GREAT BRITAIN.
NIIGATA-HAKODATE,
DIRECTORY.
Vice Consul-H S. Wilkinson (absent)
IMPERIAL German Consulate. Consul-C. E. Adolph Leysner
IMPERIAL JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL.
Dr. H. M. Fock
IMPERIAL JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL.
Niigata Ei-go Gakko-E. B. Lambert
ENGLISH CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
Rev. P. K. Fyson
EDINBURGH MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
Theo. A. Palm, M.A., M.B., C.M.
CATHOLIC MISSION. L'abbé L. Drouart de Lezey
do. Puletin
Merchants.
Koch & Co., H., merchants
Leysner, C. E. A., merchant and agent for Berlin-Cologne Fire Insurance Joint Stock Co., Berlin
Visscher, A., merchant
SADO ISLAND. James Scott, millwright
HAKODATE.
This, the most northerly of the treaty ports of Japan, is situated in the south of Yess on the Straits of Tsugar, which divide that island from Hondo. The port lies in latitude 41 deg. 47 min. 8 sec. N., and longitude 140 deg. 45 min. 34 sec. E., and the harbour snarly land-locked. The surrounding country is hilly, volcanic, and picturesque, but the town itself possesses few attractions, and consists mainly of one long street of single-storied houses, the distinguishing feature of which is the roof made of thin wood shingle kept on by quantities of flat stones. The foreign concession has never been built upon, the few foreign residents in the port having taken up their quarters in Japanese buildings. A row of fiue temples, with high picturesque roofs, occupying higher ground than the rest of the town, ar the most conspicuous buildings. The climate of Hakodate is healthy and bracing. The hottest monta is August, but the thermometer then rarely rises above 90 degrees Fahr.; in the winter it sometimes sinks to 18 degre s. The mean temperature throughout the year is about 48 degrees.
The foreign traile of the port is small and has never been important. The foreign shipping is annually decreasing and the direct imports have fallen off largely. The imports for 1877 were nil, compared with $27,308 in 1876. The exports for 1877 amounted to $441,655 compared with $776,962 for 1876, showing a decrease of $335,307. The agricultural resources of Yesso are rapidly developing under the auspices of the Kaitakushi or Colonization Department. The rich pasture lands are well adapted for breeding cattle. In the valuable and extensive fisheries on the coasts, however, the chief exports of the future from Hakodate are to be looked for. Increasing quantities of dried fish are exported annually. The mineral resources of Yesso, said to be large, may also some day yield a valuable addition to the exports of this port. Hakodate is connected with the capital by telegraph. The population of the town is about 11,000. The number of foreign residents in 1877 was 84, of whom 49 were Chinese, 23 British, and the remainder German, Russian, American, French, and Danish.