closure C.
dlosure D
30
tected from weather. The West route gives access to Castle
Peak Bay and Deep Bay but all protected water in these is very
shallow. From the point of view of accessibility to deep water
which may assure importance in the event of the development of
large industries the East route is therefore to be preferred.
Enclosure C gives particulars of the trade at the
16.
various market towns in and near to the New Territories and
shows that the trade of Tai Fo on the East route, valued at some-
thing over half a million dollars a year, is about 8/5ths. that
on the west would
of Un Long while the trade of both places is small compared with that of Sham Chun which is less than a mile beyond the boundary
and would be tapped by eithen route. While the junk trade with
Hongkong from Tai Po amounts to 90,000 piculs (between 5,000 and
6,000 tons) annually that from Un Long comes to 250,000 piculs
(about 15,000 tons) and the total export and import trade of Sham
Chun is over 70,000 tons.
17.
Particulars of the junk trade and of the launch
traffic between Hongkong and places in and close to the New Terri-
tories are given in Enclosure D. By the East route the line would
probably soon take up near Shetin the bulk of the passengers
averaging daily 175 each way that go by launch from Sha U Chung
on the North shore of Mirs Bay in Chinese Territory to Hongkong.
These passengers have already shown their desire to avoid the
rough water round the coast even at the expense of a climb over
the Kowloon Hills. The line along this route would also probably
take the traffic averaging daily 15 each way that now goes by
launch from Tai Po to Sha Tin.
It is possible that the launch traffic between Hong
Kong and Tsun Man, Tai Lam Cheung and Castle Peak Bay averaging
about 100 persons both ways would be taken by a railway along the
West route. The existing launch traffic to and from Un Long and
places
M