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(b.) Shuang Tai Tzu.-At Shuang Tai Tzu the canal to the Shuang Tai Tzu River, originally dug as a convenient short cut some eighteen years ago, has enlarged itself to such an extent that 55 per cent, of the Liao River flows through it to the sea, a proportion which will, if unattended, increase and soon leave the Lino proper dry. Mr. Hughes suggests four schemes :—
1. To close the outlet completely. This would improve the Liao, but deprive the farmers along the outlet of water.
2. To build a barrier, which would always leave at least 4 feet of water in the Liao and drain off the excess.
3. To narrow the outlet.
4. To build a lock. This is too troublesome and costly. It would 10 l from the sea, and boats could only come up with the flood, and these 10 l would require constant dredging.
Mr. Hughes favours the second proposal, which would avoid all risks in case of freshets.
Inclosure 3 in No. I.
Newchwang Chamber of Commerce to the Viceroy of the Three Eastern Provinces.
Your Excellency,
Newchwang, November 28, 1908. ENCOURAGED by the sympathetic manner in which you were kind enough to listen to the representations which the Committee of this Chamber was enabled, by the hospitable kindness of our Taotai, Mr. C. L. Chow, to make to you with regard to the conservancy of the Liao River on the occasion of your visit to this port in September last, and by the interest which, in your desire for the welfare of this port and Manchuria generally, you manifested in the remarks we then ventured to submit with regard to the necessity for remedying the increasingly serious disabilities suffered by the waterway, the maintenance of which in efficient condition is so supremely vital to the prosperity of the richest port of Manchuria, I venture again, as Chairman of the Newchwang Chamber of Commerce, to approach your Excellency on this very important question, my excuse for so doing being the urgency occasioned by certain serious developments now taking place in the river at an alarmingly increasing rate, which developments, if unchecked, must inevitably result in heavy financial, and possibly material, loss to the port of Newchwang and to that part of Manchuria served by it. I refer especially to the condition of the artificial channel which connects the Liao with the Shuang Tai Tzu River.
Cut, I understand, by the salt authorities of the district some six years ago, during the Russian occupation of the country, in order to facilitate the retention of the salt monopoly in Chinese hands, it was at first but a narrow canal, and had consequently but an unimportant bearing on the course of the Liao, but of late it has so broadened and deepened as to become a very serious danger.
I believe I am correct in saying that the channel now carries off considerably more than half the Liao water, with the result that the river itself, below the point of confluence with the channel, is deprived of the scouring force requisite to keep its own bed unsilted. That this process is developing on a rapidly increasing scale there is clear evidence, if only from the difficulty of late experienced by the shallow-draft bean boats in bringing their produce over the new mud banks and sand shallows created by the failure of the much weakened current to scour its bed to a proper depth. In the opinion of this Chamber, the remedy lies in throwing a strong dam or weir across the entrance of the Shuang T'ai Tzu outlet, and carrying it to a height which would only permit of an overflow when the water exceeds a certain fixed depth in the river. The cost of an undertaking of this sort should not amount to a very great sum, little more, in fact, than the cost of the useless dykes which the natives of the surrounding districts are reported to be under the necessity of throwing up every year to protect their lands from the ever swelling waters now passing through the outlet itself. It has been estimated that if nothing is done in the early spring there will be less than 18 inches of water on the shallows all the year round, and that the water-borne bean traffic will be a thing of the past.
The effect of this and the resulting monopoly of the railways (especially of the South Manchurian Railway to Dalny) on the bean trade of Newchwang is obvious, and
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would constitute one of the most immediate of the disasters which must result; but there
are others.
The weakening of the lower section of the Liao, doubtless also accounts for the formation of the sand-banks which now exist in the reach immediately to the north of this port, behind the Imperial Railways of North China station, and the consequent gouging out of the adjacent channel behind Duck Island, which, as pointed out to your Excellency in September last, threatens to break the narrow neck of land which there separates the two reaches. Should this happen, it is needless to dwell on the magnitude of the calamity, and in our opinion it seems strongly advisable that this narrow neck of land between the two reaches should be strengthened, in accordance with the recommenda- tions of the engineers who have examined it, simultaneously with the construction of the suggested weir or other protection work at the Shuang Tai Tzu outlet, in order to protect the narrow neck from any extra strain which might be thrown upon it as a result of the sudden increase of the water retained in the bed of the Liao, in consequence of the construction of such a weir.
A further calamity which is bound to result from the decreased force and volume of water in the river, if nothing is done, will be its failure to scour itself sufficiently from the upper harbour limits to the bar at its estuary, thus preventing the access of vesscis of even the lightest possible draft, let alone sea-going trading steamers.
I have enlarged especially fully upon the state of the Liao River at and below the Shuang T'ai Tzu outlet, as it is at these parts that, in the opinion of this Chamber, prompt conservancy measures are most urgently needed to safeguard this important waterway, but I would also emphasize that there are above the outlet innumerable banks and shallows, the dredging or removal of which is very necessary to enable produce boats to come down freely from the important beau districts at and in the neighbourhood of Tung Chiang Tzu, Tieh Ling, Fakumen, &c., and that any undertaking for the improvement of the river must be incomplete, and fail to promote its full efficiency as a trade route, unless extended to the removal of all the obstacles at present hindering the produce carrying trade between the important producing centres and the distributing seaport of Newchwang,
In conclusion, we earnestly trust that, in view of the extreme urgency of the question, and of the disastrous results which I have endeavoured to show must inevitably accrue if efficient measures are not promptly taken, your Excellency will at once take the question into serious consideration, in order that preparations may be made during the winter for carrying out the work in the early spring directly the river is clear of ice, in the manner in which your Excellency's advisers may consider most effective, and that it may be completed before the summer rains cause the river to flood, so that the flood waters, instead of being diverted by the growing sand-banks and escaping through the Shuang T'ai Tzu outlet and still further aggravating the existing mischief, may instead serve their natural purpose of scouring away the sand-banks and shallows which threaten to render impossible the navigation of the River Liao, even for the lightest boats.
Availing of this opportunity to express to your Excellency the profound sympathy of this Chamber with the Chinese nation on the recent demise of your angust Sovereign and Her late Imperial Majesty the Empress-Dowager,
(Signed) WM. FORD, Chairman.
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