June 19th.—{1) The Governor of Shansi asks for an extension of the time allowed him for rendering a complete account of the salt revenue of the Ho-tung Circuit for the year 1883. By fixed regulation the accounts for each year ought to be closed in the 4thmonth of thie succeeding year, but the depressed state of the salt trade has for some time past made it impossible to comply with this rule, and the late Governor obtained permission to carry over the arrears into the following years. From a report by the intendant of the circuit, who is also in charge of the salt administration, it appears that the fixed annual allotment is 5,298 licences and a fraction, and that up to the end of the third month of the present year, only a little over 3,595 had_been placed in circulation. A balance of over 1,037 licences had, however, been left over from the previous six years, and this gave a total number of 5,393 licences fur the year, which comes near the full amount of the fixed allotment. There is still a balance of 1,743 from 1883 to be cleared off, and as' it is now the begin ni summer and the people are their carts and horses in gathering in the harvest, it is quite impossible, even with the exercise of the greatest pressure, to secure a complete return within the preseribed time. The population of Shansi was greatly thinned by the recent famine and the province has.not yet recovered its former position. The salt trade has suffered severely, and all the efforts of former Governors have failed to restore it to prosperity.
lor these circumstances all that Memorialist can do is to ask permission to be allowed a space of three years within which to clear off the deficit
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.