CHINESE MEDICINE.
The trade iu fungus carried on iu this colony, says the Auckland Herald, has long afforded food for speculative discussion as to what uses it was put to by the Chinamen. The attentiou of the Customs authorities has also been called of late years to the export of fungus from this colony to China, and inquiries have been instituted as to its destination, use, and value. We have been furnished by Mr Hill, Collector of Customs at this pprt, with copies of correspondence ou the subject, from which we extract the following particulars : —The demand arose iu New Plymouth with a Chinese dealer, Mr Chow Ching, who advertised for and first purchased the material; the merchants aud traders of the place, on inquiring of their correspondents in Sydney and other ports where Chinese morchauts were established, finding that the article was in demand in any quantity in China, entered into trade iu competition with Mr Chow Ching, aud bought of both settlers and the Maoris. Further than this little more is known of it by them as an article of commerce. The price paid iu Taranaki has been 2d to 2\ per lb ; the quantity exported up to last March has been 115 bales, each containing 4Solbs, in all about Gs,2C>olb?. Twelve months ago the Hon. \V. Fox wrote to the Colonial Secretary, Hongkong, asking as to the uses to which the fungus is applied, aud to its marketable value in China. The following reply has latoly beeu received, dated Hongkong, 11th June, 1873 :—" In reply to
your letter regarding the accompanying specimen of a kind of fungus, on which you desire a report, I have the honor to inform you that this fungus ia much prized by the Chinese community as a medicine, administered in the shape of a decoction to purify the blood. It is also used on fast-days. A mixture of vermicelli, bean curd, and this fungus is boiled and eaten instead of animal food. The sample which accompanied your letter. ia a very good one. The ordinary price of the article is from seventeen to twenty taels per pecul, wholesale, and one mace five caudereens to two mace per catty, retail, —that is to say, about per lb. I may add that a superior kind of the fame fungus is produced in the Chinese provinces of Sze Chuen and Tun-Nau, which is sold, at the rate of thirty dollars per pecul (133 lbs.) —I have, &c, Cecil Clementi Smith, Acting Colonial Secretary."
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1163, 31 March 1874, Page 2
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418CHINESE MEDICINE. Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1163, 31 March 1874, Page 2
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