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7.
To give some idea of the importance of the intermediate traffic I may mention the following facts.
Thousands of Chinese residents in this Colony have their homes in the villages lying between the Colony and Canton. They are continually going home for holidays, festivals etc., and to do so they must either travel up to Canton by steamers and then make a journey by boat or on foot to their homes or they must travel thither from here by boat or on foot. They will thus spend the greater part of 2 days in reaching their homes and a similar period in returning at comparatively considerable expense and much discomfort.
These people could reach their homes by railway in 2 or 3 hours, and even at some extra expense would gladly effect the enormous saving in time.
There is also a very large traffic between the large towns of Sheklung and Tungkun on the East River and Canton; this is carried on by boats towed by steam-launches. The journey occupies 7 hours. Between Hongkong and the towns mentioned there is also a large traffic in passengers and goods. Passengers must all travel to Canton and thence to the towns mentioned, the journey occupying either a night and a day or the best part of two days, the night being spent in Canton.
There are nearly 30,000 natives of the Tungkun District resident in the Colony, while there are another 22,000 natives of the San On District lying between the New Territories and Tungkun living in the Colony. The passenger traffic with these Districts, when visitors non-resident here is also taken into account, must therefore be enormous.
8.
There are, however, other considerations
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