Our magistrate, the Hsiushui Hsien, is a Hanlin Graduate, an able and progress sive man, very broad-minded and desirous to do what he can for the public good. He puts out subjects for essays and offers prizes, the competition being open to any one who desires to enter. He has subscribed to a number of papers and magazines which are kept in a fashionable tea shop, where all coa see and peruse them at leisure. After consulting with some of the prominent citizens, he decided to make an effort to establish a school of Western Learning here, the support of which was to come in part from an extra tax of forty cash per ounce on opium. A proclamation to this effect was issued. More than thirty opium shops refused to pay the tax and shut. their doors, which were promptly sealed by the magistrate, and the owners forbidden to do business until they agreed to pay up. About flus time, without the magistrate's cognisance, the Governor issued a proclamation placing an extra tax of twenty cash per ounce on opium for the benefit of the provincial treasury. This made it sixty cash per ounce extra tax, which, of course, enraged the shopkeepers all the more, and they decided to complain to the Governor against the magistrate. We understand that the Governor praised the magistrate for, his desire to establish such an institution, but expressed his regret that the matter had not been mentioned to him. The magigtrato, finding that the provincial treasur} must have the twenty cash, agreed to demand only twenty cash for his school. Lue shops then opened and are to pay forty cash per ounce, to be divided equally between the magistrate and the Governor. Some of the wealthy citizens, though not a large mumber, have come to the assistance of the enterprise, and a young man of a very prominent family has taken it in hand, end is pushing it, so that we may expect to see the school opened ut no very distant dar. We hope that the persistence which has overcome the difficulties so far will continue to characterise the promoters until success shall crown their efforts High Appreciation.
It. is reported that a very prominent Viceroy has written a letter to the Governor commending in the highest terms the above-named official. Whether this letter hind anything to do with it or not, this official bias recently been made an expect: Taotai and will thus step from a magistrate's into a Taotai's shoes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.