'Our new magistrate, a Swatow man, has some very advanced ideas of reform. He says there have been over 300 men on the staff of dep-unties about the yamen, who lived by extortion from' those on whom they had to serve summonses ete, He proposes to get along with about 40, who will be held to strict account for their operations, Every writ! will carry the fee to be paid the deputy named thereon, and punish ment will fall on those who collect} more than is authorized, That funds good; but the deputy will not bbe the only one who can lie about how much money he received, The too, all yamen employees who use opium will be dismissed. " Neither poppy growing, trade in opium or opium smoking has been forbidden yel; but warning has been given that opium will have to go before Jong. So Kweichow will soon be facing the problem of how to pay for her imports of wearing materials, salt, sugar, etc. It is not an easy problem to. solve, We hear that the road from Chung: king to Kweiyang is now in oper: tion, ears doing the through trip in two days. This is great progress. The route through Hunan is also nearing completion. So it seems that by next year it will be quite feasible for dwellers along—the Yangize to spend a refreshing summer holiday the on Kweichow plateau. Here at about 4500 ft. above sea have not seen the thermometer in my study rise to 80° f. this summer, and these last few evenings the. breeze has been really chilly. But believe me the sun does blaze and on open stone roads the heat is stiff ing. tu the shade the air is cool pegriy always, and the nights de-
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