APPALLING LOSS OE LIFE IN CHINA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1184, 30 September 1885, Page 6

APPALLING LOSS OE LIFE IN CHINA.

Details have been received of the great destruction caused in Canton and its vicinity by the recent great rain. The flood has been the most serious which has visited the country during 38 years. More than 10,000 persons lost their lives, and a far greater number are in a starving condition. Entire villages were engulfed, and the entire rice and silk crops in the vicinity are mostly ruined. The rain fell in the latter part of June, filling and overflowing many of the rivers. The streets at Canton were flooded for over a week. At Seznee the water broke through and it is reported that several thousand people were drovrned in that place. The embankments o£ the river were broken in numerous places, and the water swept across the surrounding country, carrying everything before it. A foreigner who was an eye-witness of the scenes reports that one night the boat he occupied was anchored near a bamboo grove, and by morning the water had risen to the top of the bamboos ; at other points it had risen 40ft during the night. The inhabitants fled from the villages and camped on the hillsides. In some places parents held their children on the high branches of trees, while they instituted means for their general safety. The trees were smashed up by the roots, and the heartrending cries of the children were silenced by the surging water. The body of a bride dressed in her bridal clothes was found floating in the river. At Canton a large tub was also seen. It was picked up and found to contain a boy and a girl, and with them was found a paper stating their names and the day and hour of their birth. , . Their parents had instituted that means to save the lives of their off-spring. The suffering which thousands are enduring is heartrending.

A tramway conductor's life, like a policeman's, is not a happy one. The other day, says the Auckland " Herald," a lady in passing out of a tramcar without the delivery of her ticket allowed her hand to rest musingly in that of the conductor, while she incidentally indicated where she resided. On Saturday night another conductor got a lady's hand, but it was somewhat differently applied. The frisky damsel skipped into a tramcar in Hobsonstreet, and the conductor, whose attention wa3 absorbed in endeavoring to extract, an exasperating toot from the new whistle supplied to the conductors, did not give much heed to her at first. At last an incident occurred which led him to believe that she had been drinking and he requested her respectfully, but firmly, to get out of the car. She did so, but managed in leaving the tailboard to give him one straight from, the shoulder, in the face, the balance of her sentiments being expressed from the side pavement. The adolescent conductor has now his doubts as to , whether lovely woman is quite as angelic 1 as he had deemed her to be.