Lith Oct. Tue great inter-port cricket match between Hongkong and Shanghai was intended to be begun to-day but has now been postponed to to-morrow. Such an event has not occurred for over twenty years, we believe, and it is most unfortunate that the weather should be so unpropitious. We are now in the fourth week of constant rain and mist. It is not often that the weather is a subject of conversation here at this time of year. Bright sunny days and cold nights may generally be counted on in October, but this year we have not had a cloudless day for nearly a month, nor is the weather a trivial subject here. This Jong continued sunlessness means ruined crops and a people distressed, and by so much the less able to buy foreign goods. It is the more annoying, too, to know that this bad weather is confined to the Yangtze valley. Passengers from the north tell us of perfect autumn weather which lasts them until they reach the northemm mouth of the Yangtze; then they come into clouds and rain. To the south of us, at Foochow, they complain of continued drought; here we
cricket ground in order. For the usual cannot get one drying day to put the autumn sports the weather has been most unkind; there has hardly been a yacht race; the cricket matches played this year may almost be counted on the fingers of one hand; the rowing men have been hindered by constant rain; and the entries for the coming race meeting were so large, because owners have had no opportunity of weeding out their stables. And now half the pleasure is to be taken out of the great cricket match by these clouds that will not be dispelled. It is no light matter to organise a cricket match between two places separated by eight hundred miles of sea, and between elevens composed of busy men to whom cricket is a recreation often hardly snatched in the intervals of their regular labour. The devotion to the great British game which brings them together under such difficulties is admirable, and the match promises to be a memorable one in itself, as well as in the fraternal rivalry between the great central and southern jerts of China of which it is an inication, As we write the weather prospects do not promise much; but the skies may be kind after all; and as the banks, which lead the commerce of Shanghai, have made it a holiday to-morrow, the field should be crowded. We hope for a good wicket and a good, well-fought game, played out; so that in future years the cricketers of Shanghai may date events from "the great match with Hongkong in 1889, you know."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.