CO129-328 - Governor Nathan - 1905 [1-6] — Page 31

closure C.

dlosure D

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tected from weather. The West route gives access to Castle

Peak Bay and Deep Bay but all protected water in these is very

shallow. From the point of view of accessibility to deep water

which may assure importance in the event of the development of

large industries the East route is therefore to be preferred.

Enclosure C gives particulars of the trade at the

16.

various market towns in and near to the New Territories and

shows that the trade of Tai Fo on the East route, valued at some-

thing over half a million dollars a year, is about 8/5ths. that

on the west would

of Un Long while the trade of both places is small compared with that of Sham Chun which is less than a mile beyond the boundary

and would be tapped by eithen route. While the junk trade with

Hongkong from Tai Po amounts to 90,000 piculs (between 5,000 and

6,000 tons) annually that from Un Long comes to 250,000 piculs

(about 15,000 tons) and the total export and import trade of Sham

Chun is over 70,000 tons.

17.

Particulars of the junk trade and of the launch

traffic between Hongkong and places in and close to the New Terri-

tories are given in Enclosure D. By the East route the line would

probably soon take up near Shetin the bulk of the passengers

averaging daily 175 each way that go by launch from Sha U Chung

on the North shore of Mirs Bay in Chinese Territory to Hongkong.

These passengers have already shown their desire to avoid the

rough water round the coast even at the expense of a climb over

the Kowloon Hills. The line along this route would also probably

take the traffic averaging daily 15 each way that now goes by

launch from Tai Po to Sha Tin.

It is possible that the launch traffic between Hong

Kong and Tsun Man, Tai Lam Cheung and Castle Peak Bay averaging

about 100 persons both ways would be taken by a railway along the

West route. The existing launch traffic to and from Un Long and

places

M