The Censor, Liu Lun-hsiang, declaims in very strong terms upon the waste of money on the Yellow River works and asks that a sharp warning should be administered to those responsible for the outlay. He read the Decree in the te of the 15th September on the mis ma its at Cheng Chou an infers that the emperor is cognisant of the actual state of the case, He would ask permission, however, to supplement the facts already published by 'a detailed account of what has reached his
remarks, has an unenviable notoriety own ears from other sources. "Honan, he for the dishonesty of it officials, and things have not improved in this respect during the Governorship of Ni Wen-wei.
In spite of the earnest injunctions of the Throne commanding him to procure a supply of materials with all possible speed, the Governor, without informing himself as to the character of his subordinates, placed the whole matter in the hands of the district officers by whom it was in turn entrusted to the worst class of underlings. The result is that people, were forced to part with their materials without receiving any price forthe and were exposed to maltreatment, the news of which caused indignation far and near.
Rather than sell them to the Gor iment, the farmers burnt their millet stalks in large quantities and the work at the iver was delayed for the want of materials. On-yang Lin, Taotai whom the Governor employed as his trusted agent, is thoroughly detested in Honan as an officer whose with greed and previous career was marked dishonesty which ultimately ensued in his disgrace.
In entrusting to him the supervision of the collection of the material, Governor showed a partisan spirit which makes his offence quite as bad as that of Cheng-fu and the rest, and the
sor thir tore deprivation of rank would nol, theCenconstitute an adequate punishment. As soon as it was decided to bring the water back into its old course in Shantung, the very first measure that ought to have received careful consideration was the excavation of a drainage channel. Tnstead however of a survey being made of the ground wit view to procuring a proper fall for the water, the work -was let out by contract to General Ts'ui T'ing-kuei who pocketed Tls. 1,200,000 and made a channel which was at once far too narrow and too shallow, and silted up a day or two after the water was let into it. The main current of the River continued to flow as before, and the continual action of the water against the opening delayed the closure of the breach and prevented the completion at the last moment of the entire enterprise. People from Honan who have recently come to Poking affirm that only a portion of the Tls. 9,000,000 allotted by the Government ever found its way to the works. Li Hung-tsao was perfectly clean-handed throughout, but as for the rest, they one and all made large profits out of the transaction. Fortunately, however, there is a good basis to proceed upon in future. Only six stages remain to be finished, and Wu Ta-cheng should be instructed to report at once the amount at which he estimates the expenditure on each section, so that an efficient check may be placed upon the wasteful use of public money.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.