May 26.
THE proposal of the authorities of Chihli province to levy a ten per cent. tax on all kerosene, gasoline ete. entering the province as from July 1 next cannot fail to attract wide attention, as another example of the. illegal provincial taxation' which, beginning with cigarettes, threatens to spread far and wile The Commissioner of Foreign Affairs at Tientsin has informed the oil companies that the intention is to collect the tax from the consumers; but this, in practice, is obviously absurd: the tax could only be collected either from the retailers or from the distributing agent. The Chinese
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.