MODERN CHINA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7621, 20 December 1886, Page 2

MODERN CHINA.

Some interesting particulars on tho above' subject are contributed to the Nineteenth Century by Mr J. N. Jordan. According to Mr Jordan's account China is not so much behind as some people suppose in those things which mark the advance of modern civilisation. Telegraph lines connect the principal cities in' the Empire, and though railroads are interdicted, steamers aro rapidly supplanting the clnnisy jnnks. The Chinese are by no moans unaware of the advantages of railways, but they are averse to the introduction of foreign capital and foreign engineers, and they prefer to wait until they arc in a position to command the money and tho men themselves. There was a railway constructed about ten years ago. ' It lan 'from Shanghai to Woosnn.<;, a distance of about eight miles.' The land was purchased by a British iirm under tho pretext of making an ordinary carnage road, and was got into working order before the Peking authorities got wind of what was going on. When it became known that the "lire-carriage" was actually running and puffing in the Flowery Laud, and that natives were flocking from all parts to havo a ride on tho mysterious Hying coach, the indignation of the Peking Government passed all bounds, and they made tilings so bad for the company that the latter consented to give up the line to the Government on payment of a heavy indemnity. The Oliinese Government no sooner assumed possession than they tore the line up and carted away all the material. The principal objection the Chinese have to railways is the notion that a vast number of people would be thrown out of employment, causing an economic shock which" might lead to. a general rebellion— a comparatively frequent ocuirencc in China. In the matter of newspapers China is very much behind,'havin" only three, although she can boast of having the oldest paper in the world, the Peking Gnzctle, which was first issued nea'rlysoight hundred years ago. The other two aro published at Shanghai, both being of very modern origin. The Peking Gazelle is tho official journal, and its phraseology is extrumely stilted and formal. The first two or three pages "enerally open with Court annouueoments and Imperial decrees, couched ju a very commanding and majestic tone, l-'oreign affairs rarely lind any montion in the Gazellt, and all eecrefc documents .are carefully excluded from its pages. Of late, however; the Gazette" has been less reticent, and during the recent crisis with Vrance this Hfhpcror frequently used it as a medium for giving publicity to bis opinion, of the French nation. About ten years ago au' Englishman started in Shanghai a newspaper called the Shcupao, and it proved a decided success, becoming after a time a very valuable property. The authorities do not like it, for it often contains unpleasant disclosures, but the Empress is said to pemso its columns daily to get information about the conduct of her servants in the movinees. Tljo other paper is tho Iliqxco, recently established under still more favorable auspices. Marriages are ananged in China through the means of a class of women who act as intermediaries. A girl generally gets married at about seventeen and a man at about twenty. The Chinese have a firm belief in marriages being mado in heaven. A cercertain deity whom they call the " Old Man of tho Moon" links with a silken cord, they say, all predestined couples. A Chinaman 'nifty divorce his wife for seven different reasons, ill-temper and ' a talkative disposition being two of the reasons. Tho Chinese language is by far the most dillieuK in the world, and even Chinese boys make bu.t slow progress in its acquisition. The course of study for Chinese youths is very severe. All tlio sacred books composed by Confucius, Mencius, and other sages of the past, havo to he commilled to memory. After days and nights of weary study a Chinese youth" is fortunate if lie gets bis fust degree at the ago of twenty. If ho aspires to a higher rank lie must compete again at the provincial capital against somp thousands of his fellow provincials. When ljie gets through this, ami ho seldom docs iuit.il after four or live trials, a still moro severe ordeal awaits him. He works hard for tlireo years more, and goes to Poking to pit himself againsUllUiorisinglalcnfcof tho Empire. There some ten thousand of the /cblcst students from all parts of the country are closeted in separate cells in an immense hall for uiim days, during which they undergo all the a;<oijy a'ttuuilim,' an excessively severe examination. Tho list of successful candidates appeirw a few days later, and some thrco hundred out of the ton thousand iind themselves the fortunate possessors of a degree which at once opens up to them Uio path of ollicial

distinction. The first on the list becomes a great celebrity, and if he is. not a mere bookworm ho is pretty certain to rise in the course of years to be the ruler of mil-

