Kirin, Feb. 14.
As we approach the end of the Chinese year the rush and bustle intensifies. Streets are crowded. Every one seems to be buying. Everyone seems to be wrangling over money, creditors dunning debtors for their debts and debtors hurrying feverishly from moneylender to money-Tender. Short loans cost from three per cent. to seven per cent. per month, mortgages on property are hastily contracted and title deeds change hands as security. The country traffic is now at its height.
Early this month there was a heavy snowfall over all Manchuria, which, though delaying trains and carting for a.few days, has greatly improved the roads for sledge traffic in this neighbourhood. 7 The depreciation of the local government notes is causing as much vexation as ever. Promises of a unified Manchurian currency with a Mexican dollar basis, profuse and persistent though' they are, are far from being fulfilled.
Missioys Bir py Excuanar.
Protestant Missions in Manchuria are being much harassed by the ever soaring price of silver. Estimates sent to the home base are out of date before they reach their destination. The Home Churches are unable to keep pace with the increased demands in sterling. Retrenchment has begun, but is very difficult to carry out without seriously crippling the efliciencies of the various departments. For example, if a school or college is not kept warm enough or its teaching staff reduced, its standard and reputation soon suffers. Similarly, if the. fees of hospital are increased beyond a certain point to make it self-supporting, it may indeed be made to pay its way, but at the cost of losing its privilege of ministering to the suffering poor.
The Chinese Christian Church in Manchuria, though doing its share, is still far from being wealthy enough to shoulder the larger financial responsibility of the missionary institutions and agencies now at work.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.