No. 43.

GREAT BRITAIN.

REGULATIONS AGREED UPON BY THE YÜ-FENG COMPANY AND THE PEKING SYNDICATE FOR MINING PURPOSES, IRON WORKS, AND TRANSPORTING MINE PRODUCTS OF ALL KINDS IN THE PROVINCE OF HONAN, a

JUNE 21, 1898.

1. The Governor of Honan having sanctioned the request of the Yü-Feng Company for the sole right to work all mines around Huai Ching Fu, and in all the hill country in Honan Province north of the Yellow River, the several concessions granted are now transferred for operation to the Peking Syndicate for the period of sixty years. Mining engineers shall first be sent to find in what township and hills the mines are situated and what they produce, and make maps thereof with explanations inserted, which shall be submitted to the Governor of Honan that he may see that the proposed works are not injurious to the place; and he shall report thereon to the Tsung-li Yamên for record, and at the same time issue a permit for the mines to be opened without the least delay. If mining lands belong to the people, the lease or purchase shall be made by arrangement with the owners for a reasonable price; if it be Government land the tax to be paid on it shall be double the ordinary land tax for that locality.

The Governor of Honan has authorized the Yü-Feng Company to negotiate a foreign loan not to exceed 10,000,000 taels. Should the mining engineers employed find this sum insufficient, the Yü-Feng Company may borrow more only of the Peking Syndicate.

3. All matters of administration, exploitation, employés and finances shall be controlled by the Board of Directors of the Peking Syndicate, and the chief of the Yü-Feng Company shall co-operate. The Governor of Honan shall be requested to send officials from time to time to inspect the accounts of receipts and expenditures.

4. Each mine must have one foreign and one Chinese Manager, the foreigner to control the works, the Chinese to attend to all matters between natives and foreigners. Accounts will be kept by the foreign system; receipts and payments of money to be controlled by the a British Parliamentary Blue Book, China No. 1 (1899), p. 194.

foreign Manager and audited by the Chinese Manager. At all mines Chinese should be employed as much as possible. All salaries to be paid by the Syndicate.

5. When prospecting for mines if there be any boring or sinking of pits to examine mineral deposits an arrangement should first be made with the landowner to compensate him for any crops injured. If a mine be opened on private land an arrangement must be made with co-operation of the local officials to lease or buy the land for a reasonable price fair to both parties as a measure to justice. Wherever land leased or bought for mines contains cemetery or mortuary shrines some plan must be devised to avoid them—there must be no excavation. After mines are opened should there be damage to life or buildings from subsidence in the mines, the Syndicate shall make charitable compensation.

6. Wherever mines are worked there shall be paid yearly to the Chinese Government as producer's tax ("lo-ti-shui") 5 per cent. on the cost of extracting the output of the mines. From the profits shown by the yearly accounts there shall first be paid 6 per cent. interest on the capital employed, and next 10 per cent. shall be set aside as a sinking fund for yearly repayment of capital and consequent reduction of interest payments to sinking fund ceasing when the invested capital is wholly repaid; and from the remaining net profit 25 per cent. shall be paid to the Chinese Government, and the remainder shall go to the Syndicate for its own disposition. In future, wherever foreign capital is used to work coal and iron mines in China this rule for a 5 per cent. Government tax on the output shall be enforced, so that all may be treated alike. This capital being money lent by merchants for mining purposes, the Chinese Government will not in any way be responsible for losses incurred in the business.

7. As the Syndicate will work mines in several places, the accounts and profits of each mine must be kept distinct from the others. The gains of one mine should not be made to off-set the losses of another, and so cause the Government income to suffer reduction.

8. All machinery, materials, and supplies needed for the mines shall, on importation, be subject to the rules in force with the KaiPing and other mining Companies, and pay one full duty and a-half to the Maritime Customs, and shall be exempt from all inland li-kin taxes. The products of the mines, when exported from a sea-port, shall pay export duty according to the Customs Tariff.

9. The Syndicate is to control the mines for sixty years, on expiration of which term all the mines of the Syndicate, whether new, or old, profitable or not, shall, with all plant, materials, buildings, lands, railways, bridges, and all property acquired by the capital of the mines, be handed over gratis to the Chinese Government, and in due time the

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Yü-Feng Company shall request the Governor of Honan to send deputies to take delivery.

10. It is important that at each mine measures should be taken to prevent discord between officials and people. For this purpose, the Yü-Feng Company should request the Governor to appoint a deputy, and the Syndicate should nominate one of the gentry. The salaries of both to be paid by the Syndicate.

11. On first opening the mines foreigners must of course be employed as mining engineers and foremen, but later on the Yu-Feng Company and the Syndicate should arrange to select for such positions any Chinese who may be proficient in mining, engineering, or managing work. For subordinate positions of little responsibility Chinese should be entirely employed, and Honan natives as much as possible, so as to encourage improvement.

