KOBE (HIOGO).
Kobe is the foreign port of the adjacent city of Hiogo, and was opened to foreign trade in 1868. It is finely situated at the gate of the far-famed Inland Sea. The harbour is good and affords safe anchorage for vessels of almost any s ze. Toe town, which is in the province of Settsu, is distant only sixteen miles from Osaka, with which city it is connected by rail. This line, which has been extended to Kioto, a distance of 27 miles from Osaka, was formally opened to traffic along its whole length by the Mikado on the 5th February, 1877, and has since been worked with freedom and regularity. The connection of Osaka with Hiogo by rail has naturally tended to centralise trade at the port of shipment. Among the exports, tea, tobacco, camphor, copper, vegetable wax, and fans take the lead. The value of the foreign import trade for 1877 was $4,313,641; that of the exports $4,518,570. These figures compare favourably with those of 1876, when the value of the imports was $3,748,967, and that of the exports $3,401,230. The quantity of tea shipped from Hiogo in 1877 was 8,789,627 lbs., all of which went to the United States of America. The popula- tion of Hiogo, as given by the last census, was 204,000. The foreign residents in the port in 1877 numbered 606, of wuom 296 were Chinese, 185 Pritish, 47 German, and 33 American.
DIRECTORY.
Consulates.
Great Britain.
Consul-Marcus Flowers 1st Assistant J. J. Quinn
2nd Assistant & Interpreter-J. H. Gubbins Constable & Post Office Agent-H. A. Miles
BELGIUM.-30.
Consul-T. O. S. Jenkins
FRANCE AND SPAIN.
Acting Consul-Marcus Flowers
DENMARK.
Consul-R G. Walsh
HAWAII.
Consul-B. A. Valentine
RUSSIA.
Acting Consul―Dr. J. H. Focke
AUSTRO-HUNGARY.
Acting Consul-Marcus Flowers
GERMAN EMPIRE.
Consul-Dr. J. H. Focke Interpreter A. von Knobloch Clerk-H. Gutbrod Constable-R. Bernhard
UNITED STATES.-2, Concession Consul-J. Stahel
Vice-consul-E. S. Benson Clerk-Joseph M. Colins Interpreter-8. Hori
PORTUGAL.
Acting Consul-C. R. Simpson
Municipal Council.
The Governor of Hiogo
The Consular Body
C. Rasch
1. H. Groom
T. Lenz
H. Trotzig, superintendent
POLICE.
J. Peterson, (serg.) A. Hazlitt, 5 Chinese
Hiogo and Osaka General Chamber of Commerce.
Committee H. St. J. Browne, (chairman); R. Hughes, A. H. Groom, T Lenz, H. Brosehen
Secretary-J. C. Abell