Owe naturally turus with interest, on receipt of the first quarterly Returns of Trade since the opening of the now ports, to the pages on which these are represented; and itis carions to find the anticipations with which the event was looked forward to, sothoronghly falsified.
The opening of these four ports—Tchang, Wuhu, Wenchow and Pakhoi was asked for in the memorials addressed to Sir Rutherford when he was engaged, ten years ago, on the first revision of the Tientsin treaty and though the enthusiasm about the second and third may have somewhat cooled in the interval, the expectations of northern residents from the opening of Ichang, and of Hongkong from the opening of Pakhoi, have certainly been always high. Yet, these two ports have proved so far an utter blank; and Wauho and Wenchow alone show a small amount of business during the three months under review.
Pakhoi, which our southern friends pointed to as the entrepot of the west coast, imported simply 5.88 piculs of opium, which gave one solitary steamer an opportunity of visiting the port, and yielded a revenue of Tls. 177.1.4.2—the entire Customs receipts for the quarter. While the port of Kiungchow in Hainan, which they declared they did not want, which was laughed at and written down, seems really in a fair way to develope a moderate crade—It imported during the quarter 10,000 odd pieces of Cotton Goods (or more than half what Takow took during the same period), and yielded altogether a revenue of Tis, 26,485 (about half, again, of that We yielded by the Formosan port).
It remains to be seen whether this develop. ment will continue, or whether Palhoi will eventually injure Kiungchow, or Kiungchow will become the port of apply for Pakhoi, or whether each helff the other by, affording additional inducements for steamer trafic, as was" suggested last year, when the projected opening of the mainland port became known.
The port which was to have tapped the head waters of the Yangtze, and in virtue of its position at the foot of the Rapids to have become the place of transhipment for goods coming from or going to Szechuen, yields ea far a perfect blank. There are not even 5 piculs of opium to help out tha page. One steamer went up in April, and snather went up in May. They seem to have taken up Tls. 3,000 of treasure between them, the object of which is not difficult to surmise; and they took away 1,092 piculs of coal, which may or may not have been for their own or their consorts' consumption. In any case, they seem not to have repeated the visit in Mey; and Tls. 43.6.8 stands.as_tho total revenue of the quarter. Woe cannot conceive, however, that this represents a trae verdict upon the capabilities of the port; but anticipate that, with time and opportunity, 8 very different result will surely be worked out.
As we remarked at the outset, Wuhan on the lower Yangtsze, and Wenchow on the coast of Chekeang show a better result; and in the latter case, at least, without damaging the older neighbouring port. Wenchow
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.