On every beat there is a box, like a sentinel's box. No one seems to know what the functions of the police are, themselves least of all, for they are merely passive spectators of what happens in the street. Street lighting was also introduced recently, paraffin lamps being put up here and there. By Chinese standards Urumchi is a clean and well kept town, though far from sweet-scented. In the evening especially all kinds of disagreeable smells spread through the town.
The town is the seat of the supreme administration of the province. The Governor occupies a large yamen in the centre. He is at the head of the civil and military administration of the district and has many offices for the different branches of administration dignified by the names of the Ministries in Peiping: hufan, gunfan, hsinfan, lifan, bin fan, khaufan and jang vu dju fan. His chief assistant is the Fantai, who really administers the provincial finances. In this capacity he is in control of taxes, Customs dues and the treasury. The latter consists of two departments, each with a numerous staff. One of them administers the revenue and expenditure of the province, the other the silver received annually from Lanchow, with which both civil and military salaries are paid. Besides the revenue from the province 2,400,000 lan are supposed to be received annually in grants from wealthier provinces. Out of these funds 1,200,000 lan are paid annually to the Dzian Dziun of Ili, who has to cover all the expenditure on Manchus, Sibos, Solons and his irregular troops out of this sum. He receives the property of orphans, of which a fund is formed for granting loans on good security at moderate terms (12 %). Education, State mines, extension of tillage and settlement, questions concerning agriculture, the administration of the mint and arsenal, the recommendation of candidates for posts, everything goes through the Fantai's influential yamen. Minor officials, including district chiefs (tsou), are appointed by the Governor, higher officials by Peiping.
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