Directory_and_Chronicle_1914

1084

PAKHOI

piece goods, etc., were formerly distributed over the country lying between the West River and the seaboard, but now that the West River has been opened to steam naviga tion a part of the trade has been diverted to that route. The trade of Pakhoi is a declining one. Its net value in 1912 was Tls. 2,536,195 as compared with Tls. 2,457,588 in 1911; Tls. 2,655,519 in 1910 and Tls. 3,002,911 in 1909. Since 1888 the prosperity of the port has been steadily declining owing to the diversion of a portion of its trade to Hai- phong, which has resulted from the pacification of Tongking, while the trade of Kwangsi has been diverted to the recently opened-ports on the West River. The French free port of Kwangchowwan has also taken away a good deal of trade from Pakhoi. The Chinese town is situated on a small peninsula, and faces nearly due north. It stands at the foot of a bluff nearly forty feet high, which deprives it of the south- west breeze, in suminer, while in winter it is exposed to the full force of the north-east monsoon, which very often blows so hard for several days that it materially interferes with the loading and discharging of steamers in the harbour. The bluff, or the plain above the town, is level for miles, which makes riding both on bicycle and on horse-back a decided pleasure. The foreigners almost exclusively live on the bluff, which in former years was only dotted by a few European buildings, but is now ornamented with many. From the bluff an extensive partly-cultivated plain develops, over which some sport is obtainable snipe, plover, quail, and pigeons being found in large numbers, but duck and other water-fowl are not numerous. The climate is considered to be very salubrious. The estimated population of the port is 20,000. No port in China is more easily approached and entered than that of Pakhoi. The landmarks are conspicuous and unmistakeable. The channel, marked by a couple of buoys -the starboard buoy being lighted by acetylene gas-is wide and deep and has no hidden danger to be avoided. The anchorage is a mile and a half from the Custom House. There is good landing at high water, but at ebb tide only for small boats. The construction of a railway by a French Company from Pakhoi to Nanning was authorised a few years ago, but the work on the project has not yet been commenced. More recently the leading Chinese residents of Limehowfu, the chief city in the Pakhoi district, have formulated an ambitious scheme of railway construction spreading out to Western Kwangtung and Kwangsi, with lines to Kweichow and Yunnan, but the realisation of this project is probably as distant as the other. A free school for the teaching of the French language to Chinese, a free hospital for the treatment of Chinese patients and a Post Office have been established by the French Government. In 1906 a police force was established by order of the provincial government of Canton. In 1907 the local merchants established a branch office of the Canton Chamber of Commerce.

.CONSULATES

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