The Railway Administration, from which Harbin takes it lead," have increased the number of holidays for 2927, for all Russian and Chinese yoligious festivals are now to be kept. This means that there will be over 100 non-working days during the coming year, and not in-eluding the free Saturdays that are the order of the day at the Railway Administration during the summer months and which take the place of the usual fortnight holiday railwaymen were yearly entitled to, The Municipality is following the suit of the CER. in changing to the metric system from the _beginanlng of next year, and is to be congratulated on the step it is taking, certainly the system is altogether better than the Russian, which is as complicated as the British.
The Passport Question According to official statistics, over 10,000. Russians in Harbin thaid expired passports and what. action the police will take—still amains to be seen for many of the number are not in the position of paying for these yearly documents and the fines that are mulcted if not taken out on the day that res, There are in alone, for which a charge of $6.10 a piece is made, This is the chief source of income of this Administra tion, which is perfectly independent any other, and subject only to the orders issued by the Civil Adaninistrator of the Railway Area. Together with the fines, which are considerable seeing a 50 cent levy is made on the first day that the ald' passport lapses, and a further cents a day afterwards, the total amount that is estimated to ye col-Jeeted is equal to nearly half of the total police expenditure. This yatiier absurd and means that the brunt of taxation is on the shoulders of Russians—a great number of Sybom are in the most straitened {eircumstance:. As many of these $6,000 Russians are not able to. Day more than enough for. the pass port, let alone' the fine which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.