An interesting lecture was delivered before the members of the Lancastrian Association, Shanghai, and representatives of, other interested bodies at the Palace Hotel on Wednenday evening by- Mr. C. Hear on The History of the British Cotton Growing Association." There was a large attendance, Mr. J. Kerfoot, the President of the Lancastrian Associntion, presiding Mr. Kerfoot said:—The average cotton crop of the world may now be estimated at considerably over 20,000,000 bales of 500 Ib. each three times the quantity that was produced forty years ago. It is of supreme importance that the supply of cotton should be increased and it matters little from what country that supply comes so long as it is ample for the needs of thr industry as a whole, The British Cotton Growing Association and similar associations in the other European countries are all working to obtain these much needed sun-plies from their colonies and dependencies.
What bread is to the feeding of the poorer classes, cotton piece goods are to their clothing. Hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of the earth are not clothed at all, a still greater number are only partly clothed; all these are in want of cotton clothing as soon as civilization reaches them. but they cannot pay a high price because they have not much to sel! or to barter for the goods ther wish to buy. The consequence is that the consumption of cotton goods depends largely on the price at which they can be sold. This explains why we, who have the running of the mills in China, cannot encourage too much the extension of cotton growing and also the improving of the staple in this country, otherwise the supply will not keep pace with the rapidly growing demand for cotton clothing. The area in China can be greatly increased by letting cotton take the place of opium without in any way interfering with the area devoted to growing foodstuffs, and the Chinese merchants who have made such large sums of money from the im-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.