The weather continues to be bright and dry, so the river and wells keep at lowest mark, much to the detriment of transport la the former case. While down by the riverside a couple of days ago I noticed the charcoal hongs practic-cally empty and fuel of all kinds very scanty. On the other hand the rice hongs are more or less full of rice bags ready to be sent north to the hungry soldiers as soon as possible.
Rain began to fall on the night of the 26th and great hopes were raised. Early on the 27th this light rain turned to snow, but the amount that fell was meagre and only remained in evidence on the E. and W. slopes a part of the 28th, for like "'the early dew of morning," it had "passed away at noon." Still owing to frost and cold there is a little to be seen in shady places and northern slopes even to-day. While the sun is shining, and one can sit in a sheltered place, the warmth is considerable, but in the shade and during nights and early mornings many find the cold penetrating. One declared a couple of days ago that the last few winters have beea much colder than former winters. There is no doubt the cold has been more continuous and more ice has been in evidence.
Rice, maize and fuel have all gone up 20 per cent. during the last month. At present this does not tell heavily on the people because the dry weather means so much less broken time. Later there will be much grumbling.
Business is admittedly better than last year, but a number of firms will have a much smaller profit than they expected through the fires here. Even the big fire at Pengpu affected a few firms here, for some had hemp and other things in some of the godowns that were burnt. Rice, tea, hemp and timber are the four principal exports, and I am told that these total well over $3,000,000 per year.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.