From Our Own Correspondent, Shaohsing, Che., Jan. 28.
A ricsha company has just been started in Shaohsing. There are 50 ricshas now in use and 50 more are being assembled at Siaofongkeo, a place in the city. The vehicles are of up-to-date style and quality with pneumatic tyres, in fact "quite the latest thing in Shaohsing is the Venice of China with an extensive network of canals spanned by stone bridges. Bridges are so numerous that districts are known by the names of these rather than by streets and squares. he gradients on either side of these bridges are mostly formed by stone flights of steps, so that the passengers have to get out of the ricshas frequently while the ricsha negotiates the bridge, a sort of climb-in-and-out-ride-walk _experience which is neither fish, flesh nor fowl. The innovation may lead to altered bridges and better roads, so we wish the enterprise a "favourable wind."
For several years the dollar in Shaohsing was fixed at 1,000 cash, then for a couple of years it varied, going as high as 1,300 cash. Later it was fixed at 1,000 but refuses to stay '"'fixed" and now changes at 1,020. With the dollar, 10 cent piece and cent piece varying from day to day, involving intricate calculations with each purchase, higher mathematics are not likely to be forgotten.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.