At last the new railway from Sanning to Kungkik has been opened, and the ceremony was carried through, not without a hitch, on' the 6th instant. This new line is not a long one, as it covers only about forty miles. The capital of the Chinese Company, which has undertaken the task, amounts to $2,600,000, of which $2,000,000 has been subscribed in America and the ming $600,000- has come from Chinese merchants in Hongkong. A large part of the money subscribed by the Chinese in the States has been retained there in order to buy the necessary plant.. This railway was conceived originally in order to connect ti land town of Sanning with the mai river of the delta, and thus by water communication with Canton and Hongkong. Sanning is a very old town and appears to be very dilapidated. But many rich Chinese live there, and no doubt with the opening of the new Tine the district will revive. At the other end, the projectors of the line intend to build @ new town. In other words, at first, although there is little "more than s terminus, it thought that streets and stores will soon appear and, therefore, the builders of the line have anticipated what will happen, and have laid out the city after the manner of cities in America.
The day of the opening ceremony was made the occasion for belauding the work and the workers. One of the Chinese speakers (old his audience that perhaps in no country has such a piece of work. surrounded with so many difficulties, been put through in so short a space of time. It was also a matter of congratulation that this piece of line was built by the Chinese alone. They had cut through mountains and bridged rivers and no foreigners had a hand in the pie. It appears, however, that several foreign gentlemen who were invited to take part in the opening ceremonies had rather a bad time of it.
In other words, the arrangements broke down, and things were somewhat tangled. First of all the train stuck on the line at one point coming back towards the river, and when at last the river's bank was reached, and the launch was boarded, it was found that the tide had retreated, and so the launch stuck in the mud here and there. By the time the party reached Kongmun, here they expected to join the Hong-ong steamer, it had gone, and so they Who H.-C. Herald and S. C. & C. Gazeriz
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.