CHINESE REPUBLIC.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 322, 11 July 1912, Page 5

CHINESE REPUBLIC.

ALARMING REPORTS. THE FINANCES IN DISORDER. MUKDER AND RAPINE RAMPANT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Brisbane, July 10. Port Darwin Chinese files state that China politically is in a chaotic condition. Things are in a hopeless tangle financially. e.iul there is wholesale swindling and corruption, particularly in the direction of high military officers, who are drawing pay for thousands of nonexistent troops, with the avowed purpose of putting down lawlessness. The wholesale decapitations and other cruelties practised under the new regime equal in horror some of the most bloody records under the old Manchu rule. The Central Government is without revenue, owing to the Provincial Governments retaining all money collected in their respective provinces. The country is flooded with Government money that is practically valueless. Hordes of bandits are ravaging certain districts, and piracies on the West River and other waterways are still frequent, despite the fact that most of the rivers are patrolled bv gunboats. It is alleged that many innocent people have been beheaded, whose, only crime is that they have excited the enmity of some official in power. There Is general discontent at the present conditions, and rumors of further revolutions being hatched in Hongkong.