lions of his fellow subjects. There is no limit of age for the examination, and several instances have occurred where tho grandfather, father, and son were all candidates at the same time. At nearly every one of these examinations one or

more deaths occur amongst the candidates, and so strict are the regulations against unfair practices that tlio dead body is lowered by a rope from tlio wall of tho building to prevent any ingress or ogress. A few years ago one of the examiners went mad during the holding of the examination, and rather upset things generally. A. great deal of ceremony is observed in China, both in private life and in ollicial circles, and circumlocution is quite an art with Government officials. A masterly policy of inaction is studied to perfection, and it is rare that any case is settled until returns of paper have been covered in threshing out every detail. A Chinese despatch must be written in a certaiu, stereotyped form, and in acknowledging a despatch you must first begin

by quoting in extcnso all the documents to which you arc replying. This proves very cumbersome as the case gradually developes, but tlio pith of Chinese communication lies in the postscript, and a practised hand will «rasp tlio inclining at a glance. The viceroy of a Chinese province peruses some hundreds of such documents every day, and ofctaches a minute to each in as business-like a style as if he were a European. With reference to opium smoking, Mr Jordan says:— "I have visited scores of opium shops, have seen hundreds of smokers, in all stages of intoxication, and observation lias convinced me that physically they are an inferior class. The sunken eye, haggard look, and lack-lustre expression of countenance too often clearly mark the habitual smoker ; still, withal, he is certainly no' worse than the dram drinker in England, and it must be remembered that, opium apart, the Chinese are eminently a sober people, and few are the people who have no indulgence." In concluding his paper Mr Jordan says: "No length of residence abroad ever naturalised a Chinaman. High and low, rich and poor, they all long to get back to China and have their bones mixed with those of their ancestors. About two years ago 1 came across a Chinaman who had left his native village when a boy of ten, and had returned a wealthy man after thirty years' residence in Boston, having almost entirely forgotten his native dialect-. At first ho despised his native surroundings and boasted of Amorioan freedom, but after a few months he settled down to the life of his neighbors, took great pains to cultivate a pigtail, married, Christian though ho was, a couple of wives, and became a model citizen of the Celestial Empire. Ex uno discita omncs."

On our fourth page will bo- found an article entitled " Why sea water is salt. 1 '

There was no business at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday.

There were seven people in the lock-up yesterday, six for drunkenness, and one, a female, for disorderly conduct. There were several drunken men about the town yesterday who would have been as well in the lock-up.

The railway receipts on the Napier.section for the four weeks ending November 13th were £4911, as against £5170 for the corresponding period of last year. The expenditure, on the other hand, increased from £2696 to £2520.

A number of people went up to' the Old Men's Refuge yesterday expecting to hear the Garrison Band play, as had been announced. Owing to the lire on Saturday, however, the band did nobpeffonn, several members boing firemen, and others having been working hard in saving property. The concert will be given next Sunday.

We hear that the united insurance companies have decided not to continue their subsidy to the lire brigades, feeling dissatisfied with the standard of efficiency as gauged by Saturday's lire. It may be hoped that this is not correct, but in any case we presumo that the companies will pay the large amount of subsidy owingover £200. Had that been paid long ago, as it fell due, the brigades might have had a plentiful supply of good hose for use at the fire.

"What is England, or France, or America, or tliis great colony going to annex as a reply to Germany's latest bit of "conveying?" That Power has now proclaimed itself owner (by Divine right, of course) of the Bourgainvillc, Chesent, and Isabel islands, portions of the cluster of islands in the western Pacific known as the Solomon group. It wouldn't he a had idea for Australasia to collectively annex the Soutli Pole, haying first taken the precaution of finding it. No Power could tlien get beyond us in land snatching.

