The Catholic Cathedral. — Oil Factory. 445 



ting's is tlic Catholic cathedral of Tong-Kadii, confessedly the 

 finest place of Christian worship throughout China. The 

 construction of this building was commenced by voluntary 

 subscription in 1846, and comjjleted in 1852, the total cost 

 amounting to 230,000 leangs^ or about £65,000. Within there 

 is a large organ, constructed by one of the lay brothers of 

 bamboo pipes, whose saddening yet inspiring notes, heard in 

 the festivals of the Church, invite the Christian community far 

 and wide to devotion and instruction. At j)resent this cathedral 

 is under the charge of a bishop of the Order of the Jesuits. 



Our road from the Chinese city to the European quarter 

 led us past an establishment which bore interesting testimony 

 to the industrial activity of the Chinese. It is an oil factory 

 worked exclusively by natives, and giving employment to 

 about 400 worlonen, besides 80 draught oxen. The oil is ex- 

 tracted from indigenous beans, and is so copious, that 1400 cat- 

 ties (1750 lbs.) of oil are procured daily, which is worth 74 cash 

 per catty (about 84 J. per lb.), and is used both for cooking and 

 for light. The residuary oil-cake, after expression of the oily 

 matter, is used as manure.* A workman may earn at this 

 description of labour from 100 to 200 cash a-day {4:d. to 8J.). 



♦ Not alone this oil-cake, but ground horns and bones, hair from the beard, and 

 nail-parings, rust, ashes, and even human excrement are used as manure. And it is a 

 singular fact that the price of the latter varies according to the race of men by whom 

 it has been evacuated. The succulently nourished flesh-eating English and Americans 

 are in this respect in far greater demand than the more sparely-fed cross-breeds ; 

 while the Chinese, subsisting almost exclusively upon fish and vegetables, are in 

 respect to the value of their /<5ces as manure, behind every other race inhabiting the 

 country. The price of this manure varies with the quality from one dollar to tliree 



