The Governor of Chekiang applies for the bestowal of reward upon certain members of the official class, who have been instrumental during the past year in collecting contributions in sid of maritime under promises that they should be given titular rauk as a reward for their exertions and liberality. During the ten months ending with the close of last year, exclusive of contributions forwarded direct to the committee, the gentry in the two prefectures of Ningpo and Shao-hsing collected altogether over Tls. 300,000 which was in point of fact the mainstay of the army during the time that the port of Ningpo was closed at Chen-hai and the likin revenue receipts were at a standstill, By a Rescript appended to the Memorial, three of the officers named are to be committed to the Board for the determina. tion of forms of reward, and the claims of the others are to be duly considered by them.
(6) A Sub-Memorial from the Governor-General of Shensi and Kansu.
The Memorialist receipt of a de-spate from the Board of Revenye In which they remark, that the Treasury debt in the return of Kansu accounts up to the and of the eighth year of Kuang Hsii (January 1883), which is set down at Tis, 3,770,000 odd, cannot be all on account of legally authorised expenditure, and any items which are not legally authorised should at once be suppressed.
In reply the Memorialiat has to state that the debt of Tls. 3,770,000 up to January 1883, and a further debt of Tie. 19,000 odd 1883, 1884 and 1885, includes 1,000,000 and upwards due civil and military officials for arrears of pay and anti-extortion allowance. Some amongst the officers to whom these pay-are dead and their families means of taking their remains ho families of other deceased have been left destitute, while others who have retired on account of are too poor to get away. The conditios of these persons who have been obliged to renuain, because there were no funds from which to pay them the salaries due to themselves or their heirs, is pi extreme, and now proposed to pay them 30 or 40 per cent, of the money owing and to cancel the remainder of the debt.
Rescript:—Let the Board of Revenue take cognisance.
July 1st.—No documents of importance Tuly 2nd.—Huang Tu-fang (HEAP) appointed Commissioner of the Office of Tranemission.
Tuly 3rd.—A joint Memorial from the Governor-General and the Governor at Canton requesting His Majesty's sanction to the levy of contributions from the people under the joint supervision of officials ry for the support of the extra service that the prevalence of brig-adage and piracy in the Canton province entails.
The Memorialists are in receipt of a representation from the Financial and Judicial Commissioners and the Committee of Ro-organisation of which the following is the 0 prevalent in Kuangtung ary police allotted to each Magistracy are quite unable to cope with it, and the troops forming the ordinary patrols i needs of the been necessary to supplement them by several thousand men, The cost of maintaining these men, with the boats necessary for patrolling the rivers, their arms and ammunition, absorbs over three lacs of Taels a year, exclusive of payments to spies and rewards for arrests made, etc, The expenditure is not included in the maritime defence account, and as the Treasury is at present in an especially insolvent state, and as the various coutrilevied under different names for maritime defence have all been put a stop to, there is absolutely no source from which the funds above specified can be drawn, The irregular treeys employed for police purposes have been reduced in numbers on four separates occasions, but, unfortunately, brigandage is daily on the increase, to the universal injury of the people, and in spite of the infliction of severe punishment upon the officials to whose want of precaution these crimes are due, If, therefore, the military police force and the boats employed by them be entirely done away with, the condition to which the country will be reduced admits of no question, The constant and heavy annual expenditure which tenance of this force entails is o no financial department of the province can mest, and after consultation with the Prefect and Magistrate, as well as with the military, and consideration of the matter ith the local gentry, who were convened by the purpose, the conclusion that has beet come to is that the money must be raised locally, an fands of the mercantile commitnity must-be applied to their own protection and of the people generally. At Canton itself, the contre of " large trade, there are no likin barriers, but in the year 1869 a local likin was collected at Fatshan, Chiang-meu and Ch'én-ta'un, the levy being undertaken by the merchants, and the rate charged being less by one half than that levied on goods in trausitu, Moreover the tax was only levied on articles that kad hitherto been exempt. The system has worked without friction for many years, and the merchants who farmed the tax have made a profit out of the business, although the amount charged is than in the provinces of Kiangeu, Chekiang, Hunan and nati, where the local (48 JH) and transit (Ap /R) tex ave separately levied instead of being simultanoously collected, A proof of the fact that the impost is not excessive and la not objected to is shown by the r adines with which the Comiittes of the Foundling Hospital at Canton raised subscriptions for maritime defence two years ago, and as neglect to adopt systematic police measures would result in open burglary and theft and the removal of trade elsewhere, not to mention the great disquietude to the resident po: pulation, the only resource is to prevail upon the mercantile class to assist with contributions, towards police expenditure. The Foundling Hospital at Canton being a contre at which the mercantile community congregates and an institution which from its charitable objects inspires universal con fidence, it is now proposed toentruat the collection of contributions" for poli poses to the committee of this who will establish a special ellice forthe purpose in Canton, and determine the rates to be charged in nccordauce with the salable-of the goods taxed. 'I'he hands of the IL be left perfectly free, and butions levied from the people ied to their own requirements, li be entailed apon the of trade effected.
More than Taels 100,000 of the contributions promised during the past two years for maritime defence still remain unpaid, and efforts will be made to get these in, after which the usual rewards will be applied for to the contributors.
The scheme as above det: supported by the Memorial proved by Imperial Rescript.
uly 4th.—A joint Mer jai from the Governor-General of Shensi and Kans and the Governor of the New Dominion requesting His Majesty, in view of the fast that the distribution of the civil juris" diction in Kashgaria is complete, to allow the Acting Commander-in-chief of Urumtsi to remove his headquarters to Kashgar,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.