The interesting question arises as; to how much extortion and cruelty the wealthy owner may practise on the poor tenant, but anybody who knows Chinese tenant farmers will smile at the suggestion of his being cheated by his landlord. 'n some specific case the rich might oppress a poor man but in the matter of the rent at will he is as harmless as a giant with thew matism. The farmers spontaneously amd unanimously refuse to pay. When the rent is "in kind" the tenant ig never cheated. An owner with only a few acres may possibly succeed in getting his per cent. of the wheat and straw but the vast majority of them are pretty well skinned by the farmer. During the harvest months in North Kiangsu the cities are almost deserted. Every landowner goes out to his farm and sits up with the crop night and day and even then is happy to get a pretty fair showing.
Slowly but surely these estates care breaking wp. The principal cause of dissolution is the natural one of the multiplying of the heirs. Here and there will be found families who select their most. competent member" as estate manager. He is in fact the real owner then of all the property, manages it as he chooses and the weaker ones are content to "eat off him'. Such estates naturally remain intact a long time. The tenant picks up a mow here and there as some man needs ready cash and now a large number of men may be found who own 110 or 20 per cent. of the land they work.
The land all along the coast is given up to the production of salt and the changes now going on in this industry will make material for a later chapter. The putting of the salt tax under foreign supervision and the approaching railhead of the Lung-Hai railway bid fair to make as great a change in the land as occurred on its emergence from the Bea.
First City Council in China Canton, Nov. 15.
The City Legislative Council was inaugurated on Monday, with Mr. Chung Wing-kwong as chairman.
It is believed to be the first City Council in China. The. membership includes four returned students and one woman.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.