It will be necessary to import 2 much greater quantity of rice than in the last distress (1920-1921), and. yet at that time the importation attained unprecedented proportions at Wenchow, as the statistics of the "Customs bear witness. The population was impoverished; it has not recovered; and now a greater calamity brings back, after so short an interval, the same distress, followed by the gaunt spectre of famine. Uj. to the present it has only made 26 victims, perhaps by reason of the flood, since one poor woman, sole survivor of her family, told me that they were four or five days without food when the water had risen about their home. I saw, during my tour, groups of beggars who scadently had' nothing to eat but what the compassion of others was kind enough to give them. In general, the moment has not yet arrived to die of hunger, at the time of my inquiry; it was too near to the harvest (a poor enough harvest, alas!) of rice or of potatoes, But that dismal moment will come, and very quickly, as sure as two and two make four.
On November 4, in harvest time, my boatman searched the shops of the town of Yotsing in vain for four or five "sings," or small measures, of rice. A few weeks later, the inhabitants of Tat'sing-tseng and Batchishiang could no longer buy a single grain at Dang-yang hsiang or Houngkiatseng, their usual provisioning places,—a sure proof of the distress, BRIDGES AND ROADS, 111. Q. Roads, brigades, etc., totally or in part, destroyed?
Dikes 22,079 tch'ang (61,821 metres).
Roads, 32,112 tch'ang (89,913 metres).
Bridges 62 and 27 arches.
Footbridges over streams 5,110 tch'ang (14,308 metres). The dikes are of two kinds. Those in the interior restrain the rush of the rising streams, and preserve the fields and houses; the others protect reclaimed land from the incoming tides. Both kinds are equally necessary. On the condition of several of the most important depends the fate of several localities, such as Datsingkai, Sutsiang, Batchikai. a ete., which. are in danger of being washed away by the swollen waters in the time of heavy rains. The others are connected with the cultivation of a considerable number of acres of Jand along the coast of Yotsing. One even, that of Ts'ily, at the mouth of the Ngeoukiang, if it is not repaired, renders problematical the cultivation of half the rice-fields of the sub-prefecture, and at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.