12. The miners employed should be chiefly Honan men, and should be paid fair wages. After the mines are open, the Yü-Feng Company and the Syndicate should select from European and American Mining Regulations suitable ones to apply to questions of compensation to miners for injuries while at work, to pensions for the aged after long service, the limit of daily working hours, &c., and obtain for such Regulations the approval of the Governor.

13. In opening the mines the Syndicate shall establish a school of engineering and mining in some locality convenient to the mines, and there shall be selected twenty or thirty promising youths by the local officials and gentry to study in this school under foreign instructors, and thus prepare for future employment on railways and in mines. The expenses for this school to be met by the Syndicate.

14. The 10,000,000 silver taels to be loaned to the Yü-Feng Company by the Peking Syndicate is an estimated sum. After the capital necessary for opening each mine has been supplied by the Syndicate, the Syndicate will be authorized to print share certificates and conditions for the capital furnished, and fix the time of sale. Chinese merchants who apply for shares within the fixed time shall be allowed to buy of shares for sale any number they wish.

15. Chinese merchants who wish to buy shares may get them from the Yu-Feng Company, who will procure them at current market rates, or they may themselves buy or sell the shares at pleasure. If any Chinese gentry or merchants shall, within the term of sixty years, acquire three-fourths of all the shares of any one mine, that mine may then be redeemed from the Syndicate, and the Yü-Feng Company shall report upon same, and direct that shareholder to take charge of the mine.

16. If, within the area authorized for opening mines, there be mines already worked by the people, such private mines shall not be appropriated, but if a proprietor be willing to lease or sell his mine, the

Yü-Feng Company and the Syndicate shall offer a reasonable price for it, but no compulsion shall be used.

17. Whenever it may be necessary for any mine to make roads, build bridges, open or deepen rivers or canals, or construct branch railways to connect with main lines, or with water navigation to faciltate transport of Honan coal, iron, and all other mine products from the province, the Syndicate, on reporting to the Governor of Honan, is authorized to proceed with the works, using its own capital, without asking for Government funds.

Regulations for the branch railways are to be made in due time.

Private land required for the works authorized as above, shall be leased or bought according to the rules already in force with other public Companies.

No encroachment of private property shall be allowed, and the local authorities must be applied to for protection.

18. At the end of every year a printed account of profit and loss shall be rendered by each mine to the Yü-Feng Company, and each mine shall appoint one Chinese and one foreign auditor to examine the accounts and certify that they are correct; and a general account of profit and loss for all the mines shall be jointly prepared and submitted to the Governor, who will send copies to the Tsung-li Yamên and Board of Revenue for audit.

Payments due to the Government shall be reported at same time. 19. These mines being under the sovereignty of China, should China ever be at war with another country the Syndicate will obey the orders of the Chinese Government prohibiting any aid to the enemy. 20. These Regulations shall be made out both in Chinese and foreign text, each party to have a copy for reference.

Signed in Peking on the 21st day of June, 1898, being the 3rd day of the 5th month of the 24th year of the Emperor Kuang-Hsu.

(Signed)

[Seal of the Peking

A. LUZZATTI,

General Agent of the Peking Syndicate (Limited).

Syndicate, Limited.]

(Signature of the Chief of the Yü-Feng

Company.)

[Seal of the

Tsung-li Yamên.]

No. 44.

CHINA.

INLAND NAVIGATION-REGULATIONS GOVERNING TRADE ON THE YANG-TSZE-KIANG. a

PEKING, AUGUST, 1898.

ARTICLE 1. Former Regulations rescinded.-The Revised Regulations of Trade on the Yang-tsze-Kiang (1862) having been amended, and the substance of their provisions having been incorporated in the present Yang-tsze Regulations, the said Revised Regulations of Trade on the Yang-tsze-Kiang are hereby abrogated, together with the Port and Customs Regulations thereon dependent.

ART. 2. Ports, Stages, and Passenger Stations.-The merchant vessels of the Treaty Powers are authorised to trade on the Yang-tszeKiang at the following Treaty Ports:

Chinkiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Shasi, Ichang, and Chungking: and to land and ship goods in accordance with special regulations at the following non-Treaty ports:

Tatung and Anking, in Anhwei; Hukow, in Kiangsi; Lukikow and Wusueh, in Hukwang.

Shipment or discharge of cargo at any other points on the river is prohibited, and any violation of the prohibition will be dealt with in accordance with the Treaty provisions applicable to clandestine trade along the coast; but passengers and their baggage may be landed and shipped at any of the regular passenger stations (at present consisting of Kiangyin and Ichang, in Liang Kiang, Hwangtzekiang and Hwangchow, in Hukwang: passengers baggage must not contain articles subject to duty, and the presence of dutiable articles will render the whole liable to confiscation.

ART. 3. Three Classes of Vessels.-Merchant vessels trading on the river are to be divided into three classes:

First-class: sea-going vessels trading for the voyage up river beyond Chinkiang.

Second-class: river steamers running regularly between any of the river ports or Shanghae and any river port.

Third-class: small craft (lorchas, papicos, junks, &c.).

a British Parliamentary Blue Book, China, No. (1899), p. 252.