THE CHINESE.
—There are 585 Chinese children in the public schools of San Francisco.
—There are two Chinese papers in San Francisco. One man performs the functions of editor, publisher, compositor, press-man, book-keeper and office boy of the Wah Kee. This wonderful and versatile man is fifty years old. The paper has 1,000 subscribers, and costs ten cents per copy, or $5 per year.
—Candidates for missionary work in China have opportunity to study the language at Oxford, Eng., in the department under charge of Prof. Legge. The English Presbyterian Foreign Mission Committee, believing that more can be accomplished by three months’ study at Oxford than by a year spent in the unhealthy regions of China, have adopted the plan of sending their missionaries to the former place, to avail themselves of the instruction of Prof. Legge.
—Upwards of 2,000 Chinese have recently landed in two weeks’ time in Australia. They come for the most part from Hong Kong, where there is great depression in business and much suffering among the people. The tide of emigration, which formerly set so strongly towards the Pacific coast, seems recently to have been somewhat diverted to Australia and the Sandwich Islands.
—The Government of China has decided to erect telegraphs from Shanghai to Tientsin and other cities. Already hundreds of telephones are in use. Questions in relation to railway systems are being agitated, and a committee has been appointed for the purpose of thoroughly canvassing the matter, submitting plans, etc. Unquestionably a number of railways will be constructed within the next five years, and perhaps sooner.