December 8th.—The Viceroy at Canton states that Ch'ao-chou Fu forms one of the most important branches in the salt system of Kuangtung, but that the trade there has suffered great depression for the past thirty years. Some time ago the Assistant Salt Controller fell into heavy arrears, and he was replacea by Chu Ping-shou, the Prefect of Ch'ao-chou, who was entrusted with the task of re-establishing the revenue on its former basis. The cause of the congestion in the trade receives the following explanation. The area of consumption for Ch'ao-chou salt is composed of the eight districts and departments of Ting-chou After the rebellion the conveyance of the salt passed into the hands of the government. The distance from the place of production to the place of consumption is over 800 li, and the journey is performed partly by land and partly by water. The water route is obstructed by shoals and rapids, and the land journey lies over a rugged and hilly country. The price of the article is so enhanced by the cost of trans-ort that in three of the districts in question it is dispieced by smuggled salt. In Shao-wu Fu and the western portion of Fukien a reduction of twenty per cent. was made in 1882 in the Lekin on salt, and s further reduction to the same extent is now under consideration. In the area, however, assigned to salt from Ch'ao-chou no abatement has taken place in the taxation, and the tax is farmed by merchants whose exact tions are a source of great hardship. It is now proposed that the reduction made the west of the province should be extended to the area within which Ch'ao-chou salt circulates, and that the collection of the tion, the proceeds being duly remitted to the tax should be made at the place of produc-
Fukien exchequer. The Kuangtung authorities will also indemnify the Fukien Government for the expenses of the preventive service at a rate calealated upon every 120 licences or every fraction thereof which may be placed upon the market. This arrangement, by reducing taxation and expenditure, will, it is hoped, effect a material improvement in the salt trade of Ch'ao-chou Fu. As " precedent for one province collecting taxes for the benefit of another, the Viceroy quotes the arrangement introduced by Ting Pao-chen in the case of Szechuen salt consumed in Kueichow. The matter is one which affects the administration of Fukien, and cannot be settled exclusively by Kuangtung. The Memorialist has been in frequent communication with Yang Ch'ang-chim on the subject, and has learnt from him that the proposal has his sanction, and that he is prepared to enforce it from the beginning of next year on the expiration of the contract with the present farmers. He concludes his memorial by paying a high compliment to Yang Ch'ang-chun for his loyal ce-operation in effecting such a difficult task as the reduction of taxation at a time of general financial embarrassment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.