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December 4, 1895.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
RAILWAYS IN CHINA:
Force of circumstances, but certainly not inclination, is driving the Chinese officials to introduce that much hated and long con- tenned innovation, the railway, into the Japan showed the necessity for securing Central Kingdom. The recent war with
than the backs of coolies, and the advan quicker means of transport for stores, &c., tages of the iron road were illustrated when despatching troops and munitions to Shan-
419
whose greedy maw gaped gigantically, so prodigiously indeed that the prospect daunted shelved for his term of office at Canton at the most sanguine, and the project was
any rate. It is being revived now, and it is able, more amenable to reason, and blessed to be hoped that his successor is less insati-
with some faint desire to see his provinces
of difficulties to be overcome before any progress in prosperity. But in any case it
scheme for the establishment of railway communication between Canton and Kow-
is to be feared that there will be a number
templation to bring them from Tientsin. the absolute need for better and speedier nothing but the opposition of the provincial
there is no reason why local difficulties "should not be faced and ultimately over- come, or why this valuable entrepôt of "Eastern commerce should not also become 'ere long a great industrial centre?" Shang hai is preferred to some extent on account of its climate, also, as regards the cotton in dustry, because the raw material is grown on account of its cheaper labour supply in the immediate neighbourhood, but chiefly In neither of these respects can Hongkong compete with it. Even at Shanghai the demand for labour appears to be overtaking the supply, for we note in one of our Shanghai hai-kwau.. The prejudices of the officials looon is set fairly on foot. Of the import- contemporaries a statement to the effect that against this pioneer of change and progressance and value of such a line every sensible are, we believe, reallylunabated, but necessity owing to the difficulty of obtaining sufficient knows no law, and even in China-where person, whether. foreign or Chinese, is women and girls to work in the numerous silk filatures and cotton mills it is in con-
time is taken no note of, even by its loss thoroughly persuaded, and as the Imperial sanction has already been accorded, there is
obstruction, however, cannot easily be over- officials to be overcome. Their powers of rated, and it will be wall, therefore, for those persons interested in property, &c., in Kow- loon to receive with caution any reports representing that these difficulties have vanished and the proposed railway practi- cally been adopted.
In Hongkong we have a very small female population and both for male and female labour higher rates would have to be paid
here than in the North; and labour is the chief item in the working account of a factory. It is possible also that the greater freedom from official regulations enjoyed at Shanghai may have some little weight in deciding the preference. The manager of a large industrial concern at Shanghai would not be liable, as he is in Hongkong, to be haled before the Magistrate and subjected to a heavy fine with the opion of serving a period of hard labour for neglecting to comply with some point of official routine. As regards existing regulations the risk is perhaps small, although it exists, as was shown in a case some months ago; but if Hongkong became an important manufacturing centre there is little doubt that a Factory Act would soon be brought into force, as has been the case in India. If the local Government were not desirous of introducing such an Act of their own motion they would probably be compelled in the long run to do so by The Factory Acts in force at home we regard as very necessary and beneficent measures, but if a manufacturer has the choice of establishing his mill in a place where such Acts exist on in one where he is subjected to no official surveillance he will naturally select the latter. Shanghai, then, in addition to its unceasing water supply possesses over
Manchester influences.
LO
THE NIGHT PASS REGULATIONS.
