CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5437, 30 August 1878, Page 2

CHINA.

(own correspondent press agency.) Hongkong, July 15. The past month has been dull in the freight market, although the amount of disengaged tonnage (38 vessels, registering 26,075 tons) is gradually being reduced. A tax is being levied by the Chinese Government at King Kiaug of three mace per picul on tea and ’six candereens on tea dust. Both taxes are on behalf of the famine fund. There are similar taxes at Hankow. Copious rains have fallen in Chihli and most districts of Sheutung and Shansi and it is hoped that in those parts where seed has been sown there will be a plentiful harvest. Great distress exists in the Tsing Yuen district, owing to inundations. Supplies of grain have been sent from Canton by order of the Viceroy. Fine crops have been reported at Kiangu, Chekiang, and Kivitung, but locusts have appeared near Yauchin, in the first-named province, and excite much apprehension. The barque Knight of Snowdon, from Newcastle, N.S.W., for Manilla, struck on the rocks north of Cape Santiago, in the Phillipines, and became a total wreck. The captain and crew escaped in boats, and were taken by a Spanish schooner to Manilla. A court of enquiry suspended the certificates of the captain and mate for three months. The barque Santag, also from Newcastle, supposed to have been lost off the coast of New Guinea, arrived on the 22nd ultimo. She sighted the wreck of a large ship on Polkington Bank, but was unable to approach her. The new scheme of Chinese emigration to Peru hangs fire. The steamer Peruvia still lies at Whampoa, unable to obtain passengers owing to the local authorities insisting on all emigrants paying passage money in advance. Some very successful experiments with the telephone have been made at Taiwan Fu Formosa.

The steamship Glamis Castle, from Amoy to New York, with tea, arrived at Singapore on the 6fch inst., having been four days ashore on an unknown reef to the north of Matuua Island, midway between Saijor and Singapore, and having jettisoned about 1300 tons cargo. Shanghai.

Travellers through the famine districts of Shintung report that while in one portion of the province the people are dying of starvation, in another portion of the same province the. inhabitants have abundance of everything, and news of a famine existing elsewhere is just reaching them. Yokohama, Japan, June 29.

Half of the amount of the domestic loan of twelve million dollars, which was floated a few weeks ago, has been subscribed for. A separate bureau has been established to regulate the export of grain, so as to keep the price at a certain level, and to retain enough in the Government godowns to secure the people from the effects of a possible famine.