CHINESE CORRUPTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2397, 18 May 1897, Page 3

CHINESE CORRUPTION.

A Chinese doctor now living m England, who -was kidnapped a few months ago by the Chinese Legation for export to China as a political offender, has been i ** showing up" Chinese methods of conducting public business, m the Fort nightly Review. He shows' that the system of leaving public officers to collect their own remuneration by hook or by crook, from the people leads to some shocking results :— . . Take, first, the case of floods arising from the overflowing of the Hwang Ho (Yellow River). There is an official known as the Ho-tao-chung-tu (Viceroy of the course of the river), with a large number of subordinate officers, whose special duty it is to preserve and keep m order the banks of the river and to guard against accidents by seeing that the embankments are adequate and sound. These officials are, however, practically without salary, and have purchased their positions at immense cost. They must, therefore, make money, and they can do so m many ways when an embank ment bursts and has to be reconstructed. Thus it is their constant hope that floods may come ; and, far from taking, precautions to prevent these terrible visitations, which lay waste whole provinces and cost thousands of lives, they actually take care to produce a flood by artificial means if, for the demands of their ruthless cupidity, Nature seems too dilatory m the matter. When there is not enough rain to make the river overflow its banks, it is quite common for men to be sent out to damage the embankments, and so cause " an accident.' This is a source of profit m a variety of ways. First, there is the pay received for repairing the breach, then there is the profit obtained by docking the wages of the workmen employed and by employing fewer workmen than are supposed to be paid ; and yet another on the cost of materials/etc ; then the lack of food consequent upon the destruction of rice fields causes widespread distress, and re- j lief funds pour m both from Government and from charitable individuals— relief j funds which never m anything like their j full amount reach the people for whom they are intended. Finally, there is always a p omotion, by way of " recompense for public services," conferred on the officers under whom an embankment has been repaired.