CHINA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 387, 12 July 1879, Page 24

CHINA.

(CORRESPONDENT OF PRESS AGENCY.) Hongkong. Since my last letter the colony has been gay with receiving General Grant, who arrived here on the 30th ult., and landed at the Government pier, where he was received by his Excellency the Governor, the heads of the Naval, Military, and Civil Services, and a large number of residents. A guard of honor, from the 27th Regiment, with a band, was present, and the road to Government House was lined by the police. General Grant was accompanied by Mrs. Grant ; Lieut.-Colouel Grant, his son ; the Hon. A. E. Boul, exsecretary of the United States navy ; Dr. Keating, who is writing for a Philadelphia paper ; and Mr. John Russell Young, the General’s private secretary, and correspondent of the New York Herald. The General and party were guests at Government House with the Governor, who on the 3rd inst. gave a State dinner, at which some 40 guests sat down. General Grant and party left this on the sth for Canton and Macao. At the former place his reception b} T the Chinese was superb. He returned to Hongkong on the 10th, and left again on the 12th for the North, in the United States steamer Ashuelot. His Excellency Li Hung Chang, it is said, intends to receive the gallant ex-President with unusual marks of distinction.

It is stated that there are good prospects of Wenchow becoming a tea-exporting port. Trade there has considerably improved lately. A fire broke out in a blacksmith's shop in a southern suburb of Eoochow on the 31at ult., which was not extinguished until more than 500 houses had been destroyed.

The German schoouer China was lost on the 30th March at Chinghi, North of Shantien Banks, in the Gulf of Pechihli. The captain and crew were saved by a passing junk. News has been received in Hongkong of the loss of the British ship Sir Charles Napier on the Islaud of Ascension while on a voyage from Hongkong to London. She left the former port on the 4th December last with a general cargo. A magistrate of Chowchow, in the famine districts of the province of Honaw, states that in spite of the prohibition of the cultivation of opium, poppy seeds are being extensively sown, and as people have no seed corn, he thinks it would be a great hardship to enforce the decree against poppy. Another outrage upon the native Christians is reported from the Fuhkien province. At the town of Yib-kaw the Christians were asked t« surrender their chapel and to give up the exercise of their religion. On their refusal four leading members were set upon and so barbarously treated that it is said to be doubtful whether two of the sufferers will recover.

The youthful Emperor Kwang-su, with the Empress Dowager, set forth in procession from Pekin on the 12th ult. to Tung-ling, to be present at the obsequies of the late Emperor and Empress, which took place on the 17th ult. amid much ceremony.

The Yungtai Bank has failed for a large amount. There are suspicious circumstances connected with the failure, and the matter is being inquired into. Several 40-pounder guns have just been turned out of the arsenal by Chinese workmen, and they stood the several tests in the most satisfactory manner. The manufactory i 3 under foreign superintendence. Another case of piracy occurred about ninety miles from Hongkong. A Chinese junk, with about ninety persons on board, when about five miles from Macao, her destination, was hailed by some men in a boat, who said they belonged to the Custom*, and wished to examine the cargo. At first the junk hoveto, but having their suspicions excited, they refused to allow the pirates to board, whereupon the men in the boat commenced to fire, which was returned by the junk people. Then seven more piratical boats came up, and a vigorous engagement ensued, the junk ultimately repelling the attack. The pirates lost 15, and the master of the junk and one seaman were killed. Each piratical boat carried about 30 men.

In the Sanchan district the mission premises were sacked and looted by the Chinese, but no one was injured. The rebel chief, Li Yung-choi, and his followers, are intrenched in the mountains on the frontier of Kwangsi and Tonquin, hemmed in by the Imperialist forces on one side, and an army of mercenaries from Annam on the other. Free pardons have been offered to all rebels who will desert from their leaders. Three of the crew of the British barque Kate Waters, bound to Sydney, have been sentenced to death for the murder of the captain and two officers and three Chinese.

At Ningpo the Chinese authorities have closed all the pawnshops, which have been found to be merely the receptacles for stolen property. They are all kept by persons who have been transported from distant provinces. It was only the fear of driving these people to desperation that prevented the authorities dealing with them before. The China Merchant Company's steamer Chin Se, which left on the 6th for Hankow, took with her the machinery for the woollen factory at Lanchufoo. There were about 1200 boxes of machinery.

A good deal of interest is felt in a suit brought by the Chinese against the Rev. J. R. Wolfe, in reference to a land dispute, and it is a significant fact that the Chinese should have consented to have the case tried in an English Court, instead of leaving it for settlement between the Foreign Offices of the two countries.