SANTUA O
Santuao was voluntarily opened to foreign trade by the Chinese Government on the 8th May, 1899. The port includes the whole of the magnificent Santu Inlet, which is situated some 70 miles north of Foochow. The island of Santuao in the centre of the inlet. The harbour is certainly one of the finest on the China coast: the approaches to it are well-defined, and vessels of the largest size may enter at any time, regardless of the state of tide. H.M.S. Waterwitch surveyed the whole of the inlet in 1899, and an Admiralty chart has been published. A telegraph cable was successfully laid from the mainland to the island July, 1905, and communication established with all China ports. A new cable connecting the telegraph office at Santuao with the mainland was laid in May, 1921, and the inconvenience caused by receiving and dispatching all messages from the other side of the harbour, which had been experienced for four years previously, was thus removed. A long distance telephone system was installed in 1936 connecting Foochow as well as the principal towns bordering the Santu Inlet.
The port of Santuao serves important tea districts as much of the tea exported from Foochow to Europe is first shipped from Santuao. No building operations worth mentioning have been undertaken at the port, and no modern methods have as yet been introduced in the manufacture of the principal local products -paper and pottery, except softwood planks, which are manufactured by a modern saw mill though excellent raw material is close at hand, especially extensive · deposits of kaolin capable of yielding far superior pottery than is now brought on the market from this district. The iron mines in the districts of Kutien, Fuan, and Siapu, where the deposits were reported in 1918 to be of a promising nature, have not yet been properly exploited, and so far no smelting work s at Santuao, as then anticipated, have been erected, so that a regular trade in this, valuable mineral does not yet exist here. Since 1937 manufacture of black tea by machinery has been intro uced by the Fuan Agricultural Experimental Station under the auspices of the progressing Fukien Provincial Government. Most of the trade is transhipped at Foochow though occasionally direct imports were effected by tramps arriving from Shanghai with cotton piece goods, flour, etc. or from Hongkong with sulphate of ammonia. The chief towns of the district are Funing, Fu-an. Ningte and Shouning.
TRADE IN 1936
Santuao enjoyed a year of comparative quiet, though adjacent districts were not entirely free from bandit activities until after the arrival of Government troops in October. The value of direct imports from abroad during 1936 was $120,000 as against $131,000 in 1935. Direct exports to foreign countries were valued at $8,000 as against $4,000 coastwise importations of Chinese produce were valued at $0.7 million as compared with $1.1 million, and coastwise exports of Chinese produce at $4.8 million as against $2.7 million. The weather during the year was somewhat abnormal, there being excessive rain during the early part while later the long drought affected the rice and sweet potato crops. Santuao is essentially a dis- tributing centre for the north-eastern part of the province of Fukien, the principal imports being cotton piece goods, wheat flour, kerosene, sulphate of ammonia, dyes, and cigarettes, and the major exports tea, paper, softwood planks, salt fish, and cereals. The aggregate value of trade amounted to $5.6 million, showing an increase of $1.7 million, though it may be pointed out that this improvement is largely due to a re-diversion of tea shipments from free-movingjunks to duty-paying steamers. Imports of kerosene oil from abroad decreased by 24,928 litres, while coastwise imports from Foochow amounted 1,293,976 litres as against 975,015 litres during the previous year. A net increase of 811 quintals was recorded for sulphate of ammonia, the total import being 7,197 quintals, principally from Germany. No matches were imported, the foreign product being replaced by matches of Chinese manufacture. A good year was reported in the tea trade, largely due to the assistance accorded by the provincial government. To assist farmers, merchants, and steamer companies in the tea trade, loans were provided by the Fukien Reconstruction Bureau. In