Tan.
"CONCERNED as it seems to be almost solely with highly technical matters relating to tides, the accumulation and scour of silt, and dealing in particularly abstruse calculations, river conservancy work does naturally not appeal to the average reader as 2 specially human topic. In many countries, no doubt, it has de. veloped to a point where the human interest is no longer present, and the work of an engineer in keeping a river within its due bounds excites no more interest than a plumber mending a pipe with very much the same object in view. When, however, conservancy work in China is spoken of we are on entirely different ground, and we find ourselves reading the life history of people in the reports issued year by year. This is eminently the case with one.such report. which has just reached us, namely, that of the Board of Conservancy Works of Kuangtung, and whether its financial aspect is considered or the actual engineering. works, it provides a fascinating study. The work of the Board during the past year has dealt with the North and East Rivers and the waters in the vic-mity of Canton generally, while, at the request of the authorities, attention was also devoted for a time to the Han River, at the mouth of which Swatow la situated. The districts through which these rivers pass are liable to almost annual inundation, and in days past massive dykes had been constructed to keep the waters within bounds. To-day a. great many of these are in sad need of repair, and where that has not been efficiently carried out there has been tragedy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.