Some very funny things were done (taring the firo on Saturday. One very zealous young raau, getting up a kind of high-pressure funk when he saw that Tennyson-street was being left to him, armed himself with, an axe and made an entry into Mr IT. P. Cohen's residence. After smashing and hacking out a couple or window frames on the ground floor, lie went upstairs ami excitedly served several casements in the same manner. He was heard to reflect afterwards thafceutting out the sashes made in "easy to chuck things out ! '"

" Puff" in the Evening Press writes : — "I notice the Parnellite landlords are just as bad as any others in evicting their tenants !" " They ought to stick to their principles oven though they emptied their pockets !" " Their principles is simply to iill their pockets!" "How much of the thousands of pounds subscribed by sympathetic Irishmen for their suflbiiug fellow-countrymen have tho poor evicted tenants got ?" " You'd want a microscope to see it !" " It's all gone for tho good'of the cause!" "The cause of fattening the agitators, while the poor folk they talk so much about are starving !" " How much land has the Land League bought and given to poor evicted tenants !" "Devil a bit, and they've had money enough one way and another to comfortably settle the lot!" "Then their occupation would be gone_ !" " And what would the professional agitators do then, poor tilings ?",

During the last week a rumour was current that a, petroleum spring has been discovered in county Sli"6. It appears that a young man named Reddingtoii, son of a farmer, was doing inside work in a house in which a herd formerly lived, at a place called Rannatonflaup, near Gcevagh. He was making a floor in one of* the rooms, when to his surprise he found the groinid swell and crack, and a strong smell of oil. Ho removed some of the earth and found a substance which had the smell and color of petroleum oil. He removed a large stone and found, it is said, an abundant supply. It was suggosted that if oil it should be put into lamp and tested. The experiment was tried and proved successful. Those wi[o burned it say that at first it gave a bright flickering light. It had a very disagreeable smell— so much so that it could not he burned long. It was carried away by the people of the place and burned in a number of houses. — Home News.

A very interesting relic of ancient flays has (says the Sonih Australian Register) just been brought to Adelaide by MrChas. JJii'ks for presentation to the Adelaide Museum. It is a piece of a wooden bridge 'which was built over the Rhine, near Neuwied, by Julius C.esar, 56 years before Christ. The remains of the bridge were discovered in a bed of sand and gravel in the middle of the Rhine while the river was being dredged' in July last. The discovery caused groat interest throughout Europe, and pieces of the old bridge 'have heen placed in every museum of note on the continent. The specimen about which wo arc now writing was kindly handed to Mr Birks by the llerr President of thoNeuweid for presentation to the nniKonm in Adelaide, and it will shoiily ho handed to the director of that institution * It may be mentioned that a quantity of old Koiiuiu jewellery and coins have been found in a field opposite the site .0/ the, old hridsu

Much amusement has been derived from the remarks of tlio intelligent Cingalese stranger which are appearing from time to time in the Daily News. They are contained in a series of letters, purporting to be written by a workman of Ceylon, now employed at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and sent to his family in that colony. His moralising^ are most curious, and would probably be morn valuable wore it- not thai he has only cockney information, such,' in fact, as lie has managed to gather within a few miles' radius of South Kensington. This philosopher from Ceylon is most impressed with what ho calls our unscrupulous cleverness ; he is much horrilied by Western immorality, and declares emphatically that tho people ot this country have no religion. Not satisfied wit[ilhe.<;c statements, the " stranger," in reviewing our social condition, is struck by the extremes of riches and poverty, ami returns again and again to the wickedness of our women. His opinions on journalism may be commended to Fleet-street, which will probably be much exorcised at hearing that the Government are only afraid of ono paper, and that its name is. {I'luiiuler,

Hiuco the annexation of Nice to France in JS7O, the former "Dominican .church has been used as a mililary bakery. ' A few days ago it became necessary to examine the roof, and the architect was horrified to iind in tho garret about GOO skeletons Hung pch ■mclc. Medical experts declared that they must have been buried jit least three or four centuries ago. It apyjCij.ps that when Nice was occupied by the I'Yenuh troops in 1702, the monks wero expelled lrom the J)nildi;;y, "njid tho church •of St. Doiuinick ' was converted into a, national bakery ; and itjssupposeij

that iii carrying ovit the transformation the graves in the floor of the church were emptied of their contents, which were' transferred to the garret and Hung there in heaps. Most of the persons interred in that chnrcli mnst have been members of noble ' families of Provence or tlio neighboring districts, who possessed the privilege of a place of interment within the church "for ever." The majority of the skeletons were of women! probably among. them was the skeieton of duchess of Savoy, who is known to have been buried in that church. All these remains have since been buried in one of the cemeteries of the town.