488
THE HONGKONG-WEEKLY PRESS AND quote their pith as contained in Mr. Francis' accessory to the crop growing upon it. The somming up.
•
*
A
Administration Office of Formosa would do well to attend to the matter and to define precisely the ownership of land.-Japan Mail.
THE CANTON CUSTOMS report.
The following is the report of Mr. G. Farragó, Commissioner of Customs at Canton, on the trade of that port for the year 1894 :-
LOCAL.
3,000,000; rice, wheat, and beans, Hk. Tls. 14,200,000; masting, Hk. Tls. 500,000; silk, Hk. Tls. 12,700,000; and tes, the modest sum of Hk: Tls. 276,000.
REVENUE.
| June 26, 1895,
flour has become an important staple among im- ports. In the course of 1894 154,000 picals were landed at Canton-an increase of about 40 per cent. over the total of the year preceding; It will be observed that Mr. Francis takes up
this, possibly, has been due to the high prices slightly contradictory positions it this résumé.
for rice, consequent upon its scarcity throughout He is perfectly satisfied" with the recogni-
the year, which must have stimulated a larger tion already extended to him in the form of the
consumption of the comparatively cheaper flour. thanks of the community, yet, in view of his emi nent services, as detailed by himself, it is im-
(b.)-Exports.-Estimated by the extent of possible for him to accept such a paltry
value, the export trade to foreign countries has supplementary acknowledgement as a silver
not suffered any reduction in its volume com pared with the figures of the previous year. inkstand. He has
sufficient memorial of the plague year and of his work The year under review has not been free from Examined item by item, however, several of the during it in the gold medal to be presented to adverse elements affecting the course of trade. important products of the port show a falling -him by his fellow-citizens and in the state of his In the early spring months an epidemic of off, and a few only an increase. Of tea, the fee book," yet he finds the additional gift of a disease infected Canton city and the adjoining quantity exported by steamers is again 50 per silver inkstand “ladiorously inadequate." In districts, and claiming as it did its victims from cent. short of the preceding year's shipments. fact, he is content with what has already the densely populated cities, caused a general Due to the difference in freight, etc., most of the fallen to his share, but he would have been exodus to the country and thereby reduced the local teas are shipped to Hongkong by junks, "bighly gratified" if Her Majesty had made available labour at the more important industrial and therefore our figures do not measure the ex- him a C.M.G. in addition. Of course the centres: Hardly had the epidemic somewhat tent of the tea trade; it may nevertheless be ac- first thought that occurs to us in read-subsided when a complication of political ques-cepted. that the supply of the leaf has generally ing this letter is, for what did Mr. Francis work tions arose, followed quickly by the outbreak of been reduced, owing to lower prices paid to At the same time it is said that na- during the plague. If his labours were perfect hostilities in the North; and thus another growers. ly disinterested, if they were dictated solely by source of disturbance was added to the already tive teamen realised fair profits, and that for- benevolence to his kind, all public recognition unsatisfactory state of the trade. At the sign shippers fared equally well. Matting, an- time the conditions of the weather other staple product of the port, shows a similarly of them subsequently must have seemed super. same luons. If their motive was to obtain distinction were not so favourable as to promise any large falling off; this is attributed mainly to the and reward for himself, then he would naturally relief; the drought, extending into the sum- excessive shipments of 1893, when the principal Borutinize the quality of the fame and the mer, prognosticated badly for the rice and market for this article, the United States, re- quantity of the recompense coming to him. sugar harvests. Fortunately, the rain, when it ceived considerably beyond its needs. Another By the course he has taken, Mr. Francis came, was still of value to the land, and not reason for the decline in the export of matting invites the public to put the latter construction quite so severe as to cause much damage either is the competition, marked by increased prodno. on his acts. At the same time, it is impossible to property or to the silk industry. The net tion, from Japan; the immunity from taxation not to sympathise with him. The procedure of value of Canton's trade carried on in foreign in that country enjoyed by the article in its raw the Hongkong Government towards him seems bottoms and within the cognizance of this office and manufactured state is obviously a condition miserably wanting in tact. The widow's mite was Hk. Tls. 45,500,000, showing an advance very favourable to the Japanese product. Ship- was a noble offering, but the Government of a on the figures of the previous year of Hk. Tls. ments in raw and refuse silk and in silk piece great British colony cannot claim the pri-3,000,000. To this result the port's principal goods were at slightly advanced figures, and a vileges of an indigent widow. If it was staples contributed in the following manner diminished business is apparent in only wild The accounts of the year's not in a position to recognise Mr. Fran- opium, Hk. Tls, 4,100,000 Indian yarn, Hk. Tls. silk and cocoons. ois' undoubtedly great services in some manner
transactions furnished by foreign buyers and worthy of an Administration and proportionate
native dealers are nevertheless unsatisfactory in to his merits, it should have confined itself
tenour; want of firmness in exchange rates and heavy fluctuation in prices are responsible for simply to a despatch of warm thanks. But to
this: The following extract from a review of send him a silver inkstand, and to describe it as Ha handsome silver inkstand," was to make
the silk trade in 1894, kindly placed at my dis itself contemptible and to bring ridicule on bis
posal by an experienced merchant, will prove of services. Mr. Francis has been kind to the
interest:-"The year has been disappointing tó Government of the colony. He has softened
dealers and buyers alike on the whole, and the the situation for it by diverting to himself a
encouragement given from time to time by the portion of the criticism that would otherwise
markets abroad has in all cases been withdrawn have been monopolized by the Government.
