Directory_and_Chronicle_1863 — Page 2

PREFACE.

TRE "CHINA DIRECTORY FOR 1863" is now laid before the public, and with all its imperfections, will be found as complete as such a work can well be made. No amount of personal trouble or expense has been spared in its compilation; and if any Firms or individual Members of the Community are omitted, as some doubtless will be, the fault rests entirely with themselves. It may be that some names of foreignera who have left China, are allowed to stand in the Alphabetical List, but the utter impossibility of checking this must prove an excuse.

It was hoped and intended by the Publishers that the present issue should be accompanied by a Plan of the City on a much larger scale than that of last year, and with the Names of all the New Streets and Roads; but the late date at which the Government completed the naming of the Streets rendered it impossible to have the sheets Lithographed in London, and an attempt, accompanied by considerable expense, to have them cat on Wooden Blocks at Canton and afterwards coloured by hand, proved a total failure. This, however, is the less to be regretted, as an Engraved Plan of the Colony, including the recent Cession at Kowloong and Stone- cutter's Island, with an Index Map of Hongkong, has been carefully prepared by MR ANDRONICO F. ALVES, of the Surveyor-General's Department, with the sanction of the Local Government, and will be published for him from this office in the course of the current year.

The Publishers are proud to say, that during the years gone by, their efforts bave afforded satisfaction to the Foreign Community in Chiua, exemplified in the most practical manner by the liberal support accorded to them; and they trust that their endeavours on the present occasion may meet with the same cordial approval.

In conclusion, many improvements may suggest themselves in the course of the current year; and any hints that may be afforded by Members of the Community for rendering the next issue of the work more generally useful will be received with

thanks.