Word that the postal and telegraph rates have been reduced: again to normal was received with. approval here. In the last few years, because of the uncertainty and slowness of privately managed transport of goods from and to the coast cities, an increasing number of merchants have been taking advantage of the safer and simpler' method provided by the porce] post, The people as a whole were more: and more using the Post Office service when the order came raising the rates. They had put confidence in these Government institutions as settled and established, only to find they were subject to the same appetite for money that to the average citizen goes with most. Chinese officialdom. The postal and telegraph boards, by cancelling this exorbitant schedule, have passed the best New Year resolution. possible and retained the confidence of the people here and a rapidly increasing revenue.
The foreign New Year was observed in Sining city more widely than ever before, the growth of the Government schools probably having much to do with it. All yamens,. schools and Government offices were bedecked with flags. The great mass. of the populace, however, looked' with indifference on this day, making their preparations for their own New Year some weeks hence. The Mohammedan General received by far the largest number of callers, a steady stream coming and going all day and continuing into to-day as well.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.