18th August.
The Coal Mines known as " Fangtze," some ten miles by rail south of this city, promise an carly output of good coal, which will be a boon to consumers along' the lino as well as to the railway itself. The writer paid w visit to the mines a few days since, and was personally conducted over the whole plant by the engineer in charge, Mr. Steinhoff, who explained in detail all the whys and wherefores of the operations past, present, and future. Suffice ib to say (hat the shaft. is now 150 metres (about 490 fect) deep, and within 30 metres of the coal, which ab the present rate of driving will be—reached by the middle of September. Some weeks must be allowed for yotting the necessary hoisting machinery and pumps into position, and for preparing the pit for the discharge of coal. If no accident occurs, they hope to be ready to deliver coal carly in October, The sinking of a shaft G00 fect deep through rock is no trifling job, and when the disadvantages are considered under which the engineers have had to work, the present status of the mines is not a bad showing for the time spent on the shaft. We wish the mine owners and their corps of courteous engineers all success.
Local Rebeilion.
So, at least, it was interpreted by our Weihisien magistrate. A rich man, Li, at a village twenty li west of the city, has for years been ruling his fellow-townsman rather arbitrarily. Ho insisted that all affairs, public and private, should be referred' to him for adjudication. A few years ago he demanded that the local taxes for a theatre be paid over to him direct, and not to the hsien yamen, Emboldened by the (then) indifference of the magistrate to his high-handed act, ho recently undertook to repeat the performance on a still larger scale. Warning was sent hin from the yamen that he was taking undue liberties in imposing taxes. He berated the underlings and sout them about their business. At a second warning he had the constables beaten and tied up in a temple. Then was the magistrate righteously indignant, and swooped down upon this upstart usurper, and haled him to prison on the charge of treasonable assumption of official authority. Sic samper! 7
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.