-
14
44
also are run by Government, and passengers have to pay the
high rate of 5 cents per mile. Passengers are all of one
class, and the buses stop at various stations situated at
villages along the route. They run to a time schedule and
do not pick up passengers except at these stations. There
is no connection between this highway and the one running
between Heng ohow West and Changsha. The northern highway
is broken by the siang River which has to be crossed by
ferry boat.
36. By making use of the bus connections it is now
possible to complete the journey from Canton to Hankow and
vice-versa in 3 days 14 hours. A through passenger would
have to take a train to Lok Chong, spend the night there,
take a train the next morning to Ping Shek where he would
transfer to a bus and proceed to the provincial border,
transfer to another bus and proceed to Heng chow, cross the
river at Heng chow and spend the night there, proceed by bus
the next morning to Changsha, spend the night there and
continue by rail the next day to uchang.
37. The principal products of the country traversed
by the railway are cereals, eggs, wood oil and minerals.
I passed through hundreds of square miles of rice and saw
quite a lot of trees grown for the manufacture of wood oil.
In addition to rice there were sweet potatoes, peanuts,
sugar cane and wheat, Antimony and wolfram exist and there
is a considerable quantity of coal. The Ping-Shiang co al
mines are well known. The coal obtained near Leiyang (mileage 299) is now being exploited on a larger scale and
the Construction Administration are buying this coal for
their locomotives and plant at a cost of slightly under
$5.00 per ton. I understand that Leiyang coal compares
quite favourably with Kaiping.
38.
A constant stream of merchants were observed