26th Aug. In his report on the trade of Wahu for 1896, Mr. M. F. A. Fraser remarks thet if the volume of trade means prosperity the figures that he has to deal with show that 1896 was.the best commercial year the port has known, since it was opened in 1877 to international trade, and that the total value of that trade, which amounted to something over 7,000,000 Mexican dollars in 1885, has more then doubled by 1896; both imports. and exports showing a steady increase. In Imports the principal increase has been in cotton and woollen piece-goods and yarn. In 1890 the import of the last named article only amounted to 486 piculs, but in 1896 the import of Indian yarn amounted to 10,484 piculs, nearly the whole of which was sent under transit pass into the interior. 'I'he import of kerosene oil continued steadily on the increase, which was more marked in the case: of Russian oil, though the American oil still keeps'ahead.
There was a falling off in the import of opium by 55,774 Ibs. there having been a considerable cessation in the demand for the foreign drug; as the import of native opium had increased by 17,042 Ibs, and Mr. Fraser says that "the crops. of native-grown in this province, Anhui (mainly in the north of it), have not been plentiful during the Inst. two years, and the price here for 100 ounces has risen from 14 or 15 taels to 16 -taels, the Szechuan drug being about 20 per cent more expensive,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.