Yung eh of the pros (2) A Decree expressing pity for the tress into which the people in the low-lying in the Peking, Pao-ting, Ho-chien 1 Prefectutes have been plunged by the overflow of the rivers in many places in consequence of the heavy rain which felllest month, Authority is given for the retention of 66,000 piculs of rice as a proof the people after the Acting "Guveanor of Kueichow he haa supplemented the efforts of the late Gosernor Li Yung-clining to suppress the cultivation of the poppy by device of his own own with a fair amount of success. Orders were given to the various local authori to ascertain the amount of land devoted to poppy cultivation in their respective districts, and, having registered the same and made plang thereof, they were to issue certificates to the owners. Where the poppy was not sown it was to bs prohibited, but where it was already in the ground, a fine of two or three bushels of grain, in accordance with the quality of the lan, was to be levied upon the cultivator and'ndded to th of public grain accumulated as " provision against times of scarcity, The inducement to engage in poppy cultivation being simply a question of profit, when the farmers find st no longer baya they very eoon abandon it, and the scheme adopted by the Memo na already resulted in a diminution of the quantity of Iand so employed, (4) A Memorial from the Gorernor of Kueichow sty's sanction to he establishment of a foundry in Shanghai, ported by eayital subscribed by w publio company, for ing the ore obtained from the iron Kueichow.
he Memorialist reminds His Majesty that on the 22a of April last he submitted report upon the experimental working of mines in Kueichow, the receipt of which was acknowledged in an Luperial Decree that reached the Memrialist on the 28th of would now respectfully obs products of the Kueichow to those of other provi ces, ill impossible to predict with certainty whether or no they own be utilised.
In the mouth of February Inst, as ported to His Majesty, 'Tis, 20,000 were appropriated from the' revenues of the joe, which, with capital subscribed was devoted to the pro-establishments at Chess-yuan Fu in Kuei-chow, Chang-'@ Fu in Honan, Hankow and Shanghai, placed under the ice of oflicinls, to which cor ore were to be sent to be Kueichou mines wore sent by the Memorialist to the Ministers Superintendent of Northern and Southern Trade for assay, and His Excellency Li in due course replied that the quality of the ore was excellent, and that if it could be properly anelted and derivered at Shanghai at a cent which would pay to purchase it, it could of course be bought for Government he Minister Superintendent of 8 Teale wrote to say that snppli sible by water and there were, consequently, facilities for transport; but if Kueichow ore could be supplied at alower rate than that from other places there would be no objection to giving it the preference, In view of the fact that the quality of the Kueichow ore is good, and supplies re abundant, it would seem a pity that ite cole should Lo impeded for want of machinery to prepare it, The oticers at the various mining centres report that large supplies of ore have been accumulated, 99 that measures must be taken for its distribution order to secure the capital that hag been invested, After consultation, thereto his provincial Committee vf Admi the Memorialist lias decided, in conformity with the res quoted in his earlier Memorial, to rotal millivis cation of coal and the ity of iron ore as a pro locally, and to allow the peop! yo of any extract, With this object, Jy been established at Kuei aungement of gentry men of substance, the object of which is to export coal and iron under official superintendence. Any
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.