ترهایم
coolie can furnish has been so forcibly means of transport on land than cart or demonstrated that it is impossible any longer for the ruling powers to shut their eyes to CH-TUNG, the Viceroy of the Liang facts. Thus we find His Excellency CHANG Kiang, who had tactically deferred the construction of the grand trunk railway, sanctioned years ago by the EMPEROR, to the Greek Kalends by his wild schemes for providing the rails and plant out of native himself in earnest steel and material, is now bestirring work, while up North the authorities push along the
The present strict enforcement of the night
arc more than
do their pass regulations has given rise to much ready to
iliscontent amongst the Chinese, and a part in the extension of the Tientsin and Shan-hai-kwan lines. In order to steal perusal of the somewhat crudely expressed
Nanking is actively promoting the altogether without justification. With the a march on the Japanese, too, the Viceroy of colunin will show that the discontent is not grounds of complaint as given in another
struction of a railway from Shangh to general principle of the regulations we most Sochow. An English-speaking official be- longing to His Excelleney's staff arrived at
fully agree, as we believe most of the respectable Chinese themselves do. In their Shanghai on the 20th instant in order to direct the survey of this propose line closed at a fixed time every night to pre own cities and towns the street gates are
district for the approach of the nuwel some Meantime, to prepare the inhabitants of the vent lawless persons wandering abroad and intruder, the Shanghai Magistrate, HUANG, inhabitants. The night pass regulations in committing depre:lations on the peaceable. has sent couriers to the magistrates of the this colony have the same end in view cities and towns through which the line will and if modified and continuously enforced pass to apprise them of the cuterprise and
hey would be very useful. As a matter of make everything smooth for the surveying party shortly to be despatched. His Eet, however, they are enforced only spas- modically and under those circumstances cellency CHANG has so far brought himself voluntarily commented road-making in his own capital, and has lately had a fine broad
to face the inevitable that he has even
their only effect is to cause extreme irritation. Au armed robbery occurs, the Government becomes unnecessarily alarmed, the night
Hongkong the advantages of a better | road, on European lines, laid down in the pass regulations are enforced for a few
climate, a cheaper labour supply, proximity to the cotton growing districts, and complete immunity from direct official interference. The last named may perhaps be found an illusory advantage, for if the Chinese au- thorities prove unfriendly to the new establishments they may invent means of throwing difficulties in the way that have not been thought of Hongkong, on the other hand, enjoys the advantages of a free port, even handed justice, and the direct protection of the British fag. So far, however, those interested in introducing the cotton industry into this part of the world have deemed Shanghai the better centre. In Hongkong sugar refineries and our rope works, and various other manufacturing industries on a small scale are being introduced, but at present we see no prospect of the cotton industry or silk filatures being introduced, and to all appearance the colony as a manufacturing centre will for a long time to come, if not always, have to play second fiddle to Shanghai.
we
have
our
The Tosa-maru, which arrived at Ujina from Formosa on the 18th inst. with 1,776 soldiers of the Bodyguard troops, was detained at Nino. shima owing to an outbreak of cholera among
the soldiers on board.
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city and leading to his own yanen, on which he has started a carriage.
How long this zeal for progress in the shape of railways will last is another matter, Probably not for any long period; it will be pretty sure to cool down when once the construction of the lines now designed has been fairly commenced. The great objects in view at the present moment are to secure railways by means of which armies may be rapidly conveyed to given points to resist aggression or attack from outside or to crush a nascent rebellion within the boundaries of the eighteen pro- vinces. The scheme for something like a railway system includes the extension of the trunk line from Wucháng to Canton, which will presumably be its southern terminus and this will probably soon be commenced. There are projects, however, for the exten- sion of the railway from Cantou to Kowloon, and one of these projects has received the Imperial sauction. Had His Imperial Ma- jesty's sanction been all that was necessary in the matter that line would now be an accomplished fact and in working order instead of being still-in nubibus. Unfortunately for the promoters of the ef- terprise they had to reckon with LI HAN- CHANG, the late Viceroy of the Two Kwang,
weeks or,
it may be, months, and then they are allowed to fall into abeyance again until another robbery occurs and another period of panic government ensues. If an ex- planation of this undignified wobbling in the administration of the law be sought it will be found in the unreasonable character of the law itself. Unreasonable laws cannot be consistently enforced, and the night pass regulations in their present form are unrea sonable. They require that no one should be abroad after seven o'clock at night without a light and pass. The object is to clear the streets of general traffic at that hour and this must necessarily have a serious. effect on various branches of business. Theoreti-
cally there is no reason why every person who has occasion to be abroad at night should not be provided with a pass; but practically the number of passes applied for and issued bears but a small proportion to the total population. But besides the re- sidents there are always several thousand visitors in the colony, people who are here perhaps only for a day or two, and who not unnaturally may wish to attend the theatres or do their shopping in the evening. To keep these people indoors or lock them up in the police cells must necessarily have some effect on the retail trade of the colony; and visitors who are in the colony for only