Kueiyang, Jan. 2.
New Year is being observed by all public offices and the schools, three or four days' holiday being granted, and many shops and houses have the flag out but business goes usual.
Prices are still rising, rice is now $1 a bushel. I hear that the authorities are starting a bureau or society called the -PY# ("even or fair-price rice-selling Society") with the Kueiyang Magistrate as president and one of the gentry as vice-president, its object being to sell rice at bare cost (possibly rather under cost) to the very poor. This is a good move, but, if I am correctly informed, the public granary has a very small stock of rice in hand, so, unless the rice hoarders are compelled to bring out their grain and sell at a moderate price, the benefit to the poor will spite of an exceptionally good maize crop last year, the price of maize is high, though of course cheaper than rice. A few days og' as I was returning from a coun' trip, the one wayside inn where we could get breakfast provided what one called "'gold-silver-copper" rice, ie, rice with ground maize and small beans mixed in. Not over appetizing but we were hungry and cold, so made a good meal.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.