much more difficult to make. I do not think that
it will be possible to complete with the boats for
any through traffic to Canton. The present rate to
Canton by steamer is from -/68 (sixty eight cents)
to one dollar per ton. This is very much less than
one cant per ton per mile of Railway. This is less
than cost price for the Railway. It is to the goods
traffic to the intermediate stations like Shek Lung
and Sam Chum that the Railway must look for any
paying traffic. It will get a certain amount of
traffic to and from Canton for valuable cargo like
silk, but that will only be in comparatively small
quantities,
Messrs Butterfield and Swire send up about 4000
tons per month to Canton on behalf of the Holz Line.
All this will be stored in the first instance in their
new Godowns. From these godowns it will be much easier
to transfer into Railway trucks than into lighters and
from them into steamers. But even so it will be some
time before the Railway can be so well organised as
to compete with river traffic even with the rails
along side the godowns.
The same applies to the traffic from the Kowloon
Wharf and Godown Company. It will be only the valuable
car that we may hope to get from them in the first
instance.
It will be possible to do a good trade in Bulk
oil from Messrs Arnhold Karbergs tanks at Tai Kok
Tsui.
It will not be very difficult to run & siding
into their premises off the workshop line. A couple
of Bulk oil waggons would pay a good profit on this
trade
Feas