Canton, Sept. 18.
During the week, the searching shops and the residences of merfehants has gone on apace. fof the Treasury have been conduct-jing investigations as thoroughly as if they were prohibition "under.
States, Distrastful of the shopkeepers, and believing many'of them to have falsely stated the amount] of their capitalization, the Treasurer, Mr. Koo Ying-fan, started using the methods of Paul Pry to get at th truth. Not only have the store accounts been gone over, but the Jgovernment officers have searched the houses of the store owners, hoping to find evidence of crookedness Anything to get money out of the long-suitoring merchants! This policy was not changed with the advent of Mr. Fung Chuk-man, who succeeded Koo Ying-fan in the office of Provincial Treasurer, but Mr. Fung is a man of a far different stamp from his predecessor. He would win the confidence of the merchants; he would have his administration publicly regarded as just one, At least, the business men are coming to believe this to be true, for they have found Fung Chuk-man willing to listen to their grievances, and he has expressed himself us most sympathetic and anxious to remedy the wrongs, that recently have teen done, Last evening, a delegation from the General Chamber of Commerce saw the Provincial Treasurer, and had a heart-to-heart talk with him.
In detail, they painted which shows busines stagnant and nunierous business houses already in a condition of insolvency, or else on the brink of bankruptey. The committee firmly maintained that the government, and it alone, can put business on its feet and give the merchant half 'a chance to make a livelihood, In a report made public several days ago, "it appeared that the] money shops already had paid their} fall quota of $4,000,000 into -the 'Treasury. Since then, the writ has learned that many' "payment consisted only of 1.0.Us., or me promises to pay, and many of these fare uncollectable, the merchants committee stated, and an_ attempt] to collect them only will bring about more business failures. Nor can the other merchants of this city from Kirin, the capital of the province by that name, and Tun} town east of Kirin. 'This line' now under construction, being built pay more, Of the $6,000,000 which ihe "nese, Memneies for, the|ighta Inthe present fnatance, attri the, Perse eabicbe the eevernment hoped te get from 20Y ere, OF rear which may. eventually lead the] oe" te, and no atone has been by the S.MLR. for the Chinese. Its importance Ties in the fact that it forms an extention of the line from Changchun, the junction point of the S.M.R, and the C.E.R,, and provides a link of the projected line to point on the Korean coast, which, if completed, will furnish a railway} running direct from the Korean! const to Changchun, which is in the heart of a great and very fertile] region.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.