CHINESE INTELLIGENCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5541, 31 December 1878, Page 2

CHINESE INTELLIGENCE.

(OWN CORRESPONDENT PRESS AGENCY.) Hongkong, November 9. Business still continues very slack, and freights very low. The A.S.N. Company havo again chartered the British steamer Charlton—for Port Darwin, Sydney, and Melbourne—for a lump sum of 14,000 dollars. The French barque Idene is also on the berth for Melbourne and Sydney, for which she receives 25s per ton of 50 feet.

The Mitsin Bishi Steamship Company intend shortly running a line of steamers to Hongkong. Typhus and dysentery have been raging at Shantung, and have caused great mortality amongst the people, being weakened by the late famine.

The Italian barque Bianca Pertica haß been lost between Nagasaki and Hongkong, with a cargo of coal. There is only one survivor out of a crew of fifteen.

Dr. Wong, a well-known Chinese physician at Canton, who obtained his degree from Edinburgh, died on the 10th instant. ' Russian advices from Turkestan report a severe engagement between three thousand Chinese troops and the Kashgarian rebels, in | which the former were almost annihilated. [ A bronze statue in honor of Lord Beacons« field is to be erected at Hongkong. Tliree million dollara of a new Japanese loan is to be allotted by Government for opening mines, establishing factories, mills, &c. Great difficulty is experienced in some provinces of China in checking cultivation of the poppy, owing to tho carelessness and inattention of the officials. The revenue schooner Li Chi was lost in a galo between Swatow and Hongkong. Only two on board escaped. The Russian steamer Batrak, on tho coast of Saghalien, on the 19th September, was swept by a tidal wave on to the rocks. No lives were lost. ~_ An address signed by 2262 Chinese shopkeepers of Hongkong, expressing confidence iu Governor Heunessy, has been sent to the Queen. The British barque Barbara Taylor was totally wrecked during a gale off the coast of Quelpart. The natives fed the crew until a steamer from Nagasaki came and took them to that port. There has baen a serious outbreak on the Island of Hainau. Tho Hakkas revolted, took three towns, and now threaten the capital. They are reported to have committed gross barbarities.

The British brigantine Flying Scud, from Nagasaki to Newchwang, coal-laden, went ashore near the latter port, and became a total wreck.

The rebellion in Kwangu still continues. General Li-Yung-Choi, the insurgent leader, sets up a claim to the sovereignty of Tonquin as representative of the last reigning dynasty. The rebels have taken several towns in Yunan. No alarm appears to be felt in Canton concerning the rebels. The Governor of Hongkong has prohibited the export of arms and ammunition from Hongkong.