!
between Laokay and Yunnan-fu is understood to be about the same by either route- almost 300 miles.
Some 20,000 coolies have been imported from China, and the work of infrastructure has commenced along the entire length. The laying of the rails will evidently be deferred until the line to Laokay is completed and handed over. Hopes have been expressed that the Yunnan Railway will be finished by 1908, but these seem rather optimistic, especially in view of the frequent reports of dissatisfaction on the part of the Chinese coolies at work on the line.
(c.) The Kwangsi Lines.
As regards the extension of the northern system into Kwangsi, very little appears to have been done in the last year. The 34 miles from Porte de Chine to Lungchow have been surveyed, and surveys are in progress between Lungchow and Nanning (112 miles), and between Nanning and Kwangehow Wan (267 miles).
3. The Hanoi-Saigon Line.
The importance of the Hanoi-Saigon line, in view of rapid communication for the defence of the Colony, has lately forced itself on the attention of the Colonial Govern- ment, and it is probable that the filling up of the two great gaps in the line as forecast in 1898, namely, of 186 miles between Vinh and Kuangtri, and 372 miles between Tourane and Nhatrang, will shortly be authorized. On the other sections of the line, excepting the 203 miles between Hanoi and Vinh which have lately been opened to traffic, work has proceeded with extreme slowness, the natural difficulties in many parts of the ground to be traversed being augmented by difficulties in the labour market, causing disputes between the contractors and the Public Works Department, which have obliged the Government to cancel the contracts and put en régie the work on two sections of the line, namely, Hue-Tourane and Saigon-Tanlinh.
(a.) Branches to the Mekong Valley.
Several branches are projected from the trunk line to tap the Mekong Valley. A line is being surveyed between Vinh and Lakhon, on the Mekong, by way of the valley of the Se Bang Fai. This line is meant to serve a navigable course of 250 miles through fertile country and important markets, which course at present is useless owing to the rapids which obstruct the Mekong between this course and the sea. Another line is projected from Hanoi to the Mekong, for which the approval of the Minister for the Colonies has lately been obtained. No further information is to hand regarding the Khong-Kratie line on the proposed lines from the coast to Savannaket and Attopeu.
(b.) Branch to Langbian Plateau.
A more important branch line is that to the sanatorium of the Langbian Plateau. Phanrang has now been substituted, in place of Tanlinh, as the starting point of this line--an alteration which has diminished the length of the proposed line by half, the expense of construction being correspondingly curtailed and a saving effected of some 20,000,000 fr. on the Estimates of 1895. The Russo-Japanese war has drawn the attention of the French authorities to the importance of having a proper sanatorium for the acclimatization of troops on their arrival from France, and the construction of this line as far as Daulin was accordingly sanctioned in January of this year.
4. The Southern System.
Cochin-China has been rather neglected in the matter of railway construction. The Saigon-Mytho line has been running for almost twenty-five years, but enterprise appears to have stopped there. An extension from Mytho to Cantho was forecast in the Law of 1898, and received a vote of 10,000,000 fr. The surveys of this line are
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now completed, but construction is not yet begun, and may even be deferred in favour of works on the Hanoi-Saigon line.
5. The Financial Aspect.
Of the loan of 200,000,000 fr. of 1898, the amount realized by the end of the year 1904 was 120,000,000 fr. There is still left, therefore, a sum of 80,000,000 fr., which will probably be realized this year. Of the 120,000,000 fr. already drawn, the balance which the Colony had in hand at the end of 1904 was 13,000,000 fr.
As already mentioned, the alteration in route of the Langbian branch railway Against this sum is to effected a saving of 20,000,000 fr, on the estimate of 1891. be set about 3,000,000 fr. excess of actual overestimated expenditure on other lines.
The following Table gives the present estimate for the construction of the railways decreed in 1898, for which the estimate then was 200,000,000 fr.:--
Hanoi-Laokny
Hanoi Vinh Hue-Kuangtri Hue Tourane NhatrangTanlinh Tanlinh-Saigon Longlian Branch .. Mytho-Cantho
Grand total
Appended (not printed)
Railway,
Present Estimate.
In Million fr.
53
33
7-3
17-7
28
13.5
20.5
10
183
1. Sketch showing general direction of the old and new surveyed routes of the
Yunnan Railway.
2. Map of Railway Systems of Indo-China.
II--The Agricultural Concession System.
1. Failure of French as Planters.
In his Report for the March quarter 1903 Mr. Little pointed out that French planters were being encouraged by the Indo-China Government to settle in the Colony by means of assisted passages, grants of concessions, &c. He further added that some 675 concessions had been granted to Europeans, covering an area of about 660,000 acres. The number of planters he estimated at 350, accounting for the difference between this figure and the number of concessions by the hypothesis that a planter might hold more than one concession.
It would appear, however, according to a French writer,* that the greater part of the settlers who came out from France to take up these concessions were ignorant of the value of the lands presented to them, ignorant even of the exact situation of these lands, for they had been satisfied with the vague information of prospectuses, and, moreover, no maps of the interior on a large scale had yet been made. Many of the settlers, on arriving at their estates, found these would require expensive irrigation Accordingly, after a and other works before they could be made remunerative. semblance of exploitation, the cultivation of the lands thus conceded was given up, and they remain still undeveloped. It is probably for this reason, then, that the number of concessions granted is so greatly out of proportion to the actual number of planters.
Contrasted with this failure on the part of European settlers, those natives who received grants of land-a much smaller number than the Europeans-usually
• "L'Indo-Chine et son Avenir économique." A. Neton: Perrin et Cie. 1904.
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