PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
9
Reference :-
C.O. 882
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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32
boon that is enjoyed in a free hand, unfettered by Chinese obstruction, in forming a trading station healthy and convenient for foreign residence; while benefiting the natives of the place by the immediate expenditure of European energy and capital, the empire generally gains new tradal facilities such as its own officials will never promote of their own accord. In one important point the new colonial system of Germany is far in advance of our own boasted British system. Land speculators are not given a free hand with consequent overcrowding and disease as in Hong Kong for instance. Land is not sold except for immediate utilisation, and stringent conditions are laid down with regard to the class and condition of the buildings to be erected. These fact, lead us to condone, if not entirely to approve, the methods by which Kiaochou and other like places have been wrested from a corrupt and decaying government, a government careless of progress and opposed to every innovation, and whose officials, largely traders themselves, discourage enterprise in others, especially where leading to increased intercourse between their own people and the improving outlander.
Enclosure 9.
KIAO-CHOU.
Estimated Revenue and Expenditure.
REVENCE.
Land Sales...
Direct Taxes
Miscellaneous
Imperial subsidy
...
1902.
1901.
Increase or Decrease.
£
7,500
€1500
£
£
5,000
+ 2,700
3,000
2,500
+ 500
7,500
7,500
18,000
15,000
+ 3,000
...
608,400)
537,500
626,400
552,500
+ 70,900
+ 73,900
Total
Grand Tota!
EXPENDITURE.
Recurring-
Civil Administration :-
**
-
33
Enclosure 10.
EXTRACT of Report on Trade of Kiaochou in 1902 by E. H. Ohlmer, Commissioner of Chinese Imperial Customs.
The total value of the year's trade, Haikuan Taels* 10,376,225, shows the satis- factory increase of about 20 per cent, over that of 1900. An analysis of the figures comprising this total elicits still better results. The value of foreign goods imported (exclusive of railway and mining material) amounted to Haikuan Taels 3,537,809 against Haikuan Taels 1,313,668 in 1901, being an increase of 170 per cent. While the value of the trade in native goods, Haikuan Taels 4,530,496, carried on chiefly in junks, and affecting the commerce of the other, the Kiaochou, side of the bay rather than Tsingtao, exhibits a decline of Haikuan Taels 800,000, or about 16 per cent. This decline, as will be shown further on, is, however, merely a temporary derangement of the trade and likely to be recouped during the next year. The aspect of last year's trade from a general point of view may, therefore, he considered eminently gratifying, though locally from the foreign merchants complaints are heard that notwithstanding this large increase the trade has yielded but little profit to them, the business passing more and more into the hands of Chinese merchants, who here, as elsewhere in China, work cheaper and are satis- fied with smaller profits.
Two prominent events, marking two important stages in the development of this region, will render the year 1902 memorable in the history of the port. One was the opening, on the 1st of June, of the railway line to Weihsien; the other the arrival, on the 30th October, of the first coal train from the Fangtzu mines. The special interest attaching to the extension of the line to Weihsien is the question whether it will succeed in diverting to Tsingtao the trade of this important inland mart from the old trade routes by land and water converging towards Chefoo; its success or non-success to accomplish this task being at the same time for the rail- way company the criterion for the remunerability of the whole line. The brief experience of the past seven months has already given a conclusive answer to this question, with which both the Shantung Railway Company and its terminal port Tsingtao have every reason to be satisfied. The value of foreign goods sent by rail inland rose from Haikuan Taels 180,000 in 1901 to Haikuan Taels 2,908,586 in 1902, representing an increase of over 1,500 per cent. This remarkable increase is entirely due to Weihsien, which took goods to the value of Haikuan Taels 2,198,467, or over 75 per cent. of the total import by rail, and that during seven months, while only one train a day was running, a result which sets at rest all doubts as to the paying of the railway and the prospects of Tsingtao as regards imports. In this connection I refer the reader to the railway imports table appearing for the first time in our statistics.
尘
Personal
26,806
Material ...
13.171
39,077
Military administration
124,407
Joint expenditure of Civil and Military administration
89,781
Total recurring
254,165
36,153
107,457
75,560
219,170
+ 3,824
+ 16,950
+ 14,221
+ 34,995
Nou-recurring :-
Harbour Works
170,(KM)
169,250
Buildings, Rods, &e.
105,250
79,500
+ 750
+ 25,750
Armaments
40,000
10,000
Floating Dock, 2nd instalment
20,000
15,000
+ 5,000
Electric generating station at Tsing-tau
17,500
+ 17,500
Dwelling and workinen's houses
10,000
10,000
Miscellaneous
6,000
15,000
-
9,000
Totul non-recurring
Reserve Fund
368,750
328,750
+ 40,000
3,485
Grand Total
626,400
4,580
552,500
1,095
+ 73,900
• The Huikuan Taol is worth about 28, St.
15373
E
...
The arrival of the first coal train has likewise been in advance of anticipations. Its advent, as noted in last year's report, was not looked for till spring of 1903. The quantity raised to the end of the year amounted to 3,300 tons; the daily output at the end of the year was 55 tons, which it is hoped to increase to 200 tons daily during 1903. At the present time the production barely suffices for the railway and local consumption, and it is not likely that export will be possible for some months to come. The quality, so far, is up to the expectations as expressed in last year's report, and there is hope of its improving as work progresses. A factory for the manufacture of briquettes is also projected. Further Boring trials in the Fangtzu region having resulted in the discovery of another very extensive and favourably situated coal bed, a second shaft is about to be sunk for which more extensive appliances for lifting larger quantities are projected. In the Poshau region the boring trails are still in progress. It is hoped to sink the first shaft in autumn next, when also the branch line to the Poshau valley will be started from Changtien, a station on the main line, some 45 kilometers beyond Ch'ing chou, which it is expected to reach by the end of the summer.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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