Contagious diseases are causing about 1,000 deaths. daily in North Kiangsu districts, including Taihsien, Yangchow, Tungtai, Hsinghwa, Yencheng and Jukao, according to a Chinese dispatch reaching here yesterday.
The death rate is especially high in Yencheng and Hsinghwa districts. Owing to a lack of adequate medical facilities it is impossible to check the spreading of the contagious diseases, according to the dispatch.
One result of the high death rate is a rise in the price of coffins. There is a shortage of timber in those districts and the coffin shops, unable to meet the high demand for- coffins, have no alternative but to increase the prices. A coffin made of poor quality wood, which used to cost only a few dollars, now is sold, for $100 and more, it is stated.
Many families unable to buy the expensive coffins remove the bodies of their deceased relatives to a piece of vacant ground and leave them there, the reports said.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.