March 23rd.—(1) A Decree ordering certain metropolitan officials over the age of G5 who have been presented to His Majesty on the occasion of the Ts jai Scrutiny to retire from the public service with the rauk of their resp (2) A Memorial from Pi Governor of Shy perial Door Board of Revenue, in which the Governor is called upon to reduce the number of station the province and to limit the tax on opium to Tis 30 per 100 catties. The Board further call attention to the decoy i which the Shensi likin accounts are to the Board, who demand that a sum of Tis, 291,000 odd that the Shensi Govern-mont has kept back from the likin receipts (which should have been reported to the Board) during the years 1876-1881 be held at the disposal of the Board; aleo that the total amount of the local appropria-ice that date be at once ascertained and reported to them, In reply the Memorialist states that his predecessor and himself have made considerable reductions in the number of likin stations, Eight have been removed in the neighbourhood of the provincial capital, and some twenty-nine outlying stations have been done away with, others again being amalgamated. A universal likin rate of Tls, 30 per picul has been ordered, moreover, to be levied on native opium throug-out the province.
The Memorialiat then proceeds to protest in vigorous terms against the uusrarrantin the of the public funds which the Board of Reventw bring against himself jis predecessors, Hw begs to state that ever since the year 1876 it has been the custom for thirty per cent. of the likin revenue of Shensi to be devoted to extra-ary expenditure entailed by the devastating effects of the rebellion, The total a d during the seven years from 1876 to 1883 was Tle. 385,600 odd, which was devoted in part to the pair of city walls and moats, the rebuild-of granaries and temples to Confu-dus, the founding of colleges, examination halls, ete., the purchasing of public libraries, the supply of plough oxen and seed for occupiers of waste lauds, th organisation of a grain supply as a provision against times of dearth, the payment of contribu tions in augmentation of the salaries of metropolitan officials, and the carrying out of the numberless local requirements which are too numerous to mention. By these calls upon the fund it was reduovd to Tls. 167,200 odd, and this balance was further reduced by a laun of some Tls. 60,000 to mevt some regular expenditure for which there were not sufficient regular funds in band, Hence the balance now remaining is not more than Tis, 100,000.
The Memorialist then goes on to say that it is a common practi I the provi i proportion of the the local culls for ture on public account, and if report the details of the manner in which this fund is expended is to be stigmatis by the ugly name of fraud, the Memorialiat must be permitted to ask, are not the Board themselves setting an example of fraudulent conduct in suggesting that the contributions to metropolitan salaries should be paid out of this very sum of thirty per cent. of the likin collections which they new declare the provincial Government has no right to retain He would further point out that the retention of a similar percentage is passed uunoticed in other provinces, and the Shen thing pass were the practice irregular? And yet the Board declare that they have now Giscoverod the "deception" for the frat time.
After continuing for some time in this strain the Memorialist goes on to say that dependence is placed upon this fund to moot for urgent expenditure, all of which la reported from time to time to the Throne, and the Boxrd, who now wish to have the control of the fund, are certainly not in a position to judge so well as the authorities on the spot as to the urgency or importance of the calls for expenditure in any particular case, nor are they capable of making arrangements on behalf of the local governm ride, If they it made to them for is large and mall, important or trivial, fettering the local Government by red tapeinm, who, the Memorialist would ask, to bear the reeponmbility of accidents delays that may be caused by the adoption of this course?
In short, this contingency fund is an bsvlute necessity for every province, and the important point to secure is that the fund be expended on objects of public uti-Jiny, not that the mode of ite expenditure be reported to the Board of Revenue. The Memorialist is well aware of the heavy call upon the revenues of the Empire that defensive preparations entail, and of the duty of all high authorities to be catholic in their sympathies, which should not be confined to the particular jurisdiction over which they are put in charge; but either should they be unmindful of thulr special duties or aactigce their local jutereste ty
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.