"The case between the Japanese Consul and the local authorities, arising out of the murder of the Japanese railway coolies, is not yet settled. Besides the excitement created, a new "way of wealth" has been opened for the many magistrates who have flocked into the district in search of spoil.
Upon the issue of the negotiations depends the fate of the railway. Two hundred villages have signed -a compact and will certainly unite openly to oppose the construction of the line if the reactionary party carry the day in the yamens.
The Japanese Consul-General from Amoy is conducting the negotiations and his demands have been presented, They complain of the dilatoriness of the local magistrates, who have failed to carry out telegraphed instructions from Peking to arrest the guilty parties.
Money compensation is demanded from the Imperial Government for the two lives lost. Itisclaimed that the families, dispossessed because they rented houses to the Japanese, shall be reinstated and compensated. And the last clause of the demands indicates clearly that any further disturbance will make the protection of the work and the workmen a matter for the attention of the Japanese Government.
The local magistrates in their reply disclaim all responsibility on the part of the Government for compensation. They also draw a clear line between the right of the Japanese Consul to interfere in behalf of his nationals, and his right to claim any privileges for the railway company, which is, in name at least, a Chinese concern. In addition they. refuse to recognise the plea of the Consul in behalf of the dispossessed families.
So the matter rests at present. It seems, however, likely to result in a notable victory for the Consul and the railway colupany, and consequent benefit tothe whole countryside.
The Reactionaries in Puning, In the Puning district the forces of reaction have scored a temporary victory. Last year a school on the new lines was successfully organised, meeting in the. ancestral hall of the Feng family. At the beginning of the present year an attempt was made to open similar school in the temple of the God of Literature. The God was removed upstairs, and the great hall whitewashed and painted. And then a placard was posted declaring the object of the school and its methods. But funds had to be provided, and a meeting of graduates decided that the sums devoted to idol processions and plays should be diverted to the uses of the school. This attack upon "the bread and the plays" could not be tolerated. A mob collected, dragged out the school furniture and destroyed it; pulled down the houses of some of the promoters of the scheme about their ears, and chased one of the graduates into the yamen, wrecking his chair. The magistrate has procured a truce between the parties, but no security for the school up to the preseat, Our new chihsien at Kityang(Chiyang) links us up with the Kuangsi rebellion. Which holding a similar, but considerably poorer appointment in that province, the city under his charge was attacked by the rebels. When it was captured he lost
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.