April 25th.—No documents of importance.
April 26th.—(1) The following appointments and transfers are announces Kung L-t'a, Financial Commissioner of Kuangtung, is transferred to Hunan, and his place is taken by Lung Chi-yun, Financial Commissioner of the latter province.
Wen Hui (XBH) is appointed Senior Vice-President of the Board of Ceremonios and Kuei Hong (F¢{H) Junior Vice-President of the Board of Pauishments, Sun Yii-ted, Judge of Hunan, and Ju Shan, Fudge of Szechuen, are ordered to Peking to await further employment.
(2) The whole of this day's occupied with a report, continued in th issues of the 27th and 28th, of the High Commissioners Ch'ung Ch'i and Liao Shou-hug who were deputed to inves! charges brought against Jen Lan-sheng, Superintendent of the Feng-yang Customs in Anhui, and to enquire into the general working of the Customs and likin admini at province. the report miuu'ely into each charge, and describes the in which the Commissioners satisfied themselves that it was incorrect though the evidence in some instances appears to have been limited to the atate-mints of interested parties, In connection with general state of taxation in Anhui, the Memorialists give the following figures showing the annual revenue and expenditure of the Wu-lu native Customs, The, Regular duty collected 136,000 Special collection for ' mainten-'NCO MONEY" svssesessseervesee 18,000
The Annual Expenditure for the maintenance of the Customs is Tls. 27,000 which from the " maintenance 1 of regular duty is, in addition, an extra charge of one mace, or ten per cent. for what is called Kung Yi, ov publi extras," the money being employed contributing towards expenditure on public account, The whole amount annually expended by the Wa-hu Customs amounts to about Tis, 46,000.
The receipts of the likin, collectorate An-ching Fu are aald by the Commission ers to amount to about Tis, 345,000 a year, Of the above, about Ts. 257,000 are ox: ended after application to the Board of revenue and Tls. 58,000 or 59,000 are applied to local wai-hsia expenditure for which no sanction from Peking is required, The expenses of the central and branch collectorates for wages come to Tls. 26,000, a discount being levied of 26 cash per mil which gives a total discount of about one thousand strings of cash, In other words there is a atauding expenditure for local purposes of 25 per cent of the receipts.
'The southern likin collectorates of Anhui bring in an annual revenue of 161,000 strings of cash in addition to to a subsidy of Tls. 10,000 per annum pai over from the Chekiang salt receipt' Of these amounts,000 are und control of the Board of Revenue, 9,000 and 30,000 atrings of cash expended locally. ' 16,000 strings of cash are expended in wages with a total discount of 3,000 atrings of cash. In other words, there is a standing expenditure of one third of the total receipts. The provincial high authorities declare that it is impossible to diminish this expenditure, but in view of the general demand for the funds in aid of military expenditure the Memorialists are of opinion that they should be structed to make thorough investigation of the whole question of local expenditure and submit a report to the Throne and the Board of Revenue.
In conclusion they say that although the peculation of officials and underlings and smuggling on the part of the commercial classes must be put a stop to, the mere enunciation of prohibitions to' this effect will not secure the desired end, and it will require the exercise of conscientious and continuous effort on the part of all concerned to prevent waste of public money and foster the sources of national wealth.—For earlier papers relating to this subject see Gazettes of April 3rd and 24th,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.