Mill Hands From. Shanghai From Our Own Correspondent, Wuchang, March 1.
Foreigners in Wuchang were interested the other day to sea smoke pouring through both chimneys of the new cotton mill on the tiver bank. It appears that the factory has now started work; some hundreds of hands have already been engaged. Most of these have come from Shanghai, Some years ago a piece of land to the north of the city, along the Yangtze bank and opposite the Hankow Concession, was decided upon as a suitable plot for setting apart as a foreign settlement under Chinese protection. At that time the scheme came to nought. Now a certain number of workmen are engaged in laying out this tract, and it was thought that the settlement scheme was to be mooted again. However, it appears that the native authorities have decided that until the question of extraterritoriality 1s settled more in accordance with the wishes of the Chinese, the ground is only to be leased to native firms.
Conro or THE Srupexrs.
With the approach of the time for reopening schools, the city walls and hoardings are being plastered with notices advertising the various government and mission educational institutions, In regard to the former class, the authorities are taking steps to avoid the disturbances and strikes that proved so outstanding a feature in the students' lives last year. A notice has been sent round to heads of schools and colleges informing them that they are expected to keep a strict hold upon their pupils, and will be held responsible should the latter give any trouble to those in whose hands the preservation of the peace and good order of the city rests, Furthermore no pupil is to be admitted to a government school unless he can produce a guarantor, and should the schoolboy get into any trouble this gentleman is to be called upon to stand the racket. In regard to the former regulation it will doubtless do a large amount good if the directors of education will only back up the authority of those in charge of schools.
It is a lamentable fact that hitherto a schoolmaster in government employ who desired to estabolish good discipline in his school could, as a rule, never count upon the whole-hearted support of those above him in his plans for the enforcement of school rules.
The second of the above-mentioned regulations, if strictly enforced, should do much towards preserving peace among the stidente, as no Chinese is fool enough to guarantee anyone whom he suspects may develop into an embryo politician of the hair-brained type.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.