The publication of the quarterly report of the Huangpu Conservancy work is always of great interest to the hipping community of Shanghai, to which the improvement of the river is such a matter of vital necessity. It is satisfactory to note that the Chief Engineer's predictions sre being falfilled in nearly every respect, and that the day is rapidly approaching when the Junk Channel will be open to vessels of ordinary draught. In spite of the undoubted progress that is being made, however, there is a great deal of uneasiness among the commanity, for it ha been a matter of common knowledge for some weeks past that certain allegations have been made against the manner in which the dredging contract is being carried out. We are unable at this juncture to enter into these allegations in detail, but th publication of the latest. returns to call for some explanation, in view of the figures furnished to us by the Conservancy officials themselves. Our readers may remember that in the middle of June last we published description of the dredgers at work in the Junk Channel, and at that time we were informed upon good author that the combined capacity of th Colonia and Rhenania, the two bucket dredgera, was about 500 cubic yards per hour. Now a glance at the retares for the past quarter shows that there were 73} working days but, it is pointed out in the Report, that as the dredgers are moored with the bow down stream, when the ebb tides run strongly the: buckets rise empty, and work has be stopped for an hour or and sometimes for more than two hours, at a time. If we allow ao average stoppage of two hours per day an hour for each tide—the dredgers will only have been at work for about 674 days. Assuming that is the case, the average amount dredged daily works out as follows: Colonia 8,916 cub, yds; Rhenania 9,694 cab. yds; whereas, on the basis of 250 cub. yds each per hoar, the daily output' of each dredger will only amount to 6,000 cub. yards. This is a discrepancy that' seems to call for an explanation, for it is alleged, we understand, that an output of 6,000 cabio yards a dredger per day would be 'a very good average. If the dredgers Kept up this average for the whole of the 674 days there would still bes shortage of about 450,000 cubic yards on the combined quarterly returns of the Colonia and Rhenanis. Every allowance will be.aade for the fallibility of figares in generalizations; but even if our calculations can be shown to be at fault, it can be contended that in the interests of the Dredging Company, as much as in the interests of the Chinese Government, farther' details of dredging work should be made public.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.