soon after purchases have been made, while the The whole affair makes an ugly page in the
frequent fluctuations in the laid down cost sanals of the colony.-Japan Mail.
made it very difficult to operate. In Canton. silk suffers, in common with silk all over the world, from the reduced consumption in the United States of silk piece goods. With revival there a steadier market and more re- (a.) Imports. A marked improvement per- munerative rates may be looked for. A notice. vades the list of cotton goods, in spite of the able feature in the trade is the almost complete Many Japanese capitalists are, according to fact that higher silver prices had to be paid by effacement of Tsatlee reel for shipment to the Japanese press, desirous of establishing the Eastern consumer of European products. London. The quality of the silk generally large sugar refineries in Formosa when that The advance in textile fabrics is 13 per cent. shows a tendency to deteriorate, and this island becomes completely incorporated into and Indian yarn 31 per cent. This return to deterioration is not so Japan's dominions and when peace is restored an apparently healthier condition may be exherent defective quality as there. It seems, however, that a great obstacle plained partly by diminished stocks, and partly care in selection of cocoons and overseeing of lies in the way of the enterprise, making it by the greater prosperity prevalent in the dis- reeling them bestowed by the proprietors of The export of fire-crackers and highly doubtful whether it can be carried out, at triots which draw their supplies from this filatures.” any rate for the time being, Sugar is produced market. The increased importation of Bom. fireworks has undergone a further shrink- in the two districts, Taku and Anping, whence bay yarn, as shown in our tables, is principally age, attributed to the scarcity of sailing vessels refinery established in the island would get due to the change in carriage, occurring in on berth for America; dealers have been obliged its supply of raw material. At present, however, September, from junks to steamers. At the to ship this inflammable commodity by Pacific the whole produce of raw sugar is monopolized same time it is reported that the demand in the steamers to San Francisco, and thence by rail by the two Hongkong firms, Jardire, Matheson interior for Indian yarn for weaving purposes to New York, at ruinous freight charges. & Co., and Batterfield and Swire, through a has been better than before, owing to the in-
(a.) Original Shipments Coastwise.—Trade certain Chinese agent. The connection between herent good qualities and cheapness of the Indian the two firms and the sugar cultivators in Taku as compared with the home-made yarn. There under this heading is of no special interest at and Anping is very close, as the former advance was less raw cotton imported from foreign coun- this port. it represents solely the direct traffic, money to the latter through the medium of their tries than in 1893, but the deficiency is made up limited in extent, carried on by ocean steamers agent, just as the wholesale silk merchants of by a much larger supply from the Yangtsze pro- between Canton and the coast ports of China. Yokohama do to the silk manufacturers in this] vinces. Woollen goods have slightly fallen off. The value, Hk. Tls. 2,700,000," is a slight im- country. Such being the oase, a sugar refinery Metals, excepting lead, have shrnak considerably, provement on that of the previous year, and is in Formosa would at once collapse for want of the decrease being most visible in iron and made up principally of silk goods, sugar, and raw material. On the other hand, it is well copper. Of kerosene oil the quantity imported glassware.
(b.) Reshipments Coastwise.—Nil. nigh hopeless for Japanese to compete with the for the year in foreign bottoms is quite insignifi. above-mentioned firms in point of capital. cant; the restriction put upon its carriage by (o) Coastwise Arrivals.-The total quantity steamers and the low taxation ruling for the of beans and rice imported in 1891 is largely junk-imported article explain this sufficiently. in excess of the corresponding imports in The increase among edibles is noteworthy. 1893. Owing to the restriction put upon the 60 per cent.; shipment of pulse from Newchwang to Japan, Rice has a fall of over but this only refers to imports from Saigon and and the natural desire of holders to dispose of Siam transhipped at Hongkong, for the coast their stocks in time, deliveries here were upon wise arrivals of this commodity have been ex- a larger scale than usual. As regards grain, the ceptionally heavy. The list of sundries contains measures taken against the export of rice from a number of items interesting from the fact that the Yangsize ports soon after the commence- their use is as yet not general amongst nativesment of hostilities brought about such a scarcity and this growing supply seems to point to an of this food staple at Canton that, in spite of increasing disposition to adopt them. Foreign the comparatively good harvest in the interior,
THE PROSPECTS OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN FORMOSA.
Matters relating to the ownership of land are in a very unsettled state in the island. Not only are the two firms not proprietors of the land from which the raw material for their re- fineries is obtained, but it is exceedingly doubt ful whether the sugar growers themselves are rightful owners of the farms that they cultivate. In most cases it seems that they plant canes on land of uncertain ownership. :
Even in Korea land goes with the house standing on it when the latter is sold, and it is not unlikely, therefore, that land in Formoss is
2
Although the values, compared with those of the preceding year, have been well sustained, the total collection exhibits a decided weakness, being deficient by Hk. Tls. 183,000 when placed against the total for 1893. The decrease in the receipts is progressive from the year 1891, when the marked decline in the import trade of India opium commenced. The increase in duties col lected under import, coast trade, and tonnage affords some encouragement, which would be better accentuated did the same apply to exports as well.
FOREIGN TRADE.
much due to in- to the want of
COAST TRADE.
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