Ever since Professor Fowler told Shanghai of the dangers attendant upon the smoke nuisance here, the port has been fairly ready' to listen to matters connected with it. It may therefore give some heed to the report issued by Lord Newton's committee in England on} the abatement of such nuisances, for there is one very interesting point in it whichsinight appeal to! people here. It is found that in the newer industrial districts of Germany there is little or none of the smoke nuisance, this because the latest devices to consume smoke products are in force. Now great deal of Shanghai's industry is very modern—witness the spread of cotton mills in recent years—and if German manufacturers could contrive to eliminate the nuisance, Shanghai need not. necessar ly be any distance behind hand in' the matter. There is one point in the report which, although not new, is always interesting, namely the statement that domestic fires are responsible for five-sixths of the pollution of the ai proportion seems well established at home. such as Shanghai where conditions but would it hold good in a lace are rather different? For a place of its size the number of fives is probably less than would be the case at home, and perhaps charcoal consumed to a greater extent. Whatever the state of affairs is. the man in the street is prepared to lay the whole blame to the count of the mills, and with smoke-consuming appliances installed to Greater extent than now there would surely be the possibility of an improvement there.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.