The fixed assessment of the Custom House at Wuhu is Tls. 90,159.6 and there is a supplementary estimate of Tls. 17,000, making the total annual payment Tls. 107,199.6. Since the establishment of the foreign branch of the Customs Service at the port there has been a diminution in the receipts of the native department and for some years past the above figures have not been reached. During the past year the total revenue was Tls. 60,610.9.6.8.7 and the following explanation of the deficit is offered by the Taotai in charge of the administration. Grain has always formed the chief source of revenue, miscellaneous produce being the next largest item. After the rebellion vast tracts of country went out of cultivation, and although some reclamation has been going on in recent years, still the area under cultivation is much less than it once was. The outbreak of the Yellow River placed a large surface under water and the drought of last. summer resulted in a very deficient harvest. In former times all the principal marts were much frequented by traders but now there are few merchants and little or no market for produce, Men of capital prefer to take their goods down the Yangtze by foreign steamer or apply for Transit Passes to enable them tu escape the likin dues levied at the numerous barriers. Last winter enormous quantities of grain were transported free of all duty to the famine districts in Anhui, but during the spring and autumn a good revenue was derived from the tax levied on cereals brought in by merchants who flocked thi ther from all parts on hearing of the high prices food had reached on account of the Been unremitting in his endeavours to bring reveiling drought. The memorialist has the revenue up to its former standard an is glad to be able to report an improvement this year as compared with the preceding one. The receipts from salt junks an the impost on wood, which form a separate item of account, amounted during the year to Tls. 2,70
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.