2 packages—60 pieces Dutch Drills. 'That is the whole business transacted in twelve days at the Customs' Bonding Desk and at the Bonded Warehouses of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company. We are not. in a position to give the amount of imports and deliveries of goods during the same period, but a comparison sufficiently close to. show how completely the system has broken down can be made. It appears from the two statements of the operations at the Bonded Warehouses, which have been published, that, of the staple articles of trade—cotton piece goods—there were bonded 24,062 pieces, while the "declared" imports in that time were 886,000 pieces of all kinds of goods which are included in our weekly tables of imports and exports. But to the latter quantity must be added the " undeclared" cargoes of five steamers, that is to say cargoes which have not yet. been entered at the Customs. By-our tables, covering the business since the begin= ning of this year, it appears that tore were delivered of all the goods, cotton and woollen, specified in them 498,000 pieces while the withdrawals from the nuded Warehouses were 2,480 pieces to which should be added 26 bales, 78 piculs, of cotton yarn, We may mention also that the quantity of cotton yarn bonded in the month was 76 bales, 228 piculs, as against an import in the same time of 3,093 piculs exclusive of "undeclared" cargo—while the total deli-
articles which chiefly made up the trade.
ies were 5, Lo tls, Besides the of the port, the Bonded Warehouses received small parcels of German silver, iron wire, aniline dyes, buttons, matches, most of which remain in the godowns. 'These figures point to the complete failure of the Bonded Warehouse scheme as at present onzanised, and monopolised by the China Merchants' Company. The failure so far is due to causes which lie on the surface, and to which we have already drawn attention. Merchants like to deal with their own friends, many have godowns of their own and are unwilling to give them up until obliged to do so. Almost everybody dislikes the manner in which it has been attempted to establish a monopoly in the hands of the native shipping company, for one great reason as well as for others, 'I'hat reason is that there is no Chinese tribunal here which would deal with any dispute between a foreigner and the China Merchants' Company, or claim for loss or dam to which had been stored in their Bonded Warehouses. As we said when writing on this subject in January, "as long as this difficulty exists, merchants, who are themselves responsible in many cases to principal at home, cannot have perfect confidence in putting their goods in the China Merchants' godowns, We freely acknowledge that it is the rule of the Company to meet all claims upon it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.