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TAKU-TIENTSIN.
DIRECTORY.
IMPERIAL MARITIME CUSTOMS.
Assistant Tide-surveyor-W. F. Stevenson Tide-waiter-W. French Signalman―H. A. Behnke
Lightship Taku.
Captain R. J. Crighton (absent)
Mate-
Lightkeeper-W. Knight
IMPERIAL NAVAL YARD.
Directors-G. Detring, and Wen-jui Secretary-W. F. Stevenson
Superintendent Shipwright-W. Grant
Engineer A. Sinclair
do.
TAKU PILOT COMPANY.
W. Boad
(absent) C. Parker
J. C. Hill
do.
H. Crowlie
G. Mitchell
do.
W. Blanchard
C. B. Sherman
G. Lembke
A. H. Talpey
A. G. Baxter (abt.)
W. Way H. Schnitger
C. Parker, secretary
T. W. Conner
H. Hurst
TAKU TUG AND LIGHTEer Company. Jas. Stewart, W. W. Dickinson, W. H.
Forbes, directors
H. Crowlie, secretary E. P. Innocent, clerk Steam Tug Orphan, Capt.
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Peiho, Capt. D. J. Webster Engr. W. K. Wylie
Gem, Capt. W. Blanchard
Engr. H. J. Macrae Lee Tah, Capt. C B. Sherman
Engr.
K'ai T'ai, Capt. A. H. Talpey
Engr. A. Robertson
Hyson and Chiang Li
TAKU CO-OPERATIVE STORE.
L. Watts Doney, manager
TIENTSIN.
Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Grand Canal with the Peiho river in lat. 39 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. N. and long. 117 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. E. It is distant from Peking by river about 80 miles. It was formerly only a military station, but towards the close of the 17th century it became a place of some importance. The walled portion is small compared with the suburbs, the circumference of the walls being only a little over three miles. The principal trade is carried on in the suburbs. The purely native city has the reputation of being exceptionally dirty, and the stench from open drains in and about the city is said to be the cause of a high rate of mortality there. There are a number of soap-boiling works in the neighbourhood, and the smell that arises from them is most disagreeable.
A number of foreigners live in the suburbs of the native city, but the concession, which is situated about a mile and a half farther down on the south bank of the river, has been largely taken up during the last few years, and is now pretty well covered with buildings.
Tientsin will always be famous for the Treaty signed by Lord Elgin in a temple since called the Treaty Temple, or Elgin's Joss-house, on the 26th June, 1858, and known as the Treaty of Tientsin. The port is also infamously notorious for the massacre of the French Sisters of Charity and other foreigners on the 21st June, 1870, by a Chinese mob, under circumstances of shocking brutality. Tientsin is now connected with Shanghai by telegraph, a line having been constructed overland in 1881 and opened to traffic on the 28th December of that year; in 1883 the port was connected with Tungchow, and in August, 1884 with Peking by telegraph. A Chinese daily paper, called the Sheh-pao, was started in May, and an English weekly, entitled the Chinese Times, in November, 1886. The population of Tientsin is estimated at 950,000.