Dr. Ward Hall has handed us for publication the following letter, received by him by the last mail from San Fraucises, He adds that the fands at present in baud sunt to xbout $400, Mex., so that in Mr. Payne's "proposal to deliver 500 pairs of quail, the Committee have ® more generous response to subscription list. Five hundred pairs in Sau Francisco would cust U.S, gold people to guard against them." This mon often said that he would depart at 80 years of age from this mortal earth and then re-enter it in a new form, Hupao, A party of ghouls muar have arrived in Tientsin, as several graves have been desecrated, the finery and articles of value have been stripped from the corpses; xnd other sacrilege perpetrated, The magistrate is doing his best to capture these grave-robbers, but s" far without success, The Wenchow mag strate is waking" crusade ayainst the rowdies infesting the {city and its suburbs Many have been arrested, beaten, and marched about the streets as a warning to others, This thessure no doubt lias been taken to punish those who made threat of ce-operating with the bandits who, during the just summer, were making raids on the villages round bout the city, A notorious robber was exptured in Wu-kiang and escorted tu Soochow by several gun-janksand detachments of soldiers, is said that the prisoner is charged with numerous crimes which are punishable with Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, has given his approval to the plans of the new Shanghai Custom House, and the preparations for its erection will be commenced almost immediately. The new building, which is ty be in the Tu style, is to be on the site of the present temple, the general plan being " capital H with its feet towards the east, the Bund, and its side along the Huikow Road, In the centre of and connected with the main building is to be a clock-tower, 28 feet square, and 110 feet in total height, and 90 feet to the centre of the clock face, und for this alone the 1.-G. will deserve the undying gratitude Shanghailanders, The building of red brick, with facings of green Ningpo stone, with high-pitched roofs, covered with red French tiles, 'The outside dimensions of the building will be 135 fect from north to south, along the Bund, and 155 feet from east to west, wlong' the Hankow Road, 'The front of the two wings, on the Bund, will be set back 25 feet,' the main building be recessed 52 feet more, so that there will bes spacious court-yard from which the tower will spring, between the wings. 'The basement floor of the wings, which will be raised three feet ubuve the ground, and will be 14 feet clear in height, will be devoted to the tide-surveyor's and tide-waiters' rooms, waiting-rooms, Chinese and foreign, post-office, transport otice, ete., ete. The central portion of the basement will be 7 feet above ground, and devoted to tingchais, chit coolies, stores, cxrputers archives nvatories et, On the St loot, which will be gained by two large staircases in the corners of the courtyard, as well as by subsidiary staircases, the main building will be taken up by the General Office, which will be 1 feet above the street level, and is to be 130 feet Jong, 48 feet wide, and 20 feet in height, In the wings, the floors of which will be 28 feet above the street, will be the deputy missioner's and commissioner's secretary's rooms, harbour master's rosina, drawback department, é&c. On the second floor the Returna Alice will occupy the centre, being5G4 by 48} feet, with an arched ceiling. showing the roof beams. The north-east wing will be the counnissioner's offi e, the south-east the engineer's, the north-west the pay office, and there will be a number of rooms for clerks, writers, &e., &. The height of the main building tu the top of the wall will be 54 feet, the apex. of the roof being 783 feet above the ground, Mr J. Chambers is the architect, and he has been assisted in the elevations by Br. J. M. Cory, Mr. Yangtze is the contractor, It is hoped that the whole will be finished, ready fur occupation, early in 1893,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.