From Our Own Correspondent.
Peking, Sept. 9.
The recent raising of the Master of Elibank to the Peerage. and his resigning a place in the Cabinet' at the same time in order to joi his fortunes to the famous firm of Pear. son's suggests reference to the fact that an old China hand, in the person of Mr. J. T. Bourne, has also recently joined the same frm and has settled in Peking as their engineering representative in China.
Mr. Bourne first struck the Far East in 1889, when he entered the service of Liu Ming-chuan, the old Black Flag Chief, in those days Governor of Formosa, for the purpose of railway building in the aforetime possession of China He vsubgequently under-studied Kinder on the Peking-Muk" and Ching-Han railways, built the Pekin Syndicate line in Honan for Pearson's and lastly joined the Peking-Pukow line and was in charge of the work on the difficult bridge over the Hwai river. Mr. Bourne, it may be mentioned, is " brother of the Assistant-Judge in Shanghai.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.