30th June.
'THE fears that have been current lately that the stock of rice in Shanghai was inadequate to the coming demand, induced " number of prominent Chinese merchants to concert measures with a foreign firm for the importation of rice from the South. Before settling, however, it was determined to make a thorough investigation of the stock of tice in Shanghai, and this was done on Sunday last. 'The result is that it-turns out that there is thirty days' stock in the hands of the rice merchants, wholesale and retail; while in godowns in the native city there is a stock of 200,000 large piculs, or forty days' supply, belonging to a prominent local official who bought it before the recent rise and is holding it for a large profit, which he expects to make if the scare can be kept up. 'There is thus seventy days' supply in Shanghai, and there are large supplies at some of the river ports and in the central provinces, without drawing on which, however, and this the officials are doing all' they can to prevent, the stock here is amply sufficient until the new crop comes to market.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.