August 27th.—The Governor of Formosa reports the survey and registration for land-tax purposes of a considerable portion of island. And he recommends for various rewards a number of officers whose services coosribated to the Lorped of the node pear land (A the island lal ore before taking. It appears that no register of the existed, and that some two years ago the Board of Revenue forwarded a number of forms on which the area, the population and other details concerning each district were to be entered as a basis for the collection of land-tax. These forms were sent to the various authorities with instructions to have the assessment made as soon as possible. In the north of the island the work has already been finished, but in the south, where the area of cultivated land is large and the population scanty, the task has been one of great difficulty. It has, therefore, been found impossible to have the forms completed and distributed in time to make use of them for the levy of the land-tax during the first half of the present year, but it is expected that they will be in readiness by the 10th month of the year, when the second half of the land-tax is collected. The new system, which has met with very general acceptance, will add over Tis, 100,000 to the land revenue of the island. The Governor states that the work of surveying in a place like Formosa is very different from what it is on the mainland, where former registers and maps can be consulted, and he recommends for promotion and various forms of reward the following officers:—Shao Yulien, Lieutenant-Governor of the island, Shen Ying nei formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Kuei-chou, T'ang Ching-sung, the Taotai of Taiwan, Ch'éng Ch'i-ao, the Prefect of Taiwan, and several others.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.