872
WUHU
Spinning and Weaving Joint Stock Co, Ltd., a factory owned and managed by local Chinese, started operations in December, 1919, and its 10,000 spindles should help to develop cotton growing in the district.
The town is fairly well built, with rather broader streets than most Chinese cities possess, and is tolerably paved. The tract of land selected 30 years ago for the Foreign Settlement was definitely ceded in 1906, and sites were allotted to the Anhwei Railway Company and to various shipping companies, each lot having a river frontage of 600 to 1,100 feet. In 1914 the Ministry of Communications took over the Anhwei Railway Company with its entire assets and liabilities. Bunding operations have progressed satisfactorily, and the place has taken on a decided air of prosperity. The roads. in the Foreign Settlement are well laid out, forming a good promenade for those who care to avail themselves of walking exercise. Four large godowns have been built by Messrs. Butterfield & Swire on their ground in the New Settlement for storing rice, and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. have also acquired property in the vicinity. On the plots of ground acquired by the Asiatic Petroleum and the Standard Oil Companies below I-Chi-Shan, a hill which forms the lower boundary of the Foreign Settlement, the former company has erected oil godowns and the latter, also, has established premises. New Customs buildings on the foreshore near the Foreign Settle- ment were completed and occupied in 1919. Nevertheless, the Foreign Settlement is still waste land for the most part. The Trade Report for 1912 alluded to the need there was of broadening its road connexions with the business centre of the town and of construct- ing a wide bund along the port's river front. There is no immediate prospect (writes the Commissioner of Customs in 1920) of expanding to serviceable dimensions the conneeting roads that now exist, bounded on both sides as they are by shops and dwelling-houses for agreat part of their length. A bund road along the foreshore would appear to be not only a more feasible proposition but one, also, that offers far greater advantages to both trade and shipping. A scheme for the levy of wharfage dues to pay the cost of constructing such a bund was elaborated in 1915 and has since been approved by the mercantile classes whose business must be taxed to finanee it. It is strenuously opposed, however, by influential proprietors of timber-yards occupying a large section of foreshore on the proposed bund line, and it cannot be carried into effect until these yards are removed to another locality. Similar opposition delayed for many years the cession of the Foreign Settlement area. The local officials, under instructions from the Government, are looking for the best way to meet the difficulty. The solution of the same problem, in so far as it concerned the Foreign Settlement, gives good grounds for expecting a favourable issue in the present instance also. The Electrie Light Co. appears to be doing well, for electric lighting has superseded that of oil to a great extent, The population of Wuhu is estimated at 100,000.
A-si-a
DIRECTORY
ASIATIC PETROLEUM Co. (NORTH CHINA),
LTD.-Tel. Ad: Doric
J. Rasumssen, manager
P. J. Willson (absent)
N. Keller
R. A. Bell
J. S. Lee
A. B. Lester, instaln. manager
BRITISH-AMERICAN TOBACCO Co.
W. T. Smith, manager
W. J. Brelim
J. Balis
Brunner, Mond & Co. (China), Ltd.
A. Yung, agent
Agencies
British Dyestuffs Corporation, Ld.
Borax Consolidated
Castner, Kellner Alkali Co., Ld. Chance & Hunt
Mond Nickel Co., Ld.
United Alkali Co., Ld.
Chiswick Boot Polish Co., Ld.
Reckitt & Sons, Ld.
J. & J. Colman, Ld.
古太 Ta-koo
BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE (John Swire &
Sons, Ld.), Merchants-Tel. Ad: Swire
R. A. Lawson, signs per pro.
J. R. Macdonald
Agencies
China Navigation Co., Ld.
Ocean Steamship Co., Ld.
China Mutual Steam Nav. Co., Ld.
Canadian Govt. Merchant Marine, Ld.