STARVING CHINESE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2462, 21 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

STARVING CHINESE.

Result of Yellow River Flood.

A correspondent has sent the " China Mail" the following extract from a letter dated January 4th, received from Thomas Pnton, a member of the British and Foreign Bible Society, giving harrowing details of the sufferings endured by the people in the districts flooded by the Yellow lliver. The letter, which is dated from Wnihwri fu (Henan), runs as follows : Since I wrote to you some time since I got to Chocklakin (?). On the 17th of December I came home by the east side of the flood, so making the circuit of the whole to the north of this

I sent to Mr Muirhcad, and now we are in receipt of more than £500 for distribution, lam also to recieve 1,000 taeb from the Chinese here, who have come from Shanghai. Messrs Coultliard, Slimmon, Johnstone, Douglas, Dorward and myself had a meeting, with the result that we went by pairs in three different directions. I went alone up over the north parts again to see how far the authorities were feeding the poor starved out wretches. Hard freezing set in, and now all the country is frozen over ; no boats can go to the villages and the ice can't hear walkers as yet. So after two days' fighting with the ice I went back, and await the rest coming in, for concerting measures for carrying on permament distributing work. In all the large cities there are huts erected by the authorities, eight feet long, five high ana five broad, in i\ shape mostly of " proaliang," or black millet stalks. These are enclosed by walls seven feet high and the whole unarded by soldiers. Each hut contains from four to six occupants, barely lying room. There are four such encampments in Chochlakin with an average of 2,000 huts in each encampment, so there are between 30,000 and 40,000 people being fed by the authorities in this place alone. No stragglers are allowed in these places, and the people in them mn4 take a small piece of bamboo with them to return it when they enter. In these places one huge looking place is erected, and two large bowls of porridge of siao-mi and rice is served out to each person in camp ; also to numbers of villagers who come for it.

In Kai fung-fu and four other places the same thing is arranged for. It just serves to keep the life in. I can'fc keep warm, so what the poor wretches do I can't tell, The whole country is a sad spectacle, and strange stories are told — despairing, wild, hopeless, and almost beyond belief. The officials are succeeding in keeping splendid order, but what a few months may bring forth, who can tell ? Officials from highest to lowest are all busy at tha breakage ; but news has reached us that after having

got on to what they thought was a closure of the hole, a north wind, with a wild torrent, came, and all is even worse than it was at first. Now all the country people who were engaged on the work have returned to their homes for the time being. I have no hope of their doing any good from what I saw going on, and now I fear it is so late in the season it will nov\

be closed this year, and dear me, what an awful misery will be the result over at least three provinces. Diseise will soon fullow—it is beginuing already. The "Shib 1'ao" says thatovcr 1,000,000 taels have already been subscribed toward Yellow river sale of the titles fund It is estimated that 20,000 stacks of millet stalks will be needed iu order to stop the great gap, each stack requiring fifty large carts to bring it to the spot. So f&r, the utmost exertions have not succeeded in collecting more than thirty

stacks a day. Already 8,000,000 taels in money or rice had been diverted or appointed to this relief and labor fund. Superstition is said to have directly caused the disaster, for the story is repeated that the River Viceroy, Chang-fu neglected to take warning on the ground that the day was an "opening" day, unsuited for the proposed measures. The Governor of Shantung estimates

that he will incur an extraordinary expenditure of 1,500,000 ,taels in digging parallel channels, cutting off euives and strengthening the banks of the Shantung channel in readiuess for the restored river to swi 3p itself a good channel. On the other hand the people of Tolao Chow in Shueting are said to be arming themselves with a view to resisting the re. appearance of the unwelcome visitor.

An express has according to the Hn Pac) been received at Peking from the Governor of Honan, announcing the arrival of the Imperial Commissioner Li Ilungtsao, and the death by drowning of 4,000 coolie*. It appears that 2,000 bamboo rafts had been laden with stones in order to create a pa

(which seems to here mean a breakwater.) No sooner had the rafts reached the middle o! the stream than they were engulphed, with three mandarins and 4000 men.