CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5791, 21 October 1879, Page 2

CHINA.

(correspondents of press agency.) Hongkong, August 29. The Canton tea market has keen very quiet, and settlements have been on a limited scale. The silk market at the same place has only been moderately active. A fair business has been done in both kinds of Bengal drug in the Hongkong opium market. The following sailing vessels are loading at this port for Australia and New Zealand ; John Potts and Orange Grove. At Foochow: Maid of Judah and Celia. The Jessie Macdonald, which arrived here from Newcastle, encountered severe weather, and had all hands at the pumps for 36 hours at one time. , The 6.5. Ben Ledi left on the 10th lor Sydney and Melbourne, with 1,183,2711b5. tea. The Kev. E. Hayward Kidd, M.A., colonial chaplain of Hongkong, died at the Chaplaincy on the 31st ult. There has been so much dry weather in North China of late that fears are entertained about the crops. There is a prospect of the dredging and improving of the harbor of Tako, Formosa, being commenced this year. On the 31st ult. a severe typhoon occurred off the ooast of China, between Shanghai and Cheefoo. Several steamers which encountered it describe the fury as almost unequalled. The Imperial Commissioner for the southern provinces has decided upon putting the coast line of Fuhkein and Formosa in a better state of defence. Heavy artillery for the forts at Anping, in Formosa, and Min-ngan near Foochow, have been ordered from Europe. His Royal Highness the Duke of Genoa, in command of the Italian corvette Nettor Pisani, arrived at Hongkong on the 23rd July, and left for Nagasaki on the 25th. The Prince is making a cruise through the Far East. In a memorial to the throne regarding the fate of the children and grand children of Yakooh Beg, the late Ameer of Kashgaria, the Governor-General states that they will be delivered into the hands of the Imperial household, to be made eunuchs of, and then sent to Turkestan, to be given as slaves to the soldiery in the Amoor region. _ The latest intelligence received concerning the rebellion in Kwanzse, headed by Li-Yung-cboi, states that the Imperialists had attacked the insurgents and driven them back into their mountain fastnesses, whither they dared not follow them. Li-Yung-choi employs his troops when not on guard in raising grain and vegetables for their subsistence. The exclusive right to issue Wei bmg lottery tickets has been farmed out by the authorities for 3i years for one million one hundred thousand dollars. The Queen of the West left here on 2oth July for Melbourne with 434,6311 b. of tea; and the barque Alexa the day after, with 290 2881 b. of tea for Wellington ; and on the 4th’instant the schooner San Francisco with °SS,6S4Ib. of tea for Dunedin. A report is circulating among the Chinese at Amoy that some great catastrophe has taken place within the walk of the Imperial Palace at Peking. Some say that the Emperor, others that one of the Empresses, is Tientsin, August 6.

Some months ago it was announced that an American mining expert had been engaged to investigate the resources of this province reErardin? precious metals, but the result showed that silver deposits have no real scientific essence It was expected that attention would be turned to the region of Je Ho, outside the Great Wall where there have been cold and silver mines for ages. But the amount of inertia displayed by the officials is scarcely credible. Chefoo, August 14.

A trr •'f’f “Form raged here on the Ist 4 ur , u:; . ’ , '1 considerable damage to the vessels in harbor dragged their" anchor.-, and H-W.S. Swinger narrowly escaped being driven ashore. The Norwegian barque Henrick Ibsen having been dismasted and sustained other damage, had to_ pot m hero for repairs. She picked up a Chinaman who had been on a log for two or three days, he

beint' the only survivor from three Shanghai junks. The German barque Von Werder was totally wrecked off the Promontory, in a dense fog, and the German schooner Christian was towed in in a totally disabled condition. During the last fortnight two or three foreigners have died every day through the intense heat. A fire broke out on the evening of the 15th in the French concession here, and it spread with terrible rapidity from left to right, and was soon beyond all control. 991 houses were burnt down before the fire was subdued. The loss is estimated at between four and five million dollars.