is pushing work towards as rapid a completion a3 possible. The principal mains are being laid, and it is thought that the company will be ready to supply water in September. The water is to be taken from the river opposite the foreign Settlement—the nearest point to the distributing tank some distance back on the Extra-concession. As one looks at the black, vile stuff that flows through the city moat into the river off the SE. corner of the city wall, a flowing menace of disease, it seems 8 pity that the water supply could not have been taken from the "Grand Canal" above the city, the stream that is froest from impurity of any that converge at Tientsin, and thus be free at least of the accumulated filth of Tientsin which is daily dumped into the river. Perhaps the purim fying processes can be made equal to the occasion, but they will need constant and most careful oversight. A good water supply will be an inestimable boon to the place, and the company deserves the greatest success.
12th June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.