The Governor-General of the Two Kiang reports that during the twenty years that the Arsenal at Nanking has been in existence the walls, beams and supporting colzuns have bee moved out of place the continual working of the machinery, and that the pipes in connection with the boilers have worn thin and suffered damage in many places. A new workshop kas been completed, and the entire staff of workmen having been transferred there, the business of the establishment is going one sual. Unless the plant of the old building is immediately repaired, it will become quite unfit for use. The total cost ut the necessary repairs, including a sum of Tle. 2,000 for new furnaces, is estimated at Ts. 8,000, and as such a large Payment cannot be made out of the yearly allowance for the manufacture of ammunition it is proposed that it should be defrayed out of the two-tenths of the Shanghai foreign customs.
25th August.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.