952
HONGKONG
43,436 vessels of 16,955,332 tons were engaged in foreign trade, as compared with 48,026 vessels of 20.547,119 tons in 1917. A comparison between the years 1917 and 1918 is given in the following table :-
1917.
1918.
Increase.
Decrease. Class of Vessels. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. British Ocean-going.. 3,004 5,168,058 2,444 3,627,576
560 1,540,482
Steamships under)
Foreign
4,140 7,121,490
4,234
6,117,893 94
British River Steamers 6,665 3,999,537
5,807
3,444,445
Foreign
""
...
1,619 842,696
1,510
612,314
60 tons (Foreign
6,531 198,060 6,002 180,738
Trade).
1,003,597
858
555,092
109
230,382
529
17,332
Junks, Foreign Trade 26,067 3,217,078 23,439 2,972,366
2,628
214,712
-
Total, Foreign Trade.. 48,026 20,546,919 43,436 16,955,332
Steam launches
94
4,684 3,591,597
plying in Waters (548,536 12,423,736 499,102 10,734,658 of Colony
49,434 1,689,078
Junks, Local Trade...*36,516 1,522,018 +37,003 1,828,199 487 306,181
Grand Total ......
.633,078 34,492,673 579,541 29,518,189 581 306,181 54,118 5,280,675
Net Decrease.........
€3,537 4,974,4941
The actual number of individual ocean-going vessels of European construction during 1918 was 675, of which 162 were British and 513 foreign. In 1917 the number was 750, of which 259 were British and 491 foreign. These 675 ships measured 1,476,594 tons. They entered 3,343 times and gave a collective tonnage of 4,878,119. Thus 75 fewer ships entered 680 fewer times, and gave a collective tonnage reduced by 1,272,215 tons, an average of 1,8709 tons per entry.
A Parliamentary paper issued in August 1905, showed Hongkong to be, in respect of tonnage, the largest shipping port in the world. The trade chiefly consists of cotton, sugar, salt, flour, oil, cotton and woollen goods, cotton yarn, opium, matches, metals, earthenware, amber, ivory, sandalwood, betel, vegetables, granite, etc.
There is an extensive Chinese passenger trade, chiefly restricted, however, to the Straits Settle- ments, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, Siam, and Indo-China.
Hongkong possesses unrivalled steam communication. The P. & O. S. N. Co. and the M. M. Co. conveyed European mails weekly, and before the outbreak of the war, which eliminated German and Austrian shipping, the Norddeutscher Lloyd maintained a regular fortnightly mail service between Bremen and Hongkong. The China Mail S.S.. Co., the Pacific Mail S. S. Co., the Toyo Kisen Kaisha and the Java Pacific Line maintain a service with San Francisco, and the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services, Ltd., maintain a regular mail service with Vancouver, B.C. The Bank Line, Ltd., and the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, run regular steamers to Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle and to Tacoma, and the Bank line maintains regular services to New York; the Australian Oriental Line keep up a regular monthly service with the Australian Colonies, and the Nippon Yuser Kaisha maintain services to Europe, Australia, and the United States (Seattle). In addition to all these, several great lines of merchant steamers run between ports in Great Britain and Hongkong, of which the China Mutual S. S. Co., Ocean S. S. Co., and the Glen, Bank, Mogul,
Glen, Bank, Mogul, Ben, Royal
Ben, Royal Mail, Shire, Barber and Shell lines are the most conspicuous. Regular steam communication between Java and Hongkong is maintained by the Java-China-Japan Line and the Nederland Royal Mail Line. Between the ports on the east coast of China, Formosa and Hongkong the steamers of the Douglas S.S. Co. and the Osaka Shosen Kaisha ply regularly, and there is constant steam communication with Hoihow Manila, Saigon, Haiphong, Tourane, Bangkok, Borneo, eto. With Shanghai, Tientsin and the ports of Japan there is frequent coinmunication by steamers of the Indo China S.N. Co., China Navigation, and other lines, in addition to the English and French mail steamers. Between Hongkong, Macao, and Canton ther is a daily steam service, and steamers run as far as Wuchow on the West River
* Including 11,988 Conservancy and Dust Boats of 665,548 tons.
""
11,686
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2)
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638,884