CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5468, 5 October 1878, Page 3

CHINA.

(own correspondent press AOENOr.) Shanghai, August 3. The famine in the north of China is happily decreasing. The prospects of the autumn harvest are 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. This 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 have 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, many of whom have fallen victims to fever and other diseases caught in the discharge of their selfimposed task. Considerable interest has now been excited in : Shanghai by a proposed loan of 1,500,000 Harqunn 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 Hongkong 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 be principals or agents, and, consequently, as to the legality of their charges; also, as to whether the real borrowers were the Imperial Chinese Government, and it is likely that the negotiation will fall through. The inquiry has also shown the security for previous Chinese Imperial loans to be somewhat unsatisfactory. ..The present summer in Shanghai is one of the hottest experienced for several years past, the thermometer often registering 95° fahr. 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. His Excellency. Dr. J. F. Elmore, the Peruvian: Minister to Chinn and Japan, arrived in Shanghai a few days ago. He had been granted an enthusiastic reception by the Mikado in Japan! The emigration to Peru has not hitherto been in very good odour, but efforts are about to be made to reopen it under improved conditions. The “ coming man” in China is said to be the Viceroy Tso, the general who, after a long and determined war, has succeeded in recapturing for China the lost provinces of Kashgar. The way in which Tso conducted that campaign has shown him to possess some of the highest qualties of soldiership. He has been compared to some of the famous Roman generals. The result has also proved the present 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 anti -foreign leanings, but this is by no means certain. Daring the past i week there has been some very rough weather,on the coast of China. The P. and O. Company’s steamer Pekin on her voyage from Hongkong got into a typhoon and lost one of her boats and bad two others stove in. During the gales the British ship Harlow, a favorite China trader, commanded by Captain Stevens, became a total wreck. ■" She left Sydney, Now South Wales, in June last, with about twelve hundred tons coal, consigned to Messrs. Adamson, Bell, and Co,, of this port. On Tuesday evening, July 30th, she had reached to within a few miles of Shanghai, and anchored for the night. Early the next morning a foreign pilot took charge of her. At that time a fresh breeze was blowing, which afterwards increased to a gale, and the vessel wqs driven on to the Tung-sha Bank, where she became a total wreck, and ultimately disappeared beneath the waves. One of the crew was drowned; the others left in the ship’s boats. One of the boats, with the captain, pilot, and 11 others, was picked up by a Chinese pilot boat. The men had been away from the ship fortyeight hours, during which time they were without food or stimulants, and- the sea was very rough. Nothing has been hoard of the other boats, which contained fourteen of the crew ; and H.M. 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 Foochow with tea for Australia : Alice Maryj Wandering Minstrel, Rosebud, and James Wilson. The following are expected to load tea at the same port, also for Australia:— The steamer Brisbane (or Normanby), the steamer Namoa, and the sailing vessel Hopeful. .The arrivals of Hankow tea to date are as follows ;—Firat crop, 26,000,000 lbs ; second crop, 11,600,000 lbs ; third drop, 400,000 lbs. Total, 38,000,000 lbs ; or about equal to last year’s first crop. Hongkong, August 18. The weather is intensely hot, being 98 in the shade. Tho Chinese prophecy a typhoon this year, which will probably prove true, os none have ocoured for four years. The following vessels have arrived from Newcastle since my last: —Mary Blair, Madeline Fonteniigd, Dirijo, Hiram, Prince Louis, Mpneta, Corrientes, Glamorganshire, Lottie Moore, Albert Bussell, Franklin, Aloa ; Tweed from Sydney, and May, 58 days from Wellington. Tfio latter is now loading for New Zealand, - and the Charlotte Andrew for Sydney. The Lord ’ of -the Isles, ’ from' Newcastlo to, Manilla, with a - cargo Of coals, was totally wrecked on the. Ist July on a rook about 300 yards from l the north.oost point of Andrea Island, in the Phillipine Group..' On the 14th July the Spanish steamer Carniquen arrived at the scone of the wreck, and having saved ns much cargo Wi possible left with all hands, arriving at Manilla on the 18th July. A court of inquiry censured Captain Piper for not using

the lead more frequently, but returned his and the mate’s certificates. The hull realised at auction 36 dollars, the cargo of 990 tons coal 168 dollars, and the stores 2256 dollars. The Provincial Government of Hongkong have sanctioned the appropriation of 10,000 dollars towards the relief of the distressed districts in that province. » The native Christians at Kien Ning-Fu and Yeu Ping-Fu, Fohkein, have been subjected to mob violence and ill-treatment. 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 Saigon. 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, instantly suffocated by the foul air generated in the hold by the damp cargo and want of ventilation. A Peking QasctU contains a decree summoning Chang Hsw, Military Governor of Fengtien, to Pekin. It is belseved he is to be sent- on a mission to Russia, probably in connection with Kaahgarm, or to negotiate for ‘the rendition of the big slice of Ili now. in Russian occupation. Chang How, was the mandarin sent to France on the mission of apology after the Tientsin massacre. It is reported on good authority that the Gunga affair at ’ Manilla (the vessel having touched on the rocks, and returned to port) has been referred to the Home authorities, so consignees and agents have to wait the result. A new Masonic Lodge, under the name of the' 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 Grand Lodge of Scotland.