On the night of 10th December the back premises of the China Merchants' Company at Wuhu were entered by a roof-
bed of some dozens of strings of cash and walking gentleman" @ burglar), and rob-three time-pieces. Mr. Wang, the District Magistrate, has been informed and thopolice are on the look-out for this uninvited visitor.—Hu Pao.
The Hu Pao, in a series of articles on a favourite theme, the recovery from forei; of their commercial superiority over the Chinese, makes the following suggestions
tion. (2) Increased import duties. Foreign Improved system of technical educa-piece goods form a principal part of the import trade. Cotton damasks, the most heavily taxed, only pay 2 mace (one fifth of atuel) per piece to the Chinese revenue cotton, dyed, figured and plain, only one mace and a half, fancy white brocades and white spotted shirtings only one mace, other kinds still less, some as little as four candareens per piece, which is nothing like an import duty of 5 per cent., ad valorem. Compare these with the duties levied at the Saigon Custom House, amounting sometimes to 40 per cent ad valorem! There a piece of cotton worth $1.15 pays 45 centa, or 37 per cent; a piece of white shirting worth $3.50 pays $1.30, A shipment o piece goods from Singapore worth $2,400 was recently mulcted $900, or 374 per cent. on value, and the representations of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce to the British government will have no effect unless the French choose to reduce the duties. In America import duties are several tens per cent., 5 per cent. being there unknown. When the C.M.S.N. Co.'s steamer Hochng once made a voyage to an America port, the Amerigan customs charged
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.