894
SWATOW
Swatow has an electric light plant and a new waterworks was completed early in 1914, the reservoir being at Ampou, about eight miles inland. În the middle of 1919 a telephone service was introduced
Swatow is by no means slow in the race with other China ports for im- provement.
Road making and road widening are being carried out rapidly, and the public park at the back of Swatow is being gradually improved. Three Fire Brigades-well equipped with modern apparatus-protect the town, twọ of these being financed by different charitable guilds. An Orphanage, organised after the Typhoon of 1922, a Poor Peoples Workshop and a Leper Station, besides the Mission Hospitals, are among the charitable institutions of the Town.
I
TRADE IN 1931
1
Judging by the quantitative statistics, trade at Swatow would seem to have suffered badly during 1931 from the effects of the general world trade depression, political uncertainty, and the various calamities that beset China. The rigorous enforcement of the anti-Japanese boycott in the latter part of the year caused the disappearance of a large volume of trade. Swatow itself has been quiet and undisturbed, but the hinterland has suffered from ban- dits. The Value tables show a small increase of about 3 per cent. in the total figures for the whole trade of the port, but the increased values placed by the Customs on almost all commodities more than discount this augmen- tation in the year's figures. Marked, decreases are shown in the majority of the foreign import headings, cotton piece goods, woollen goods, artificial silk and cotton piece goods, foodstuffs, cigarettes, matches, sugar, and so on being supplanted to a large extent by native, articles for the sake of cheapness. The embroidery trade, which reached its peak in 1930, was much affected by the general depression in trade, resulting in a decreased import of linens. The new tariff in Great Britain is expected to have a further depressing effect on the embroidery business of the port. In exports, increases in the Siamese import duties reacted on the port in the holding back of chinaware (one of the main products of the Swatow district), earthenware, pottery, joss sticks, fans, and other sundries. Paper umbrellas had reached high export figures before these Siamese duties affected their shipments towards the year's close. The increase of over a million taels in the value of drawn-thread work ex- ported speaks well for this important industry; a thousand piculs more of nankeens were taken by the Singapore market; and the very satisfactory crops of fruit resulted in an excess of 100,000 dozen tins over the exports of 1930 being shipped away by the local canning industry. Fruit and sugar plantations are becoming so profitable that a great deal less rice is now be- ing grown in the district. As at Amoy, a decline was noticeable in the emigrant traffic owing to the trade depression in the Federated Malay States, Siam, and French Indo-China, and the earnings of the shipping companies concerned were very much affected. Remittances from the colonists in these quarters increased, however, on account of the present lack of good investing opportunities there and the favourable exchange to this country. Great achievements are being witnessed in street-widening and road construction in the Swatow area.
P
The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs in 1931 was Hk. Tls, 108,797,596 as compared with Hk. Tls. 105,509,558, in 1930,, Hk. Tls. 82,934,149 in 1929 and Hk, Tls. 84,949,586 in 1928.
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