From Our Own Correspondent.'
Kueiyang, Kuei, Oct. 18.
It is rumoured im some circles that there is a possibility of a Commission from the homelands coming to China for the purpose: of investigating the Code of Laws and the Methods of Administra-_ tion, ete., as this subject is supposed to have a bearing on the abolition of extrality, and so' forth.
Here in this province thera ap-* pears.to be no special difficulty about administration, for when there is a person to be - executed and the civil magistrate is not prepared to go through the formality of presenting the case to the capital, etc., he just turns the criminal over to the military folk and they soon make a target of him. If the military ''boss-rooster" is not quite satisfied with the evidence, he extracts more from the prisoner.
Sometimes it is necessary to use torture and one means adopted is called,' Carrying a stove pick-aback." It consists in burning a) fire on tha.victim's bare back until he supplies the necessary information. 3 Many folk in the maritime provinees may remember Mr. Wang-Meng-ping of Kueichow, who was an official in Shansi for 'a number of years, and during that time was in charge of the mint for producing copper cent pieces. They will be sorry te hear that Mr. Wang has come to an untimely end at his native city, Tuyin. When the authorities decided to raise the sum of $1,000,000, from the people they portioned out set sums to each district, expecting the officials to raise the money from the populace. The sum apportioned to Tuyin was either $30,000, or $50;- 000, and Mr. Wang thought it was too much. He expressed himself freely to others and detectives were put -on his track. They feigned themselves to be visitors and discussed the. question with him. After hearing what he had to say in the matter they invited him to the yamen for further consultation. It is said that the official ahd other. told him that he could purchase the whole of the notes himself because he was a man of money, etc. He denied the allegation and they had further talk together. When loaving he was shot dead before he left: the official residence. No trial what-aver, but shot down in cold blood is what is reported here. He may have been worthy of death. or punishment, and on the' other hand he may have been innocent, but as there was: no trial the case makes it clear that there is serious defect m the way supposed justice is meted out.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.