A memorial presented by the Governor of Anhui requests that he may be allowed to recommend for rewards certain officers concerned in the distribution of charity in that province. In the month of June the year before last the portion of the province which borders on the Yangtze was visited by an inundation which caused great distress and in many places washed away the embankments that protect the fields. Phe memorialist therefore obtained permission to raise contributions for the purpose of relieving the sufferers and repairing the broken banks. Soon afterwards came the still more terrible floods in the north of the province, due to the Yellow River's entering the valley of the Huai, in consequence of which, part of the money raised was diverted to that region. With this latter expenditure the memorialist is not now concerned; but he gives a detailed account of the funds disbursed in the valley of the Yangtze, where both the relief operations were concluded in the month of July last year, and the repairs to embankments in the month of December. The greatest number of sufferers was found in the district of Huai-ning (Gan-king), next in Tungch'eng, then in Tang-tu, T'ai-hu, and Wuht, and then in Ssu-sung, and Wu-wei. Thenum: ber of persons relieved, old and young together, was 164,435; and the total amount spent in charity was Tls. 40,761. Of this, Tls. 10,936 was distributed in cash; Tls. 23,824 was employed in the purchase of rice; Tls. 5,000 in buying ten thousand wadded coats; and Tls. 1,000 were handed to the Shang: hai Committee which was working at Tang-tu, and found its funds insufficient. In the rebuilding of embankments there were expended Tls. 87,637. OF this, Tls. 44,004 were disbursed directly by the authorities Tis, 21,385 were given as assistance to the people; and Ts, 22,267 were lent for six years to the people of Tang-tu, who were engaged in rebuilding the great public embankment there, and found themselves unable to raise a sufficient amount to complete the work. The total sum under both heads thus comes to more than one hundred and twenty-eight thousand taels. There were other moneys employed in embankments, of which no notice is taken here, namely in Tung-cheng, where the Magistrate borrowed money from the provincial treasury and in Tung-ling, where the river wall was rebuilt by private subscriptions, of which, at the request of the principal contributor, notice was taken by the authorities." Approved.
2nd May.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.