It is stated in official circles that Mr. Luh, District Magistrate of Kiangning Hien (Nanking) handed over charge to his successor on 3rd March, and is expected to relieve the present Shanghai District Magistrate, P*ei Ta-chung, about 26th April.
"The water in the Tientsin River is now shallow that only the El Dorado and the Poochi are able to get up to Tientsin with cargoes. The other steamers have to load into cargo-boats at Taku at the mouth of the River.—Shén Pao, Simultaneously with the dredging operations at Woosung, which are expected to cost Tis, 300,000, a smaller work of the same nature, the clearing and deepening of the Weénts'ao Pang (JQ MELE) Creek at Woosung, is in progress by order of Kang, Governor of Kiangsu Provin General Lung's soldiers are employed as labourers, and as soldiers are asa rule obliged to labour on public works without pay, they consider themselves very fortunate in being paid in this case half of what coolies would receive. The work is expected to be finished in half a month, The Shen Pao of 13th March bassa. leader on this subject, awarding the pre-method over that of employing the n of distressed districts, as the work is more satisfactorily and quickly performed, and the men are under mud better control. It takes occasion to praise the Governor of Kiangsu and also General Lung, whom it compares to Yang Hu, (Pik) a famous Statesman and Commander who died A.D. 978. The General is said to be constantly on the scene, encouraging his men at their hard work, quite regardless of the severity of the weather. The Chinese do not approve of keeping the military eating their heads off" until they have to be actively employed in war.
The depression in the tea trade reached the lowest depth yet known in 1889, when the losses to Chinese tea merchants®mounted to over Tls. 5,000,000. Such a depression inclines many to doubt if a revival is still possible. The native banks have not suffered yet to any great extent by the losses of the teames, as the latter had not borrowed to any great extent from them, and therefore underwent these heavy losses without involving the banks. The banks, however, while congratulating themselves on having come out of it so well last year, are this year very chary of making advances for the tea season. By 15th March, 1889, they had lent here about Tls. 1,000,000, and on 15th March, 1890, so far as we can learn, they have as yet advanced next to nothing. The tea-season is likely to commence later than usual, partly owing to this cause and partly to the fact that many Chinese firms, warned by the number of failures last year, have ceased to do business in such an uncertain article as tea has lately proved itself.
At Hankow the principal Chinese tea firm is the old established Ts'ién Shen An, next to which in the magnitude of the business done come the Ch'un Hwa Siang and the I Tai Ch'ang. The second-mentioned has, we hear, borrowed little or nothing as yet from the Hankow native banks, the first-named is said to have obtained from them advances of a considerable amount after China New Year, and the last-named, the I Tai Ch'ang, is said to have been accommodated to the extent of over Tls. 100,000, intending to greater energy than the preceding one, A carry on the campaign this season with still
new firm, the How Sheng Siang has started. The remaining old native houses seem to be in a manner paralysed by the bad results of last year's operations, Forty-two new Canton firms, and two new Shansi ones have started, with perhaps others, and in the tea-growing districts of Yang-low-tung and Ch'ang-show-kai in the hills, the agents who pure! from the growers had already made their arrangements for renting promises before China New Year, and so we may expect that although the tea season may begin later, the business with those two districts will be as brisk at ever, though the tea-growing districts of Chiang-yang, T'urg-shan and Han-ning will miss some agents who went there last year.
Yuan Fang will do nothing in tea this To come to foreign hong we hear that year, It is also rumoured that four others, Li Ki, Ts'ien T'ai, Hwa Ki, and King Ki will do nothing.
The Russian black tea exporters wore Inst year hampered in their operations by a dread of Indian tea being used to adults rate the Chinese leaf. Several Shansi firms of hundreds of years' standing, who enjoy the entire confidence of the Russians, nevertheless did a good business with then.
This dislike of the Russians for Indian tea is encouraging in the face of the constant tirades to which we are treated by the European press on the supplanting of Chinese tea by Indian, which they assert to be advancing with such alarming rapidity, Tt confirms us in a suspicion that the principal recommendation of Indian tea is not its excellence, but its cheapness, which it owes to its freedom from export duty.
We have tasted Japanese tea, another of Chinese, though very different in quality from Indian, which is black, while Japanese is green. The cup we sampled was some brought to China from Japan, not intended for export to Europe or America. It was delicate and fragrant, but better to smell and look at than to drink a smoky flavour was perceptible with the first mouthful, and the second pot made from the leaves was like wat The Japanese soil constituents, and its product delicate ephemeral, and very different from Chinese Hyson.
"At Shaohing a friend sent us some ming-tsien Pingsuey tea. Ming-tsien is 80 called because gathered before the Ch'ing Ming anniversary, and thus still earlier than Hyson, which means "before the rains." It was excellent both in colour and flavour, but only stood two infusions.
The bonze Ka Tao, in charge of the Wan Nien Sze Monastery on Tientaishan, once gave me some tea called Yuntou, Mist= cloud," because it grew on the top of the Tien Tai mountain, where there are almost always clouds resting. It gave an excellent pot of tea at the tenth infusion of the same leaves. It is very doubtful if any tea can be grown outside of China which can do as much; but perhaps this is no recommendation with foreigners, who generally only require one infusion and hence can make even the weak Japanese leaf serve their purpose. Some even eat the leaves with the liquor.
In our own opinion, we repeat, the decline in the Chinese tea trade is due to no deterioration in the quality of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.