluster of Islands called the Nine Pins, the neighbourhood of which swarms with fishing boats, a pilot is generally taken on board out of these boats who is always found to be utterly useless, as the charts and hand lead are quite sufficient to carry a ship of war of any draught of water to their anchorage; if going to Macao Roads, which is a very good anchorage, the distance is a few hours’ sail, and the island itself could be taken possession of by 500 men and kept as a garrison for any length of time we thought proper—as well as the safe harbour of Typa, about four miles distant, which is formed by two small islands, where the old Centurion hove down and repaired in 1740, and where I myself refitted a frigate. The spot has plenty of water, and is remarkably healthy, and might in fact be formed into a good dock-yard, and all kinds of provisions would be brought by the natives the moment we cleared the river of the war junks. On ascending the river the next object that presents itself is the island of Lintin, about 30 miles from Macao ; this is a very nice island, having two villages on it, and about 400 inhabitants, and is 16 or 17 miles in circumference ; there is a high peak on the island, good water and safe anchorage. I was at this island three months, it grows good potatoes, and might be kept by a few troops for ever if we thought fit to do so; in winter it is cold enough for European clothes. From the summit of the peak about thirty islands can be counted, and Macao is also visible. Again ascending the river you arrive at the Bogue of Tigris and anchor in Anson’s Bay, a perfectly safe spot, and as for the forts called Anmunghor, or Chumpee, if they deserve the name, our sailors would soon settle that question ; this anchorage may be thirty-five miles from Lintin, Whampoa being the next point of ascent. I can only say that any good-sized frigate may go up to the second bar, perhaps forty miles from Anson’s Bay and Dane’s Island, which taken possession of, or garrisoned by troops, might defy all the army of China to "recapture it. The quantity of trading junks and boats on the river is a mctet astonishing sight to strangers, it actually appears as if all the boats in the world were assembled together; you may well judge what the judicious arrangements of troops and ships of war in those seas might do. And now within twelve miles of Canton, with a draught of water from six to ten feet, what is there to prevent, if necessary, the total destruction of that city, consisting of some 500,000 inhabitants, and the whole surrounding country being open to invasion, and our troops marching from the Yellow Sea to Pekin itself, and gently removing the Celestial Emperor from his downy couch. Let the Government act as the brave old Anson did one hundred years ago, when he decided the question of ships of war paying the

chop-duty, as it is called, at Canton. The Chinese are venal, thievish, corrupt people, abounding with artifice, nor is the constitution of the empire, or the general orders of the State, less liable to' exception. The Centurion alone was an over-match for all the naval power of China; what must, then, be the effect of the present expedition on that nation ? Nothing less than a successful settlement of the question of trade, a proper security given to our merchants and their property, and a just maintenance of the honour of her Majesty’s flag.’’ The principal city in the island of Chusan is Ting-hai, and. is properly described as the capital of the three hundred islands that surround it. It is surrounded by walls thirty feet high. Along the walls, at the distance of every hundred yards, are square stone towers. In the parapets are also embrasures, and holes in the merlons for archery ; but there are no cannon, except a few old wrought-iron pieces near the gate. Of the towns of Europe, Ting-hai bears the i esemblance most of Venice, but on a smaller scale. It is in some degree surrounded, as well as intersected by canals. The bridges thrown over them are steep, and ascended by steps, like the Rialto. The streets, which are no more than alleys or narrow passages, are paved with square flat stones ; but the houses, unlike the Venetian buildings, are low, and mostly of one story. The attention as to ornament in these buildings is confined chiefly to roofs, which, besides having the tiles that cover the rafters luted and plastered over, to prevent accidents from their falling in stormy weather, are contrived in such a form as to imitatate the inward bend of the ridges and sides of canvas tents, or of the coverings of skins of animals or other flexible materials affected by their weight. On the ridges of the roofs are uncouth figures of animals, and other decorations in clay, stone, or iron. The town is full of shops containing chiefly articles of clothing, food, and furniture, displayed to full advantage. Even coffins are painted in a variety of lively and contrasting colours. The smaller quadrupeds, including dogs, intended for food, are, as well as poultry, exposed alive for sale. Loose garments and trousers are worn by both sexes, but the men have hats of straw or cane which cover the head, their hair, except one long lock, being cut short or shaved, while the women have theirs entire, and plaited or coiled becomingly into a knot upon the crown of the head, as is sometimes seen on the female statues of antiquity. Throughout the place there is an appearance of quick and active industry, beyond the natural effect of a clime not quite thirty degrees from the equator. (To be continued.) Poisoning Rats and Mice. —A writer in the Mark Lane Express suggests the following plan for the destruction of those obnoxious vermin: Feed with flour and a few sweet almonds, bruised and mixed together, with a small quantity of treacle, to form a paste (add a few drops of oil of anniseed), for five or six nights, until they take it freely, never laying more of the mixture than they will eat up clean ; then add a teaspoonful of carbonate of barytes to about a pound of the paste.

“ Are you fond of novels, Mr. Jones ?” " Very,” responded the interrogated gentleman, who v/ished to be thought by the lady questioner fond of literature. " Have you,” continued the inquisitive lady, “ ever read * Ten Thousand a-year P’ ” “ No, madam ; I never read so many novels in all my life.”